In
this month’s issue--
|
Regular Features
|
Dive & Event Calendar |
From the Editor |
By Jason
Miller
Freedom
I sit here
and ponder the ways of the world on how they will affect me now and in the
future. I determine that this is a tough subject. Especially during these days
of homeland security, terrorism, and economic downturns that populate our
lives. How depressing is this? I turn
my thoughts to something that has a subject matter more to my liking, the Self
Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus aka SCUBA. With SCUBA we can get away
from the problems of the world. We are not constantly bombarded by the media,
nor do we have to sit idly watching our freedoms shrink. We do not have to pass
through metal detectors or answer the mundane questions of security personnel.
We throw on our gear, do a buddy check and hit the water. This is our freedom. Divers earn this
through hours of training and perseverance. We dutifully expand our horizons in
diving and our way of life.
People, we
need to dive to enjoy this freedom. We need to lead those who are new and
fresh. Show those entering this sport the grandeur of our Emerald Sea. I recently had the opportunity to work with
a group of people new to diving. I could see in their expressions the hesitant
look of “O’ my god.” You want me to do
what?? Trying their best in an environment so foreign of anything they know. We
had to reassure them that it only gets easier from here. This is a tough sell
when the wind is blowing hard and the rain is mixed with snow. The visibility
is low and the water temperature is 48 degrees. The students are standing in
rental suits and freezing. You just have to ask them “are we having fun yet?”
While we sit in a warm restaurant eating hot pizza filling out log books the
cold is forgotten. They will go back to their daily lives jubilant of
conquering a Herculean task. They will tell anybody who will listen to their
tale of adventure.
From these
humble beginnings as an open water diver, people will either continue forth or
never breathe another breath underwater.
Some are doomed from the start while others simply lose interest due to
any number of problems. If those new divers are shown that there are clubs
related to diving and what they offer, they very well might continue diving.
Diving is contagious, people who belong to clubs or local dive shops do so out
of the love of the sport. A wise old man told me “Talking about diving is the
next best thing to actually diving” (Thanks Mike). People who dive regularly
are safer divers. When problems arise the diver can identify and solve them.
Those divers gain knowledge every time they enter the water.
Through the efforts of our big buddy program those new divers are given a chance to expand on what they learned in open water. The big buddies promote the freedom of being underwater through their teachings. While still under the supervision of an experienced diver there is a sense of security. A reassurance that they are protected from doing themselves harm due to the lack of familiarity with their gear and environment. As big buddies we guide them through three or more dives at various locations. During each dive we tutor the little buddies on navigation, buoyancy, and dive planning. These are subjects that were taught during open water class, but never honed to perfection. Continuing education is a large part of being divers and gaining proficiency and freedom is a by-product of that education.
I started
this article talking about freedom. The definition of freedom is “the quality
or state of being free.” Free to enjoy
our passion of diving, free to escape our daily lives of pagers, cell phones,
e-mail and traffic. During an average 45 minute dive you concentrate only on
the task at hand. You are secluded from the daily confines that plague us
constantly. For a short time we enter a world as observers to the busy lives of
the aquatic specimens. The next time you are diving remember the freedom you
experienced. It is that memory that will make those long days at the office
seem bearable because it is just a short time until you reenter the Emerald
Sea.
A WELCOME FROM OUR VICE PRESIDENT
By Loogpla
Cowden
Welcome ESDC
Members!
And a
special Welcome to our newest Members and Guests: Todd Ferris, Pete DeArteago,
and John Hoffer. We hope you will join us throughout the year for all our club
activities, especially diving and making new friends. The upcoming months are
going to be filled with diving and fun. The more we all participate, the more
fun there will be for everyone.
We are
confident that 2002 will continue to see more members, and more dives for the
club. You can have confidence knowing that the ESDC stands in
your corner. We take pride in providing
ourselves with the best hosted dives, and events available within our
area.
And speaking
of guests, we were honored to welcome to our February meeting Dr. Roland
Anderson. Dr. Anderson originally was scheduled to speak to us at in January,
but got into a car accident on his way to the ESDC meeting. His lecture and
slide show, “Everything You Want To
Know About Octopuses And Squid Of Puget Sound,” was right on target to
entertain and inform a roomful of divers. We all received knowledge we can use
diving right here in the Sound, since we encounter octopuses frequently.
Loogpla.
By Skip Stacy
Here's kind of a final call for the Cozumel Dive Trip in May. It looks like we have 10 takers right now. We're planning on 5 to 6 days of 2-3 tank dives, and maybe throw a ferry trip in to the mainland for a day of Cenote Diving. I know we plan on sunshine and relaxing on the beach and by the Casa Ogletree pool and maybe a moonlight dip. I don't have any intentions of missing out on any of the food, as you probably already guessed if you know me at all. If the food is good I might have to devise a way to eat 4 main meals a day plus desserts and a midnight repast (bigger than a snack).
Anyway, we do have some room left in the Casa Ogletree and there shouldn't be much trouble getting a flight (maybe even cheaper). If you do happen to get the chance, then grab onto it and tag along.
Skip
EDMONDS FISHING PIER CLEAN-UPS
By Fran
Murray
Once again
the ESDC will be performing pier clean-ups for the City of Edmonds. This is a
great local dive, or dives if you wish, that is close to home for many of us.
The dates
for 2002 are:
March 9 - Saturday 8:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.
September
28th - Saturday 8:30 until
3:00 p.m.
This is fun
time to dive the fishing pier, which is closed to diving at all other times.
The City of Edmonds allows us to do clean-up by Ordinance and we always find
lots of good stuff. This is an
opportnity to do some community service and show the public that we are
interested in taking care of the environment. Edmonds requires waivers for this
so if you have not signed one in the past I will be happy to provide you with
one at the next meeting. They must be completed, signed and notarized and in my
hands before I can let you go in the water.
If you have given me one in the past it is valid forever.
This dive is
a great site; but it is a hazardous environmnent. There is lots of fishing line and entanglement issues to deal
with so bring a knife or dive shears.
We will have a dive briefing at about nine o'clock at the Sea Lion
Sculpture at Olympic Beach, which is at the foot of the Edmonds Fishing pier
and at the north end of the Marina. You
must attend this briefing to go on the dive so don't be late. What I like to do is to buddy up the divers
who have dived this site with divers who have not. We will have a boat to ferry us out and bring us back or you can
swim. I always need lots of pier
support to hand down the baskets to the divers once they are in the water and
under the pier, and to bring them back up once they are full of "stuff."
There is a
little cafe for lunch and hot chocolate or picnic tables on the lawn if you
bring a picnic lunch.
Come for one
dive or both. Everyone always seems to
have a good time.
Any
questions, please see me at the next meeting or email me at fran@pcecivil.com.
Fran Murray
CAMP
CASEY CRITTER COLLECTION WEEKEND
By Mike McGrath
The annual critter collection weekend for the Seattle Pacific University Sea Lab at Camp Casey on Whidbey Island is March 23 & 24, 2002. We can start arriving at Camp Casey Friday, March 22 after 4:00 PM. The rooms are on first come, first serve policy. Bring a sleeping bag, pillow and/or sheets and blankets for a single bed. Some rooms have bunk beds others are two single beds.
This year our slack current window falls in the morning, with the best time to be in the water on Saturday between 8:00 AM and 9:30 AM. Our afternoon slack for Saturday is shorter than in the morning and more critical that we hit it right, it falls between 5:30 PM and 6:30 PM. For Sunday the best time to be in the water is between 8:00 AM and 9:00 AM and again from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM. It is very important that we are ready to enter the water at these times due to the fact that the slack current windows are extremely limited. All club members are welcome to come and dive whether you are staying overnight or just coming up for the day.
There are two requirements that you must meet before you can make any of these dives: 1) You and your buddy must be present at each of the pre-dive briefings, given 30 minutes before dive times; 2) You and your buddy must check-in with the dive monitor before entering the water and immediately upon coming out of the water. If you are not present at the dive briefing you will be asked to help on the beach or in the safety boat. Also if you are not ready to enter the water at the indicated slack time you may be asked to help out as well.
For those of you who may want to come out and dive for just a day and have breakfast, lunch and or dinner provided by Camp Casey, you need to sign-up in advance and indicate which meals you are going to participate in so that they may plan accordingly. Please indicate if you are coming to participate Saturday, Sunday or both days and which meals you will be having. The cost for meals will be $8.50 per breakfast, $9.00 per lunch and $10.00 for Saturday’s dinner or Friday’s buffet. Please make payment to Emerald Sea Dive Club by the March meeting. Or if you would like you may bring a sack lunch and eat with us. We need to provide Camp Casey with an accurate count of the number of people we will have for each of our meals so it is important that you sign up and pay as soon as possible. Even if you have signed the list you will not be counted until Rodney has received your money.
If you have never dove at Camp Casey before you will need to know a few things about the site. We will be diving right on Admiralty Inlet and this is where all the water that enters Puget Sound must funnel through. It is also a very dense kelp area. The depth will not get much deeper than about 25 to 30 feet. There are crevices or canyons running through the lime stone bottom where a lot of marine life can be found. If you need a dive buddy or you and your buddy are newer divers and would prefer to split up and dive with someone who has dove this site before, please let Mike McGrath or let a board member know.
Things that you may want to bring with you on this dive might include: a smaller dive light for looking into cracks and crevices; zip-lock bags and/or clear plastic jars with lids (poke holes in the lids) for putting the critters in; a mesh goody bag for putting the baggies and jars into; and a dive knife and/or dive shears. Remember not to take more than you need or can handle comfortably. Also please bring a surface-signaling device like a scuba tuba, Dive Alert or whistle. Remember when you are putting your equipment on to streamline your gear and yourself to minimize entanglement. Only take what you need.
This is probably the largest and certainly one of the most enjoyable club activities of the year. It is also a great opportunity to learn about the marine life that we encounter on many of our other dives throughout the year.
If you have any questions please contact:
Mike McGrath, E-Mail, BlueDolfn@aol.com
or to the E-Group.
UPCOMING
CLASSES FROM MIKE MCGRATH
Mike McGrath has some classes coming up later in February, March and April, take note and mark your calendars. If you would like to sign up or have any questions please contact Mike.
Contact information, BlueDolfn@aol.com, or ESDC E-Group
Medic First Aid
Saturday, February 23
CPR and First Aid Training
Rescue Diver
Starts on Monday February 25
Classroom dates Feb. 25, Feb. 27, March 4 and March 6
Pool dates Friday, March 1 (in the evening), and Sat, March 2 (in the morning)
Open Water dates Saturday, March 9 and Sunday March 10
DAN O2
Wednesday, March 13
Evening 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM
Drift Diver
Classroom Monday, March 25 and Wed, March 27 evenings 7 to 9:30 PM
Open Water dives Saturday, March 30.
Deep Diver
Classroom Tuesday, April 2 and Thursday, April 4 evenings 7 to 9:30 PM
Open Water dives Saturday, April 6 (2 dives) and April 13 (2 dives).
Underwater Photography
Class begins on Monday, April 8.
Contact Mike for details of the class.
KAYAK
& SHORE DIVING AT MUKILTEO
By Skip Stacy
We will be kayak diving at Mukilteo Oil Dock again. Even if you are not kayaking, anyone will be welcome to show up as it can be a shore dive for those who wish. Crab should be open—don’t forget your license if you plan on crabbing.
The dates are Sunday, Feb 24 and Sunday, March 3rd. Meet time for both days will be at 11 AM. If we get snowed in there we can build a fire and have crab so bring chocolate (HMMMMMM chocolate covered crab, never tried that). Show up if you can.
Skip
KAYAK
DIVING – A NEW EXPERIENCE
By Veronica von Allworden
I went for my first Kayak dive on January 19th. I meet Loogpla, Skip and Buck in Mukilteo. Loogpla and I were using Ocean Kayak Scrambler EX’ s and Buck borrowed Skip’s Ocean Kayak Scupper Pro. Loogpla spent about an hour with us, before we put the kayaks in the water, helping us set them up and explaining how to use them for diving. The first rule in Kayak diving is make sure that everything is tethered onto the boat! That way if you should happen to tip over you won’t lose anything!
The second rule was to have fun!
We paddled out to the inside of the old fueling dock and tied up to the pilings. On the beach Loogpla had given me a paddle strap (that she had made) and as soon as we had tied up we were able to throw our paddles over the sides and not worry about them floating away. With the paddles out of the way we put on our weight belts, pushed our scuba units (still) tethered to the boat and with air in the BCDs, off the kayaks and hopped into the water. We put on our scuba units in the deep water (if you haven’t done this in a while you might want to practice it in shallow water first) and went for a dive.
This was also my first time diving under the fueling dock. It was very nice. There were loads of anemones, sea stars, pile perch, some nudibranchs, etc… The water was cold; about 46 degrees so after 45 minutes we were ready to end the dive.
Getting off the Kayak was easy getting on it took a little more thought. Loogpla and Skip were great! They gave us several different options for doing things and then we figured out which ones worked the best. I took my scuba unit off and tethered it to the boat. I then tried to get onto the boat with my weight belt on- that did not work very well! So, I tethered my weight belt and then easily got back onto the kayak. Once on top of the kayak it was easy to straddle it and pull the rest of the gear on. We warmed up paddling back to the beach. The whole thing is very pleasant and relaxing. I enjoyed the kayaking and the diving. I’m looking forward to doing it again!
ESDC divers – the monthly meeting is your best way to get together with club friends, meet new members, and arrange dives. Always a great time!
Visitors and potential members are always welcome!
Date:
Wednesday, March 6, 2002
Place:
Coco’s Restaurant
7929 Lake Ballinger Way
Edmonds, WA
Time:
Board
meeting 6:00 PM (everyone welcome)
General meeting 7:00 PM
How To Get There:
From I-5 take exit #177, and then head west
toward Edmonds until the “Y” in the
road (approx. 1.5 miles). Turn Left
onto 205th Street. Coco’s is
on your right in the center of the “Y.”
The board officers have volunteered to be there for the club and for you. If you have any questions pertaining to the club, feel free to contact any officer.
President:
Jason Miller
jason.miller@IDG-Corp.com
Vice President:
Loogpla Cowden
loogpla@worldnet.att.net
Treasurer:
Rodney Windhorst
Lsvision@earthlink.net
Secretary/Historian:
Anya Dollar
dollara@earthlink.net
Activities Coordinator:
Buck Knight
l.sceptre3@verizon.net
Newsletter Editor:
Wendy Drucker
astromoi@earthlink.net
Big Buddy Coordinator:
Guy Balbirona
kaikanuni@aol.com
Webmaster:
Lucas Scott
lukenmel@msn.com
Looking for a dive buddy? The members listed here are hoping someone will want to go for a dive. Give ‘em a call!
David Mangels - anytime
Skip Stacy - rainy days
Guy Balbirona - anytime after
work (3:30)
Mel Nelson - Advanced
anytime
Mike Thompson - anytime
Keith Bartelson - rainy days
kdbart@oz.net
Bob Grenier - anyday
bobgrenier@aol.com
Jason Miller - Rescue
jason.miller@idg-corp.com
Jeff Watts - Advanced
Wayne Klehm - Advanced
wklehm@worldnet.att.net
|
February 20 (Wed) Edmonds Underwater Park |
Night
Dive. Meet
5:30 PM at the Park |
Host:
Mike Hughes diveczc@yahoo.com |
|
February 24 (Sun) Mukilteo Oil Dock Kayak Dive 1 |
Kayak
dive or shore dive Meet
11:00 AM |
Hosts:
Skip Stacy Loogpla
Cowden |
|
March 3 (Sun) Mukilteo Oil Dock Kayak Dive 2 |
Kayak
dive or shore dive Meet
11:00 AM |
Hosts:
Skip Stacy Loogpla
Cowden |
|
March 9 (Sat) 1st Edmonds Pier
Clean-up |
Hazardous
dive. Waiver required. Meet
8:30 AM for 1st dive Mandatory
Dive Briefing 9:00 AM 2nd
dive in afternoon. Plan on finishing about 3:00. |
Host:
Fran Murray |
|
March 23-24 (Sat-Sun) Annual Camp Casey Weekend Whidbey Island |
Critter
collection dives at Camp Casey. 2
dives per day. Some
members like to arrive Friday evening. Single
day divers OK See
Mike’s article in this issue for details and dive times. |
Host:
Mike McGrath |
|
May 2002 Cozumel, Mexico |
Dive
trip to a great place. See December 2001 issue for details, or ask Skip or
Loogpla. |
Hosts:
Skip Stacy Loogpla
Cowden |
|
September 28 (Sat) 2nd Edmonds Pier
Clean-up |
Hazardous
dive. Waiver required. Meet
8:30 AM for 1st dive Mandatory
Dive Briefing 9:00 AM 2nd
dive in afternoon. Plan on finishing about 3:00. |
Host:
Fran Murray |
Dear fellow
ESDC divers,
Here it is –
our move into the 21st century with an all-electronic newsletter.
First of
all, let me again apologize for the tardiness of this issue. I know how
important it is for most of you. We all need to keep up with the club. I have
been in ill health for the last couple months and it has taken a toll on
everything in my life, primarily my employment and this newsletter. The good
news is that I am getting better, so your newsletter is back on track. I take
my commitment to all of you very seriously.
Deadline for
submissions to the March issue is February 27th. The March
newsletter will be emailed on March 1st. Printed copies for those
with no email (less than a dozen) will be mailed the next day.
Though I
have worked quite a bit with HTML format, this is the first time I have had to
produce a document that would open in every kind of browser. I spent time making
the electronic newsletter very pretty, but in the end I stripped it down to
simplicity. In future issues I will add graphics, colors, fonts, and so on,
when I have time to experiment on what will be readable for all of us. With the
email version, I will be able to send out supplements and corrections with no
added cost to the club.
Please send
me your comments!
Wendy Drucker