Scuba Diving

I have logged more than 2400 dives and almost 2100 underwater hours.

 

  in 37 countries since 1975 (including more than 500 dives at least 90 feet deep, about 110 night dives and more than 130 long dives between 90 and 201 minutes), with most of my dives in Southern California. Each dive is different with so many exciting things to see. 

For example, if you would like to see a picture of me with my 400 pound Giant Black Sea Bass buddy taken on July 5, 2001 as well as a photo I took of this beautiful fish, click here.

If you would like to see many pictures I took while on the liveaboard boat Mahtab for 15 days going from Northern Thailand to North Sumatra in March and April 2009, click here. After my diving adventure, I explored the North Sumatra land.

If you would like to see a report about a coral health expedition organized by The Nature Conservancy in 2016, click here. I was on the liveaboard Thorfinn in Chuuk, Micronesia diving for four weeks.

If you would like to see pictures of me diving at the California Science Center (CSC) Live Kelp Tank in Exposition Park, Los Angeles as well as helping collect from the CSC workboat from 2010 to 2013, click here.

If you would like to see pictures of me diving in the Aquarium of the Pacific tanks in Long Beach, California on July 22, 2006, click here.

If you would like to see a picture I took while in the water with one of five different whale sharks near La Paz, Baja, Mexico in November 2007, click here. This whale shark was about 30 feet long!

I participated in the first volunteer Reef Check California Survey on April 30, 2006 at Santa Cruz Island (west of Ventura). If you would like more information about Reef Check California, click here.

If you would like to see a picture I took of my dive buddy behind a giant sponge at Bloody Bay Wall, Little Cayman Island, click here.

If you would like to see pictures I took near Darwin's Arch in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador in January 2000 of a pair of hammerhead sharks, click here.

If you would like to see a picture I took of a garibaldi (California State marine fish) at Catalina Island (southwest of Los Angeles), click here.

If you would like to see a picture I took of a blenny, framed by coral in the Caribbean, click here.

If you would like to see a picture I took of a trumpetfish in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, click here.

If you would like to see a picture I took of a Christmas tree worm in Belize, click here.

If you would like to see a picture I took in French Polynesia of a gray reef shark seeming to kiss my divemaster's ass goodbye, click here.

If you would like to see pictures taken in Cenote Chac Mool on November 27, 2001 near Akumal in the Yucatan, Mexico, click here.

If you would like to see a picture of me and the 22 pound (32 inch long) sheephead fish I caught on September 24, 1999 at San Miguel Island, California, click here.

If you would like to see a picture of me and an octopus taken in October 2005 at Eagle Reef, Catalina Island, California by Chris Grossman, click here. If you would like to see a picture I took of Joe Kalohi holding an octopus taken in British Columbia, click here.

If you would like to see a picture of me "diving" in the hot tub aboard the Peace dive boat, click here. [This was a picture from the Peace photo album at http://www.peaceboat.com/photos.htm.]

If you would like to see a picture of me on October 2, 2004 which was opening day of lobster season in California, click here . If you would like to see a picture of me on November 14, 2006 of me and the group Don, Cathy, Lorraine (Don's Scuba instructor) and me with more lobsters, click here. I caught four lobsters in 15 minutes (a new record for me)! And the visibility was great as I could see the boat looking up from the bottom 100 feet down. That evening, we had a gourmet feast! For both trips, I had been diving with the Muellers at Don's secret spots on their fantastic boat "Bottom Time" off Palos Verdes.

If you would like to see sample underwater pictures I took in May and June 2010 in Bonaire, please click here.

I was former President, Vice President and currently Program Chairperson and Webmaster of The Sea Divers dive club, and in addition was former President of the Aerospace Corporation Dive Club for 6 years.

 

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Astronomy

I have an 8-inch diameter Celestron telescope and enjoy viewing the stars and planets and enjoyed giving astronomy workshops at places such as Camp de Benneville Pines on the north slope of Mt. San Gorgonio (tallest mountain in Southern California at 11,399 feet) in the San Bernadino National Forest at Angelus Oaks near Big Bear Lake, California.  I am a member of the International Astronomical Union and the American Physical Society.

To see photos I took of the Space Shuttle Endeavour as I was guarding it at LAX in the United Airlines hangar or while it was landing for the last time, click here.

If you would like to see a picture of me on the cover of Sky and Telescope Magazine, posing in front of a cosmic ray house at Cornell University, click here. I am in the foreground on the right holding the Fresnel lens. I helped design the house and inside laboratory experiment.

There are many confusing acronyms in aerospace, so I co-authored "The Acronym Book", published by the AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics). If you would like more information about this publication containing more than 50,000 referenced entries, click here.

I also published about 80 papers and patents related to astronomy and physics; to see them, click here.

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Violin Playing

I have been playing violin in the Beach Cities Symphony Orchestra since 1978. We give four concerts a year at El Camino College in Torrance, California. I am on the Orchestra's Board of Directors, as shown if you click here.

If you would like to see a picture of me with my violin and my longtime friend Roy Sonne, click here. Roy and I played violin together in the same high school orchestra as well as in a string quartet. Roy played first violin in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra whereas I aspire to play outside in front of Carnegie Hall. If you would like to see a picture of Roy playing my violin, click here.

If you would like to see a picture of me just before the March 2003 Beach Cities Symphony concert, click here. If you would like to see a picture of me playing the violin at age 13, click here.  

If you would like to see piano music I composed and published at age 10, click here.   This composition was included on page 27 of the book "My Hamster Crawls and Other Piano Pieces" by Paul Ramsier and published by the New York Graphic Society, Greenwich, CT in 1963 (Library of Congress #63-19940).

I was also on the Board of Directors of the South Bay Chamber Music Society.

I enjoy seeing the world and taking vacations. I average about one international trip a year. I have spent a total of more than five years abroad, visiting about 120 countries and all 7 continents. I have a world map on the wall in my study, with pins indicating places I've visited, and the map is well covered.

If you would like to see pictures of me exploring North Sumatra, Indonesia in April 2009 (riding elephants, climbing volcanoes, visiting a large lake, experiencing a jungle trek and seeing orangutans in the wild, click here (and view the last several photos).

If you would like to see a picture of me on Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa in October 2002, click here.

If you would like to see a picture of me on the Great Wall, China in July 2005, click here.

I traveled to Ghana with the Friendship Force of Los Angeles and stayed in several homes there. If you would like to see a picture of me with Ghana President John Agyekum Kuffour in October 2007, click here. 

I enjoy land-based as well as underwater photography. I take digital images and used to take Hi-8 and digital video and 35 mm slides. Underwater photography is especially challenging. I give periodic slide and movie shows to my dive club and other organizations, and this is an excellent way for me to share my adventures.  

For a sample picture of a swan I took in Slovenia, click here. For a sample picture of a bald eagle in Washington State, click here.

I have 6 California Desert Tortoises, with most of them offspring or offspring of the offspring of the original adults I was given. The tortoises chase after me in my backyard! I use four-footed lawnmowers. California Desert Tortoises are endangered (although not in my backyard), so I have to license them with the California Department of Fish and Game. If you would read an article about our yard-raised tortoises which appeared in the Tortuga Gazette, click here. These baby tortoises are now adults, each now weighing more than 9 pounds.

In late June 2000, one of my female tortoises laid 7 eggs, and I incubated these eggs at about 82 °F in a heated ice chest in one of my bathrooms. Click here to see a photo when six were out of their shells and the last one was trying hard to be free! A six inch long ruler is shown for comparison. 

In the summer of 2007, one of the females laid 14 eggs (two separate batches of 7); they were all incubated but alas none hatched. 

In the summer of 2008, several of the females laid a total of 37 eggs; 10 very healthy hatchlings resulted. Click here to see them having a hearty lunch. One of these is currently at the California Science Center Ecosystems exhibit and one was donated to the California Turtle and Tortoise Society. In the summer of 2009, 8 eggs were incubated and one currently very healthy baby hatched. In 2010, we incubated 15 eggs (2 hatched).

I have been a member of the South Bay Unitarian Fellowship (SBUF) for more than 40 years. Here I experience liberal religion within an extended family setting. We try to make the world a better place. We have weekly Sunday programs and a few other events. I am currently the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) representative for SBUF. I am currently Vice President and Webmaster, and was formerly President and Treasurer of this organization. 

I was part of a UUSC delegation to monitor the November 2003 elections in Guatemala. I took the only photo previously displayed on the UUSC Homepage and some of my photos appear in the Winter 2004 UUSC Newsletter.

If you would like to see a picture I took which is on all the materials (including the cover photo) sent out by the UUSC as part of their November 2004 Guest At Your Table campaign, click here.

If you would like to see a picture I took which was used by the UUSC as part of their report on human rights history in Guatemala, click here.

On April 29, 2019, I was interviewed live for an hour on the radio by former Manhattan Beach Mayor Wayne Powell. You can hear his questions and my responses if you click on PL_Radio.mp3.

This page is accessible with http://tinyurl.com/pblandecker or http://sbuf.org/landecker/index.html. 

Please come back soon and visit me.

You can contact me at landeckerATcyberdude.com.

Visit me on Facebook at http://facebook.com/PeterLandecker. 

This page was last revised on September 21, 2023.  

All material on this web site is Copyright 1998-2023.