www.emeraldseadiveclub.org

In This Issue

Guest Speaker

Loogpla Cowden

What are you Thinking?

Buddy System Breakdown

Regardless of our affinity for diving there is one inescapable fact: Humans were not designed to survive underwater, yet we still insist on trying. The sea is still a place we can only visit, not live. Knowledge may get you there, but it’s skill that gets you back. And it’s the skill we have to practice. While we have an incredible capacity to learn, we often lose what we learn unless we have opportunities to apply and reapply the skills and knowledge. With so much water around us there’s no wonder things get a little rusty once in a while…

I have been diving with my dive buddy, Skip for eleven years, and I can predict his movement and pattern making our dives very enjoyable. I am currently in the middle of my Dive Master Training Program. The program provides me with an opportunity to see how I take my buddy for granted.

During a recent boat dive, and without any communication prior to plunging, we descended into eight feet of visibility to the 3^rd atmosphere, drifting to the north, the current turned, and I signaled my buddy to turn with the current, he agreed and I led the way. With a few fin kicks, I looked back and my buddy was not behind me. I made a complete circle, started to swim back, beginning to ascent to see my buddy in the distance highly upset. He signaled me to go up. We broke surface and aborted the dive. Aboard the boat I apologized for loosing him. Can this buddy team be saved? How can I keep my buddy by my side? I’ve got to work on my buddy relationship.

Underwater communication is so precious. It takes a lot of communication, both before and during the dive. And it takes effort. Here are some tips: Review hand signals with your buddy, and be sure you both have a common set of signs, pay attention to your buddy, and his/hers body language. Anticipate common problems and situations. If you're close enough, a simple touch or squeeze will let your buddy know to turn and face you, and if you have a new training skill be sure to share it with you buddy. Make sure your buddy understands your equipment, have a good dive plan, and stick with it as much as possible. Be happy…keep diving!

Open to all members of the ESDC.

Each member may submit up to three photographs per month through October 5.

Bring them to the club meetings or e-mail them to me and I will forward them to Phil so he can put them on the club web site

In order to open the competition to more members, photographs may be of above water (diving related) subjects as well as underwater subjects.

Voting to be done by all members of ESDC casting one vote each for their top twelve choices on or before the November meeting.

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

or at esdcnewsletter@mindspring.com

Deadline for submissions:

September 26—for the October newsletter

October 24—for the November newsletter

November 28—for the December newsletter

The City of Edmonds Moonlight Beach Adventure

Wendy Drucker

On September 10 we will need volunteer divers to collect critters for the touch pools.

And who are the most experienced critter-collecting divers around? WE ARE!

I will be there with my lights and goodie bag -- who else wants to come and dive?

Date: Saturday, Sept. 10
Place: Edmonds Marina Beach Park, near the Oil Dock.
Approximate time schedule:
6:00 PM - Divers meet
7:00 PM - Splash
7:45 PM - Bring in critters
8:45 PM - Return critters to the water

The City of Edmonds requires waivers -- I will find out if our Fishing Pier Cleanup waivers cover this dive also.

This event will be similar to our Richmond Beach critter dives, with naturalists at waterside touch pools to provide interpretation for the visitors. They expect 100-150 adults and children so they need plenty of critters.

Please note that this is a night dive. You should be an experienced night diver. You will need lights and collection jars or bags.

If you want to volunteer, please let me know by September 1st.

Cheers!
Wendy Drucker
astromoi@earthlink.net
206-632-3874

Alki Dive
Bruce Bury

Six divers showed up for the first of three dives that I did at coves one and two on August 28: Jim and Damon from MBDC, John, Marylou and Greg from ESDC and my friend Michelle from Portland. Her newlywed husband completed his open water class with Randy from Everett UWS Dive shop in cove two.
I took the lead while Marylou and Michelle were right behind me, with Jim and Damon behind them and John and Greg riding shotgun.
With lots of encouragement from me about having our tank-lights with us and turned on we did our buddy checks and swam to the second set of buoys on the boundary line and dropped down into five feet of visibility. We used our lights as planned to signal OK before proceeding with our trip from cove one to cove two. Right away there was a huge squid egg nest next to the line and a thirty inch lingcod at around 80'. There was another small squid egg nest on the line around 90' and some rock crabs, Dungeness, one stubby squid, black eye gobies. We went by Olive's old nest site under the three pilings. We saw pile perch, large schools of tube snouts and shiner perch as well as some sea cucumbers and either solitary or small groups of sea anemones. The visibility opened to ten feet at 94'. There were some nudibranches that I was able to find and using my light, I pointed them out to my buddies. We followed the line up into cove two and came out after our safety stop. We dropped at 7:54AM and were out at 8:29AM, my 130 was at 3100 and ended up at 1560psi for the dive.
After a surface interval of one hour and 50minutes we swam out to the white buoy with the orange stripes dropped down following the same safety rules as the first dive. We followed the line to the logs and then to the Honeybear. I saw at least five different nudibranches in and around both the logs and the Honeybear. There were lots of crab shells but no octopus, painted and kelp greenlings. I will say one thing, that is when you really slow your movement in the water or stop you will see more sea life in and around rocks, kelp, or manmade objects. The shrimp were plentiful as the multitude of sea stars, clams with their siphons, small and large sole from two inches to one and a half feet, hermit crabs and snails too especially around the rock wall between coves one and two. There were kelp crabs small and large in the kelp and around the submerged pilings. Maximum depth for me was 58' with a bottom time of 44 minutes. My LP steel 80 was at 2550 and ended up at 550psi. Greg and John opted to do cove three instead since they were parked closer to it for their second dive.
For the third dive it was Damon and I. We swam out to the pilings in cove three after a surface interval of one hour and 15mins. We checked out the submerged logs and to our surprise we found a complete street fire hydrant. At around 30' as we swam back across cove three to the boundary line we came across two tire reefs that were new to us. Between the tire reefs and the boundary line I saw a rock greenling. When we got to the boundary line we just followed it up to the rocks and back to shore. My maximum depth was 58' for 47 minutes. I started with 2640 with my steel LP 80 and ended up with 860psi.
See you all at the next dives I will be doing on September 10. Bye for now.

Marylou Hernandez

I could barely sleep the night before my first trip to Sund Rock. I joined Emerald Sea Dive Club almost one year ago and had yet to dive the site. In that time I had heard many happy stories about diving there. I was so excited that my opportunity had finally arrived.

I was not disappointed. It turned out to be a beautiful and very hot day. My buddy for the day was Jack Titterness and we were off on our adventure. Our first dive was to about 99 feet near what I think was called the north wall. The visibility was poor at shallow depths but got better as we descended. I drew in a deep breath as I caught site of my very first live wolf eel. Not so fast, look, not one all alone, but two very cozy together in a den. I was thrilled. After trading stories indulging in homemade applesauce cake and deviled eggs (thanks Fran) and re-hydrating Jack and I were off again. Wow! Another first for me… an octopus! More wolf eels and we were making our way to the wreck of a boat when a mishap cut dive number two short. One of my fins popped off and I watched with dismay as it made its way to the surface without me! Jack was very gracious about his shortened dive and even retrieved the wayward fin for me with the help of some bystanders once we were on the surface.

Our second surface interval was much longer because it was "tailgate" barbeque time. We had plenty to eat and it was tempting to take a nap, but I felt determined to get to that boat. Jack hung in there with me and we made dive number three. More wolf eels, more octopus and we even spied mama octopus and her eggs!!! We made it to the boat and it was much bigger than I expected (and yes I know things are supposed to look bigger underwater) but the ling cod living under it looked like you could throw a saddle on it!!

I felt very blessed that day. Great diving, you bet, but something very unexpected and very welcome came my way. I got to know some of my fellow club members better, and started to feel more a part of the group. With every outing I add to my own happy memories of adventures with the Emerald Sea Dive Club and hope that I will be part of their happy memories too.

Did you know that when you show your ESDC membership card at Starfish Dive Shop you receive a 10% discount? 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.

DATE LOCATION HOST