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In this month’s issue--
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www.emeraldseadiveclub.org
Regular Features
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Dive & Event Calendar |
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Saturday, September 14th will be the date for our fall collection for Camp Casey. This year due to the currents we are planning one dive from the property at Camp Casey. The time for this dive will be at 1:15 PM (splash) and it is a slack before Ebb or (High Tide Slack).
Weather permitting we will have a barbecue other wise we will be having lunch in the mess hall. Since the staff at Camp Casey is providing this lunch at no cost to us (Emerald Sea Dive Club members) we need to be as accurate as possible in our head count. Please contact Mike McGrath with the information on how many in your family or group will be attending. You may reach me at BlueDolfn@aol.com or call me at (425) 486-6029 or (206) 255-2995. The fact that your name is on the activity clipboard is not enough. Also please contact me no later than Friday, September 6th. This will allow me to get our attendance numbers to Camp Casey and for them to prepare our menu.
This year we will be inviting non-members to the collection and barbecue. An invitation has been passed to members of the Eugene Dive Club out of Oregon. All non-members are welcome but must pay for their lunch. The fee for non-members is $7.00 and must be paid at the time they sign up with Mike. Also all non-members must sign an activity liability waver. Wavers will be available on site and at our September meeting.
Please have the courtesy and understand that this activity must be scheduled and planned in advance. Due to this we must ask that if you are attending, sign up by the deadline. Also if you have signed up to attend then please attend the activity, after all plans have been made to feed you. If for any reason you have signed up and do not come we will ask you to pay $7.00 for your meal.
Hope to see you all at the barbecue.
Mike
by Elena
DiPardo
Was it a day of diving or a day of feasting as Emerald Sea Dive Club is so accustomed to!? Well it was a little of both. Prior to this day of diving Phil Morgan-Ellis and Loogpla Cowden, on a previous trip to the Hood Canal stopped at a local dive shop and heard about this dive site. They went and checked out the beach and access to it and decided to plan a club dive. What a find it was.
Seven members of the club made the trek to the Hood Canal just north of Hama-Hama and met at 9:00 AM. After checking out the beach and the trail to it we decided it would be best to haul everything we would need for the day down to the beach. Skip set up a trail rope and we began the 20 – 30 minutes of up and down the trail getting everything from gear to coolers, bar-b-que grills and lawn chairs and even a table down to the beach. At that point all of us with the exception of Skip decided it was time to crash! While we relaxed for a while we watched as Skip made his way down the beach, ankle deep in water, shucking and eating oysters. About the time we thought he’d be barfing oysters on the first dive we decided we should rescue him by getting ready for our first dives. Soon we were ready for the first dive. None of us had ever dived this site before but we were equipped with a great map from the shop. My dive buddy, Mike Franz, and I consulted the map and decided to hit the deeper wall to the north and see if we could find the resident wolf eel said to be at 110 feet.
We began our swim out taking the slight current into account and dropped down to about 25 feet and began the descent onto the wall. Unfortunately the wall wasn’t anywhere around! What was there totally delighted me as we dropped into a fairly dense forest of sea whips standing about 3 – 4 feet tall. I can’t remember having ever seen them before and was very excited about our discovery. After spending several minutes there and looking for the wall my computer signaled that it was time to ascend to shallower waters. We made our way up the sandy slope taking in what the sand had to offer until we came upon a cluster of humongus rocks that were teaming with life. We saw a number of different crabs, as well as an abundance of fish including kelp greenlings, gunnels and those little yellow fish with the big black eyes(sorry, but the name of them escapes me!). The rocks were abounding with large orange and white plumose anemones as well. We finished off our dive in the shallow waters checking out the life in the eelgrass before joining the others on the beach.
Our second dive was much the same as the first only we went to the south this time and only dropped down to about 70 feet. Again we came into another forest of sea whips. This time, however, we noticed they were completely bent over as the current was a little bit stronger. Mike and I decided to slowly zig-zag our way to shallower waters where we came across another cluster of those humongus rocks. While Mike explored around the bottom of them I decided to come around and over the top. As I did so I noticed what appeared to be an entanglement of what looked like fishing line so I sucked up all my gear to keep from getting tangled in it and continued on. As I crested the rock I notice that the fishing line was actually a large egg yolk jelly fish, the body of it spanning at least 24 inches, stuck on the plumose anemones. It really appeared to be trying to get away as it seemed to be vigorously undulating trying to go in the opposite direction. I’m not really sure who was trying to eat who, but it was pretty interesting to watch. We ended up watching it for quite a while before ending our dive.
Between and after our dives we feasted in typical club manner on local oysters, purchased in Hama-Hama, potato salad and various other snacks and treats. Half way through our second feast we were visited by a local fisheries ranger. We were glad we had purchased our oysters as only Skip was equipped with a shellfish license! After informing us of all the rules of harvesting oysters and the fines for not following the rules he shared with us his favorite oyster recipe before leaving us. By then it was time to finish up, haul the gear up the trail and head for the ferry at Kingston. We all had a great day in the sunshine on a beach which seemed like our own that day. Thanks to Phil for hosting this one. I hope he does it again sometime as I know I will try to make it there again. It is a great dive for all levels as the current in the Hood Canal is pretty light and there seems to be something for all levels. Until we dive again………………Elena
The past couple of months we’ve been too serious! Our original plan for the September guest speaker was Technical & Commercial Divers. Instead, I would like to take us out of the ordinary and present you with Liquid Freefall / Freediving.
With today’s X generation popularizing extreme sports such as inline skating and sky surfing it isn’t hard to understand why a new group of North American Aquanauts are diving into the sport of Free Diving/ Breath-hold diving. The sport has seen a major rise in interest and participation. It is a sport that can include everything from surface snorkeling to deep breath-hold dives well in excess of 100 ft.
Have you ever drifted into a school of fish and they didn’t scatter? Have you ever wondered how long you could hold your breath with training? Please join us at the September meeting and meet our own Northwest Freedom Diver, Kirby Jacobson. He will certainly enlighten you!
Loogpla.
Dive Salt Creek (just West of Port Angeles) in October. There is a large
camp ground where we can stay and the great is diving! The tides are
favorable for a dive on October 26 and October 27. Sunday afternoon we can
dive Lake Crescent (for those wanting fresh water) or in the Port Angeles
harbor (for those wanting to go critter watching). Tongue Point is
available for those with kayaks.
Diving Sat., Oct. 26th Afternoon -- 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm .06kt and less in
this time period
Diving Sun., Oct. 27th Morning -- 8:30 am to 11:30 am .07kts and less in
this time period
Diving Sun., Oct. 27th Afternoon -- Crescent Lake.
This is also Halloween weekend, so who knows what ideas that may bring up.
The P.A. dive shop will be open on Saturday from 9 to 5 for air. Charges
are $6 for an 80cf (3000lb) tank and $7 for all 3300lb tanks. I've talked
to Mike at the shop and he may be able to get us air on Sunday too.
Please note change in e-mail address.... pmorg@olympus.net
Phil Morgan-Ellis
www.olympus.net/personal/bratsche/
Rosario Beach Kayak Dive
August 3, 2002
By Todd Ferris
Dive Buddies: Loogpla, Fran, Skip
I am a new diver with about 30 dives, so my experience in diving is limited. But I think I can honestly say that my 27th dive is one I will not soon forget.
It started off like many other dives – loading equipment and driving to the site. After arriving at the site, we assembled equipment and carried it all down to the beach. Then we followed an Emerald Sea ritual and ate a pre-dive snack so we would have energy for the paddling ahead of us. We loaded our equipment onto the kayaks and headed to the dive site at Sares Head. It took approximately 30 minutes to reach the site (only reachable by boat or kayak), and that is when the fun started.
Rule one of kayaking – put your fins on FIRST. Skip learned this the hard way. Rule two – make sure your snorkel is attached to your mask. While failing to observe rule one, Skip also was learning this one the hard way.
There was plenty of kelp at the site, and Skip got caught up in it. It didn’t help that the strong current was giving the kayaks a good beating against the rock face. Once we freed ourselves from the kelp, Skip went down and set an anchor line and we attached the kayaks to it. While Skip was doing this, I was getting hot sitting there in my dry suit. So I put on my fins and mask and hopped in the water to cool off and assist Skip as much as possible. This is when I realized that kayak diving was an extremely exhausting way to dive. You have to pay very close attention to what you’re doing with your equipment – making sure everything is tied off and secure – because you’re putting it all on in the water.
The dive was great – Skip and I dropped down the rock face to65 feet and swam along the wall. We encountered many creatures while in the water: crabs, including a golf ball crab; several different species of cucumbers and nudibranchs; and the ever-present ling cod. Fran and Skip harvested several swimming scallops, which my girlfriend, Adrienne, and I enjoyed that night at dinner.
After surfacing and loading all the equipment back onto the kayaks, I discovered that I was extremely tired. And I still had to kayak back to the beach. After arriving back at the beach, I rested for some time before attempting to carry equipment back up to our vehicles. Loogpla gave Skip and I the ultimate motivation to carry her equipment up to the car – she’d buy us ice cream. So on the way home, we stopped at a small market on the side of the road, and Loogpla bought us two gigantic scoops each of ice cream, which we happily devoured. Overall, the dive was very strenuous, but also very rewarding.
I would like to offer a special thanks to Fran for helping with creature identification.
The Wayfarers Inn is full, but there is still room on the boat for anyone who wants to come up for the day or make separate sleeping arrangements.
· Nanaimo, BC Weekend - Balance due at October meeting.
by Miles White
Want to have a
fun, challenging diving experience while you give something back to the local
diving community? Become a volunteer and help out with maintenance activities
at the Edmonds Underwater Park. It’s the best work you’ll ever love.
The park,
located at the Edmonds Ferry Terminal, is a spectacular 23-acre underwater
wonderland devoted to local diving enthusiasts. Founded 25 years ago by local
diving guru Bruce Higgins, it is renowned for the variety of underwater sights
it offers, and is visited yearly by hundreds of divers.
Every Saturday
morning, volunteers gather at the park to do everything from cleaning buoys,
threading lines and hauling cinder blocks to erecting features and sinking
vessels. Over the years, a vast array of underwater structures has been
constructed in the park – which sits at about 35-feet at its deepest point --
to provide a unique and interesting diving experience for new and veteran
divers alike.
Loogpla
Cowden, Vice-President of Emerald Sea Dive Club and a diver since 1993, has
taken on the mission of cleaning the numerous marker buoys that hover above the
park. For the past two months she’s devoted her Saturday mornings to hacking
off the thick crust of barnacles that cover the buoy surfaces. It’s a small but
much needed task she finds personally rewarding. Loogpla was invited to
volunteer at the park by ESDC member Ralph Sweet, who has committed his
Saturday mornings to the park for several years.
“I contribute
my time to keep up the park because I like diving there. It’s our park and it’s
up to all of us to help maintain it,” says Loogpla, an ESDC member since 1994.
“I decided to take on the project of keeping up the buoys because it gives me a
sense of accomplishment and helps me stay active in the sport. And I meet some
really exciting people – local divers in our community.” Loogpla estimates
she’s made almost 100 dives at the park and still has not seen all there is to
see.
Benign as they
may seem, the buoys are critical features in the park, serving as site markers
and as resting spots for weary divers. If not cleaned of the stubborn barnacles
that become attached to them, they could sink beneath the surface. While the
City of Edmonds maintains the surrounding areas of the park, the underwater areas
are maintained totally through the volunteer hours donated by area divers.
ESDC will
sponsor upcoming maintenance days on Sept. 7 and Oct. 5, but volunteers can
show almost any Saturday for work detail. Contributing to the ongoing effort to
upgrade and maintain the park, Underwater Sports of Edmonds, located just down
the street form the park, graciously provides free air fills and other support
services to park volunteers to come to help out.
Want to make a
difference in the local diving community? Join the effort. And if you haven’t
taken the plunge in the park yet, you owe it to yourself to jump in. Once you
do, you’ll understand why it’s so beloved by diving enthusiasts from around the
world.
To volunteer,
call Loogpla Cowden at (206) 399-5682 or email her at Loogpla@att.net. Or contact Underwater Sports
at (425) 771-6322. Maintenance dives generally begin around 10:00 a.m.
Saturdays.
This newsletter carries a traditional feature called Divers On The Loose. It is supposed to be a list of members who are ready and willing to go for a dive at the drop of a hat—or hood. No one has added any information to the DOTL list for some time. The only updating it gets is when I periodically clear ex-members from the list.
I have a feeling that, before my time, the DOTL was an important crossroads for the membership. Perhaps not. But I have a vision of it playing an active role in our favorite pursuit: to get everyone diving. Let’s give Divers On The Loose a makeover! Do you want to go diving? Get on the list. Include any information you like. In this electronic medium we have endless space for your entry. When and where do you want to dive? Do you like to swim fast or dawdle along? Nights? Deep? One dive or 2 or 3? Are you looking for a permanent buddy or just someone to dive with on the upcoming weekend?
What do you say, Emerald Sea Divers? Get your info to me at the meeting, by phone or email.
(206) 632-3874
Date:
Wednesday, September 4, 2002
Place:
Coco’s Restaurant
7929 Lake Ballinger Way
Edmonds, WA
Time:
Board meeting 6:00 PM (everyone welcome)
General meeting 7:00 PM
Speaker:
Kirby Jacobson (see article this issue)
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
(425) 778-7548
jason.miller@IDG-Corp.com
Vice President:
Loogpla Cowden
(206) 399-5682
loogpla@worldnet.att.net
Treasurer:
Rodney Windhorst
(425) 258-3071
Lsvision@earthlink.net
Secretary/Historian:
Anya Dollar
(425) 345-4210
dollara@earthlink.net
Activities Coordinator:
Buck Knight
(206) 542-8887
l.sceptre3@verizon.net
Newsletter Editor:
Wendy Drucker
(206) 632-3874
astromoi@earthlink.net
Big Buddy Coordinator:
Guy Balbirona
(425) 252-1632
kaikanuni@aol.com
Webmaster:
Lucas Scott
(425) 640-9896
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
(425) 483-6897
Skip Stacy - rainy days
(425) 775-2410
Guy Balbirona - anytime after work (3:30)
(425) 252-1632
Mel Nelson - Advanced
anytime
(425) 334-6291
Keith Bartelson - rainy days
(425) 640-9897
kdbart@oz.net
Jason Miller - Rescue (425) 778-7548
jason.miller@idg-corp.com
Visit our web site at www.emeraldseadiveclub.org
Or write to us at:
Emerald Sea Dive Club
P.O. Box 73
Edmonds, WA 98020
Or call or email any of the board members.
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September 7
(Sat) 2 Tank day at Edmonds U/W Park |
9:30 AM Cleaning Buoy & Tour the Park 2:00 PM Dive
Cathedrals and Truimph |
Host: Loogpla (206) 399-5682 |
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September 8
(Sun) Alki Pipeline – Sunset Dive At
Constellation Park, Alki |
6:00 PM Meet 6:45 PM Splash Ask Wendy for driving directions. Residential site; Street parking. You will need lights. |
Host: Wendy Drucker (206) 632-3874 |
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September 14
(Sat) Camp Casey Critter Collection and Barbeque |
See Mike’s article in this issue for complete instructions |
Host: Mike McGrath (425) 486-6029 or (206) 255-2995 |
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September 20-22
(Fri-Sun) Friday Harbor – Charter Diving and Wayfarer’s Rest |
Charter Boat Diving Skill Level: Intermediate & Advanced Wayfarers is full but there is still room on the boat |
Host: Mike Franz (360) 321-4435 |
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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 206-543-1866 |
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October 5 (Sat) 2 Tank day at Edmonds U/W Park |
9:30 AM Cleaning Buoy & Tour the Park 2:00 PM Dive
Tubehenge |
Host: Loogpla (206) 399-5682 |
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October 10-13 (Thurs-Sun) Nanaimo, BC |
Up to 8 dives. See article July issue. |
Host:
Loogpla |
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October 26-27 (Sat-Sun) Salt Creek (just w. of Port
Angeles) This weekend includes Lake
Crescent, P.A. Harbor, and camping |
See Phil’s article this issue for exact dive times and other details. |
Host:
Phil Morgan-Ellis pmorg@olympus.net |
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October 26 (Sat) Underwater Pumpkin Carving
Contest Edmonds Underwater Park |
Meet at 12:00 noon at the Park $10 donation benefits Park maintenance Sponsored by EUP volunteers and Underwater Sports (which provides
prizes) Judged by elementary school kids |
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November 16-23 Roatan, Bay Island, Honduras |
Anthony’s Key Resort See Dive Trip Summary this
issue for details |
Hosts: Skip & Loogpla (425) 775-2410 |