www.emeraldseadiveclub.org

In This Issue

Guest Speaker

Loogpla Cowden

Veteran divers already know the visibility is fantastic this time of year. If you are a new diver, stick around you will also find that out. I love the thrill of a great Chill! Winter diving is one of my favorite times of the year. I love standing in the cold with my cup of "hot water" steaming in front of me as I breathe the nice cool, crisp air thinking about how far I can see when I jump into the beautiful sea.

One of the best ways to keep diving this time of year is to be prepared to stay warm before, between and after your dives. Wind and waterproof outer wear, a warm hat that can cover your ears and a pair of gloves are handy to have in your dive bag.

Tight fitting shoes or socks can cut circulation and make you colder. I like to suit up prior to hooking up my dive gear.

Warm fluids are good, but limit caffeine and alcohol as these tend to dehydrate and constrict blood flow to the extremities.

There are some nice local dives coming up and more next year. Please keep your dive gear out and handy. We would like everyone to keep diving with us and be comfortable while winter diving.

NEW FEATURE, THE ONE… THE ONLY…. THE ESDC DIVE CALENDAR will be available for you to order at the November meeting. (Limited Edition—50 copies will be available for $5 each) Please see David Ripley or any club officer to reserve your copy.

Open to all members of the ESDC.

Voting opened to all members of ESDC. Everyone needs to vote for their favorite twelve photos on or before the November meeting. Submit your votes by e-mail to the newsletter or at the November meeting. Keep in mind that any one photographer can have no more than three photos selected for the calendar.

Calendars will be available at the Christmas party. Cost for the first one is $5. (Every member can purchase one calendar at the $5 price whether they attend the Christmas party or not).

If you want additional calendars please let me know by the November meeting. The cost for those will be $11.45 each plus tax. After that individual calendars can be ordered at a cost of $20 plus tax.

If you have questions, comments or suggestions contact David Ripley at the club meeting

or at esdcnewsletter@mindspring.com

VOTE for your favorite photos for the club calendar

ESDC 2006 Calendar Photo Contest Ballot

Vote for your 12 favorite photos by recording the numbers below. They do not need to be in any particular order. Thank you.

1.___________________ 5.__________________ 9._______________

2. __________________ 6.__________________ 10.______________

3.___________________ 7.__________________ 11.______________

4.___________________ 8.___________________ 12.______________

Please circle or write in your choice.

President:

Loogpla Cowden

Or write in:____________________________________________________

Vice-President:

Rich Carton

Or write in:____________________________________________________

Treasurer:

Willow Moore

Or write in:____________________________________________________

Secretary/Historian:

Marylou Hernandez

Or write in:____________________________________________________

Newsletter Editor:

David Ripley

Or write in:____________________________________________________

Activities Coordinator:

Skip Stacy

Or write in:____________________________________________________

Christmas Party

in Snohomish.

Saturday,  December 10th 2005.

The Cabbage Patch Restaurant

111 Ave. A Snohomish Wa. 98290

6:00 pm (the upstairs room)

Dinner Menu is as follows:

Soup or Salad

Your choice of Baked or mashed Yukon Gold Potatoes or rice

Vegetables & Assorted Rolls

Any choice of non-alcohol beverage (soft drinks, coffee, tea, lemonade or milk

Entree' s are as follows

Prime Rib w/Au jus

Honey baked salmon (baked with honey and citrus)

Pecan Chicken

Charbroiled chicken breast smothered in a creamy Honey Mustard sauce.

Artichoke & Mushroom Penne

Sautéed in olive oil w/ Italian herbs,onions and red peppers

topped with Asiago cheese

Dessert

The Cabbage Patch Tartlets

There is a no host bar

All dinners are $20 per person, alcohol is not included.  The Restaurant will be decorated and looking good.  There will be a GIFT EXCHANGE (NOT WHITE ELEPHANT) the max. is $20 per gift.  Greg is planning another award show.  Oh ya the best part the Raffle we are getting some cool prizes this year.  Each extra raffle ticket is $5.  I will need to get RSVP's and Payment before the Party.  If you all could RSVP with what kind of entree you would like, that would make everything go smooth. Please bring your money for the meal at the November meeting that would be great.  If you cannot pay then November 20th will be the cut off date.  You can RSVP at esdcrsvp121005@yahoo.com I will let you know, at a later date where to mail your money if you can not pay at the meeting.  If you know someone in the club that does not receive e-mails please contact me.  We will send out a paper invitation to them. We will have a great time so join in on the fun. 

Shawn Miller

Well as you all know Hawaii is an awesome place to take a vacation.  Maui is the Island choice for me.  If you haven't been, I suggest you go.  Anyway I got on the Island one day after Kim and Leanne, and I gave them a ring and they already went diving that day.  Boy they work fast.  Tuesday we hooked up and went diving at AHIHI Bay.  My wife and in-laws went snorkeling.  We dove a reverse 7.  That means we went out to the left and then we went right back to the beautiful and colorful reefs.  When we popped up, we were notified that we missed a ten foot manta ray.  How messed up is that.

      Wednesday Kim Leanne myself and my in-laws went on the Pride of Maui catamaran.  Molikini (NICE).  The visibility was awesome, between 100 and150 feet.  I saw my first shark.  If it were not for our beautiful guide Tiffany pointing it out for us we would have missed it. It was 100 feet away and deeper than I was willing to swim.  I was running out of air and fast.  Turtle town was a little different. At first there was nothing there but as we swam more things started to spring out.  We found a turtle with a huge hook in its front left fin with a huge glob of steel leader still attached to the hook.  How sad, the guides tried to cut it with a dive knife.  No such luck, it swam away and we went our separate ways too.  Then I saw a box puffer eating a sea urchin.  Leanne got a good picture of it when I was right over it.  He was looking at me then Leanne, me, Leanne and then it swam off.  Good Dives.

      But the best dive was the last for me anyways.  All of us went to Honolua Bay, which was awesome, a short walk from the road but well worth it.  Let’s get to it.  We were down about 30 feet and I was 30 feet in front of Kim and Leanne when I saw on the floor a huge turtle.  Upon further examination I saw that it had a shark bite, about an 8" diameter chunk missing out of its shell and its back leg was missing from his knee down.  

     A few minutes later we saw a school of Ahluas (sorry about the spelling) cruise past us, and fast.  My thought was predator, shark ahhhhhhh.  NO just a very cute seal posing for us to take her picture in many positions.  She swam around us and went to the surface came back to us and disappeared into a dark hole.  What the heck was she doing?  She came out and swam to our right and watched us. Then here came another turtle out of the hole.  Hello another photo opportunity.  Then the seal left.  That was pretty cool I loved it.  My diving ended after my friends Kim and Leanne left.  I had a dive buddy for my second week but she flaked out on me.  The rest of the time I snorkeled (oh god why) no really it was just as fun. 

P.S. I have more stories.  Oh yeah, nice to see you again Rodney!

By Loogpla Cowden

It’s 4:00am Thursday morning, my mission was to pick-up Skip & Eric, then to meet up with Marty Leonard and KB, our member and guest from Cleveland, OH at the Smoky Point rest stop. I was ten minutes late, but made it just in time to catch our 7:45AM ferry from Tawassan to Duke Point. We caravanned and were talking on our two ways radios all the way to the Canadian Border. The plan for this day was to stop in Nanaimo to dive with Ian, Ocean Explorer and to have a nice leisure day, then on to Quadra Island. This is where the fun begins.

We arrived to the border and immediately got called into the office at the all because of the Bush & Clinton debate. We missed the ferry by five minutes. After everyone vented, we visited and enjoyed each others company for two hours while waiting for the 10:15 ferry. We arrived at the Ocean Explorer just in time to GRAB our dive gear, the boat had its engine running and was ready to depart. We made it in time to dive Dodd Narrows during the "slack".

The dive was absolutely fabulous until it was time to surface—into the current. Skip was first to go up, then the rest followed. We saw Skip being tow by the boat trying to get him out of the current. Then it was our turn. I grabbed the line, KB was next, then Eric at the end. As I looked back I saw Marty standing on to a rock saying ‘hey!’

I was hanging on to the tow line while the boat was pulling us toward the cove. My hands were slipping and I was sliding, all the while hoping that we get there soon. We made it! We went back for Marty - All was well…

Laughing with glee and sharing our experience. One to dive #2: KB wanted to see wolf-eels and octopus. We took him to Clark Rock. We saw six wolf-eels, but no octopus. After a stop for dinner we got to Abyssal Lodge on Quadra Island at 11:30PM where our host, Earl & Deb greeted us with great big hugs and a warm welcome. After a long day, off to bed we went.

We woke up Friday at 9:00AM to find Phil Morgan-Ellis and his wife, Deborah at the lodge joining us for the weekend. We made a total of eight dives for the weekend. Skip, Eric, Marty, KB, Phil & Deborah—THANK YOU! for a fabulous time. I look forward to our next adventure.

Bruce Bury

  There were five of us in the water for the night dive at Edmonds Underwater Park after the club meeting with Loogpla for shore support.  I lead the dive in the park after I gave my dive briefing. We set our compasses for shore when we were in waist high water. We dropped down at the nearest buoy after swimming passed the jetty wall on the south side. There was no wind or rain and the air wasn't too cool. There were no waves going out and the visibility looked promising. The only thing missing was the moon. I had on my mind the new series called "SURFACE" that just started on TV last week, glad I missed the second show this week, but I was prepared for any seals or whales that might venture into the park (but we didn't see any). 

We went thru the Boatyard, then onto H.R. Jackson. At the Cathedrals I showed off my buoyancy control by going under the grate of the first block and under the ledge on the west end of the fourth block. On the west side of the Triumph a piece of it has separated from the boat and is standing vertical. I pointed out a Colonial Tunicate Didemnum to some of the divers. We then went over to the Mesmerized, Cupid, Genius and Clinclant. We descended at 9:36PM, I reached a maximum depth of 35 feet with 42 minutes underwater. I came up when one of the divers let me know he had about 500PSI left in his cylinder. I had taken my 130 with my pony  bottle. I started with 3770PSI and ended with 2400PSI. Visibility was 20 to 25 feet by the Triumph. I started to touch the bottom with my fins as we got to the jetty as the tide was going out.

Lots of life to be seen at night with a clump of feather dusters that were showing off their colors of red and purple, large schools of shiner perch and tubesnouts, copper rockfish, lots of sharpnose crabs, red rock and hermit crabs, a variety of starfish and lots of shrimp. I did notice above and around the Triumph some yellowtail rockfish. I did see cabezon and lingcod too. The sea anemones were like candles as our lights shined on them. I had two of my lights turned on besides my tank light and an orange blinking light on my vest. We were greeted by Loogpla as we came ashore and yes all five of us made it back. This was one of my easiest night dives that I have done to date, thanks to the other divers whom were all good buddies to each other. This was dive 397 for me. See you all at the next dives.

Bruce Bury

I did three dives at Langley Tire Reef instead of two and skipped going over to Admiralty Tire Reef since the weather was not satisfactory on that side of the island.  I ended up collecting around 25 starfish, two dozen fish and at least 15 crabs along with six sea anemones, some chitons and one burrowing sea cucumber. I found some kelp with sea anemones attached and three cockle clams laying on top of the sand about half the size of my fist.

I had a very good time out there doing three dives. The weather got better with each dive. It started raining while I was under water on the first dive and had blue skies  on the second and third. My son John was with me and enjoyed helping get the containers from me as I came ashore while I carried the grab bags that had the crabs and starfish that were too big for the plastic jars.

On the third dive I checked out the tire reef on the deep side where I came across two lingcod, one of which had its right lower lip torn out, probably from a hook. I saw a huge pile of shells on the sand surrounded by the tires. I want to go back on a night dive and check it out for octopus. My bottom time was 80, 50 and 73 minutes for each dive.

Keith had left the Sealab door unlocked and my son John helped me bring the critters inside. I used all but two tanks, separating the critters so they don't eat each other.  On the way to the ferry it started to sprinkle and thunder. Lightening really started up when we were on 405 just coming up on I-5. 

A footnote on other activity at the Langley Marina: the Fish & Game warden showed up after five divers from Anacortes found at least four crab ringnets out in the water with buoys and line attached. I saw the ringnets later on my third dive. The divers called Fish & Game about it. Three fishermen on the wall got tickets for no license and too many fish. My son was on the wall and heard it all. No one bothered me about collecting the critters because I let everyone there know what it was for. I read what was on the permit that Keith keeps on a clipboard on the wall in the Sealab that allows for the collecting of critters. I think next time I will want to have a copy of the permit with me when I go to collect for the Sealab again just for piece of mind.

.

Did you know that if you show your ESDC membership card at Northwest Sport Dive you get a free air fill? Be sure you have your ESDC membership card with you when you go shopping at dive shops—you just never know.

If other shops give you a discount please let us know and we will publish their name.

You could win a $50.00 ESDC check by hosting club dives. Every time you sponsor a club dive your name "goes into a hat" and twice a year a raffle will be held and one person from each drawing will receive $50.00 from ESDC as a Thank You for sponsoring dives, friendships, and fun! Remember, a club dive is a dive approved by Greg Becvar, Activities Coordinator, and placed on the clip-board and on the ESDC web site. This is a great way to meet club members and have lots of fun. Book your dives today! Remember: the more dives you book the more chances you have of winning.

When you take a class that furthers your diving experience, such as Advanced Open Water, Rescue, Dive Master, etc., show The Board your certification card and you will receive a congratulatory $15.00. This offer is only good one time per calendar year.

E-mail Jason Miller, our mailing list moderator, jason.t.miller@comcast.net

to be put on the ESCD yahoo group mailing list

(www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ESDClist) where you can communicate with other members regarding various dive topics, find dive buddies, or let everyone know about a

planned dive that did not make it to the newsletter or clipboard in time. Join the list so YOU won’t be left out!

4820 196^th SW

Lynnwood WA

425-775-5459

Board meeting, 6:00 p.m.; everyone is welcome to join. General meeting, 7:00 p.m.

Heading north on I-5: take exit 181B (196^th St SW/Alderwood Mall Pkwy). At the top of the exit there is a stop light, turn left. At the next stop light turn left onto 196^th St SW proceeding to 48^th. Alfy’s is on the south side of the road. (Alfy’s is 4 blocks down from The Rock.)

Heading south on I-5: take exit number 181 (Lynnwood). At the top of the exit there is a stop light, turn right onto 196^th St SW, proceed to 48^th. Alfy’s is on the south side of the road. (Alfy’s is 4 blocks down from The Rock.)

President Loogpla Cowden loogplacowden@att.net

Vice-President Steve Berthinier resoyrua@verison.net

Secretary/historian Rose Lyn Tadlock tadloro2002@yahoo.com

Treasurer Cheng-Hui Wong chengwong@comcast.net

Activities Coordinator Greg Becvar tridoxia@yahoo.com

Newsletter Editor David Ripley esdcnewsletter@mindspring.com

Big Buddy Coordinators Skip Stacy skipstacy@aol.com

Wendy Drucker astromoi@earthlink.net

Greeter Shawn Miller shawnm1833@yahoo.com

Web Master Phil Morgan-Ellis pmorg@olympus.net

Visit our web site: www.emeraldseadiveclub.org

Write us: Emerald Sea Dive Club

PO Box 73

Edmonds WA 98020

Contact any of the board members via telephone or e-mail www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ESDClist

₪ Greg Becvar

360-659-2853

tridoxia@yahoo.com

₪ Bruce Bury –PADI rescue

425-788-8063

bury1of6@aol.com

₪ Jason Miller –Rescue

425-778-7548

Jason.t.miller@comcast.net

₪ Skip Stacy – rainy days

425-775-2410

₪ John Laggart –weekday dives

jmnlaggart@msn.com

If you are interested in being included on this list please contact the editor.

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