Divebums was started in the summer of 1999 by John H. Moore, out of sheer frustration with the lack of readily available information about diving in San Deigo. John decided to gather as much information as he could about local dive sites, Southern California marine creatures, and the local, more often dived wrecks, and make that information available in one place on the internet. From the onset, Divebums has been a non-commercial, community project which could not have succeeded without the information and photographs provided by many scores of San Diego area divers. Particular thanks need to go to Bob Gladden, Steve Gardner and Paul Foretic, each of whom provided vast numbers of photographs of local marine creatures to really get the Divebums Field ID section going.
Since 2000, Divebums has had an associated email list, made up of local divers who want to share information about current dive conditions, unusual marine creatures being seen, and local dive- and ocean-community related news and events. For many years now, this email list has been a large list, reaching into all areas of the diving community and helping to make it a more connected and better informed community. As with the website itself, the email list would be nothing without the active participation of many hundreds of local divers.
In 2003, OC Divebums (Orange County) was begun by Debbie Karimoto under the umbrella of Divebums. OC Divebums has a small web presence and is primarily an associated email list, and is similarly dedicated to informing and bringing together the Orange County diving community. In Fall 2005, Debbie left to create her own organization.
In 2004, John had to move out of California for work*, at which point he asked his friend and dive buddy, as well as peer for years on a variety of State and local marine policy issues, Steve Haynes, to oversee most of the day-to-day function of the Divebums email list and dive reports section. Steve managed the San Diego email list for a year, until Spring 2005, at which point he decided to return to being a regular diver and gave it back to John, who continues to run Divebums from afar. Steve continues to be involved in Divebums decision-making behind the scenes.
Also in 2004, John began a Sea of Cortez Field ID section on Divebums ("Baja Field ID"), to complement the Southern California Field ID section.
In Spring 2005, the Photos of the Week section was begun, as a way both for local underwater photographers to showcase their work and to provide a visual log of what people are seeing out there.
In 2005, Divebums did its first two products, a jellyfish t-shirt and an underwater photo calendar featuring the work of Southern California underwater photographers.
December 2005
* Anyone knowing of a San Diego position for an experienced operations or project management person is strongly encouraged to get in touch with John via this website, before he completely forgets how to dive!