www.emeraldseadiveclub.org

In This Issue

Guest Speaker

Gerry Dollar will be January's guest speaker. He will be discussing dive leadership.
Almost every diver becomes a dive leader at least occasionally. He will discuss what it takes to lead a safe, fun dive without undue stress on the leader. Topics will include dive planning, matching the divers to the dive site and conditions, dive briefing, buddy pairings and of course the legal aspects of assuming these responsibilities. He will also discuss the path to dive master and instructor.

Loogpla Cowden

Happy New Year – A New Beginning

It’s that time of year when we toss out the old calendar and replace them with new pages full of dives, trips, and events. January gives us a clean canvas and the picture we paint sets the tone for our year to come. It is my wish that each of you experience a wonderful New Year as your membership for 2006 continues to unfold and have all your dive expectations become a reality. Emerald Sea Dive Club wants to be a part of your diving future.

We have excellent resources available within our membership and can provide capable support for all your diving needs in our corner of the world. When you plan your calendar please make us your preferred dive club. We are certain that as this opportunity is explored your look back at 2006 will be noted with quality results and growth.

Steve Berthinier, Cheng-Hui Wong, Greg Becvar and Rose Lyn Tadlock THANK YOU for being a part of our diving adventure and serving us as our officers in 2005.

At the same time, please join me in welcoming Rich Carton-vice president, Willow Mukherjee- treasurer, Mary Lou Hernandez, secretary and Skip Stacy, activity coordinator. They are very excited and filled with enthusiasm and can’t wait to share it with you! I am certain that you all will be very pleased with their excitement. Let us celebrate this new beginning as we journey into the wonderful underwater world for 2006.

Rich Carton

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year and I look forward to another great year of diving with the club. I also would like to thank you for electing me as your vice president this year; I hope I can meet your expectations. This looks like it will be another good year for Emerald Sea Dive Club as the board members are planning a lot of fun dives and activities for the club. My goal for this year is to encourage continuing education, so
to get things started I plan on taking three (long overdue) specialty courses this year. You too will have the opportunity to further your diving education this year because the club will be hosting a DAN O2 class and a rescue class. I will also be hosting the Poker Dive this year and I think I have talked Greg into helping me again. Hosting dives is another thing that I would like to see more club members involved in so if there is a dive you would like to do just ask and I will try to get it on the schedule. I'd like to thank everyone again and I hope to see you in the water and at the meetings.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the calendar photo contest and a special thanks to Fran Murray for helping to identify the sea life, Phil Morgan-Ellis for posting all of the entries on the club’s website, and to Darlene Ripley for creating the calendar cover and for all of her help with the newsletter during the year.

At last count there are 9 calendars left for sale. The cost is $5 to any member who has not yet purchased one and $12.50 for additional ones. They will be available at the January meeting (and everyone after that until they are gone) so bring money and help support your club.

If you have paid for a calendar and have not picked it up please do so at the January meeting. If you won’t be there please e-mail me so I can make arrangements to mail it to you.

Everyone is encouraged to submit stories about their dives or any dive related topic.

The deadline for submissions is:

January 23

February 20

March 27

April 24

May 29

June 26

July 24

August 29

September 26

October 24

November 28

Open to all ESDC members. Photographs may be of above water dive related subjects as well as underwater subjects.

Each participant may submit a total of 12 photographs with no more than 3 submitted in any one month. Photographs should be those taken from October 2005 through September 2006.

Contest closes September 2006 and entries must be submitted no later than the October 5^th meeting.

Prizes and calendar price will be announced later.

Greg Becvar

SCUBA Santa’s back with more special awards from the entertainment committee. The story clips you are about to hear are based in truth, BUT the facts have been changed to suit our purposes.

1. (Cheers ) "It’s a Little Known Fact" Award—Neither wind nor rain or the dark of night can keep this member from his appointed rounds with the Emerald Sea Dive Club post office box! This award is presented to Skip Stacy for devoting his time to get the club’s mail!
2. The Emerald Sea’s Multi Media Award—This intrepid journalist spans the dive membership list in his search for the stories and for his tireless work to publish the Emerald Seas Dive Club newsletter. This award goes to David Ripley, "the Newsletter Guy!"
3. The 3 Second Rule Award—This member informed the chef at the picnic that the brat that had fallen on the ground was still good enough to eat. She even volunteered to eat it herself! We have carefully preserved that ill-fated weenie just for this occasion! Bon appetite Loogpla! (old brat)
4. CAFFIENE! MUST HAVE CAFFIENE!! Award—This member has discovered that there isn’t even one measly underwater Starbucks in all of the Pacific Northwest! This award is presented to John Laggart for his never ending quest for a good cup of coffee. (coffee pot with regulator)
5. Foot Sore & Fancy Free Award—This diver took it upon herself to single handedly boost the Thai economy by getting her feet massaged as often as the law would allow! BTW: Is anything illegal in Thailand? This award goes to Marylou Hernandez (massage book)
6. The Land Shark Ate My Keys Award—Who knew you could lose not one but two sets of keys in one day? Did the Dogfish eat his keys? Or did a land shark take a bite out of them? The world may never know. This award is presented to Norm Gregory for providing the world with new excuses for missing keys…(baby keys toy)
7. The Laugh to You Cry Award—Hurry, hurry, hurry, we got to get in the water on slack current. Then he asks me to help him with his shoulder straps. So I did and did 5 or 6 times and every time I secured his straps, he popped them off by breathing!! We couldn’t even tell our buddies what happened because we laughed so hard we were both in tears. You know what new piece of gear Bruce Bury is gonna get. (corset)
8. Specialty Certification—She remembered what her instructor /buddy told her. Be one with your environment. Always know where you are. Check out all the brilliant colors & textures. They are so beautiful! WAIT! Wait! Where’s my buddy? Oh there she is. Where do we go next? Her buddy reminds her, check your limits. (thickness of your pocketbook, your trunk space, and your closet size) This "Mall Shopper Certification" goes to Cheng Wong.
9. The Underwater Belly Flop Award—This diver raised (or maybe we should say lowered) the bar on new and innovative ways to do a belly flop. She plowed into the bottom when she exhausted the air out of her BC instead of putting it into it! This award is presented to Tina Seawell (balloons)
10. Where’s the Beef Award (Rodney’s games)—The logistics for the picnic fell to Rodney. Rodney did a wonderful job of planning, setup, scheduling, and gathering equipment. The one thing he under estimated was that Emerald Sea divers have over developed appetites for meat. Presented to Rodney Windhorst for the (hamburger helper)
11. Where’s the Beef, part Deux, Laura Orlich who was a few minutes late for the picnic gets this award for her stunned look of disbelief after she asked WHERE’S the BURGERS? By that time all the burgers really were all gone! (McDonald’s dollars)
12. Not Just for Bait Anymore Award—In club meetings whispers were heard about secret places, fishing techniques, and cooking recipes. Something was going down, but what? Ah, yes, he seems so normal, who would have ever known Shawn Miller was a Crawdad junkie? (water grenades)

Shawn Miller

Dear members and all of our Guests:

I just wanted to say THANKS to all the people who made this year’s awesome

Christmas Party possible.  First of all thank you members for paying your dues. 

Your dues paid for a large sum of it.   Fran, thank you for the pier clean up and taking

time to get money for the club’s (safety gear) and prizes.  Not to mention taking charge of the raffle this year.  Tell Boston thanks as well.  And thanks to Rich and Loretta and David and Darlene for doing the shopping for the raffle.

Also, Gerry Dollar thank you for the PADI specialty class.  Bob Bailey (Nitrox Class) thank you.  Mitch Richards, Camp Casey conference center, for the night stay. 

I want to thank all of the members who made phone calls to all the charters to get us free trips YEAH.  Porthole Charters, Deep Sea Charters, Bandito Charters, Pacific Adventure Charters, Ocean Explorer (BC), Abyssal Dive Charter and Lodging (Quadra Island, BC).

Greg and Laura, and Sabine and Glen’s son, thank you for being Scuba Santa and helpers.  I want to say thanks to BUD from Bubbles Below for giving us such a sweet deal on the gear Rich purchased.  Sondi at the Cabbage Patch in Snohomish, thank you.  Boy they had some good food didn't they?  I think that's it for the thank yous.   

     One more thing, for those members who did not make it to the Christmas Party you were all missed.  HOPEFULLY you can all come to this coming year's meetings and next year’s party.

The Artificial Reef Society of British Columbia is set to sink a 737 at Chemanius on January 14. The public is invited to watch. For further information visit their website at ARSBC or contact:

Club Logo Clothing

Anyone interested in purchasing logo patches or clothing with our logo embroidered on said article please contact Loogpla Cowden.

rmigas@cbrichardellis.com if interested.  The BCD will be at the January meeting.

Ronald Migas
Facility Manager
C.B. Richard Ellis
4111 Adlerwood Mall Blvd.
Lynnwood, Wash.  98036

Telephone: 425-640-2701
FAX:  425-640-2501
E-Mail:  rmigas@cbrichardellis.com

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 Skip Stacy, 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!

Wednesday, January 4 at Alfy’s Pizza

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 Rich Carton addcorich@verizon.net

Secretary/historian Mary Lou Hernandez hmarylou@hotmail.com

Treasurer Willow Mukherjee dr.moore@verizon.net

Activities Coordinator Skip Stacy skipstacy@aol.com

Newsletter Editor David Ripley esdcnewsletter@mindspring.com

Big Buddy Coordinator Greg Becvar tridoxia@yahoo.com

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.