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From Tom Pritchard . . .
11/21 - On Sunday John Gross, Ralph Spayd, Bob Hanna, Jeff and Kristi Raykos, Ron Lobb, little Jenna, JameZ, GMan, yours truly, and the always effervescent Huck were joined by a cast of thousands who closed the dive season at Dutch. JameZ and Huck, the scooter dudes, did their thing until they got separated and, being the PADI boys they are, searched for 1 minute and then surfaced - and then got busted by the Dutch police force for solo diving. Some days you just can't win. GMan and I did a 107 minute dive - a real bladder buster if there ever was one. I started the dive dry and I was determined to end it dry. We went from the peninsula to the airplane, did a lap around the island and then headed for the helicopter before going east to the pump house and back. By the time we got back, I was swimming with my legs crossed. If I thought I could have squeezed my doubles into the Porta-Potty, I would have crawled straight there instead of stopping at the table to dump my gear. But I finished the dive dry, which is more than Bob Hanna can claim after flooding his drysuit with Dutch Springs (which is better than flooding it with TomJuice, which was almost my fate). Kristi Raykos did her DM-guided tour of the quarry and lost two of the three people she had in tow. Let's face it, you can't lose two divers when you have 60 ft viz. I think she ditched them and then ran like hell. If she keeps this up, she'll be a shoo-in for the Kulp Award. John Gross played with JameZ' scooter and he didn't get busted by the police. Did Ralph even get in the water? And who were those other people? I clearly don't have enough info to write an intelligible dive report.
11/24 - Last Wednesday it was so damp and dreary at Willow, we figured it had to be better under water. So we dove to get away from the nasty weather - and to celebrate Zachary Taylor's 220th birthday. Viz continues to bounce around; last night it was 15-20 ft. GMan, Terry Parsons, and I headed off the platform and compassed it to the Quest, where we did a swim thru for the first time in ages. Back into the bowl for a meandering trip back to the other side where we waited for wet Terry to freeze solid; he left at about 40 minutes. GMan and I burned off the last bit of our single tanks in the cul de sac. 67 minutes, bottom temp stuck at 50 degrees. Back in the shack we dined on chilli and ate bread while the Democrats and Republicans waged a pitched battle over the last election. Terry Martzall was so excited about Haliburton that he forgot to plug in his libido - which is a good thing. "Third Stage Dave" made a cameo appearance and JameZ came just to bask in the glow of our dazzling personalities. George brought his eating utensils, so we let him stay. Roger is back in the water after "giving birth" to "Roger-lite" a week ago. Last week Big Roger was giving out Hershey bars - you know, the ones with the letters "HE" or "SHE" in the word HERSHEY highlighted depending upon whether they had a boy or a girl. Cute, but I like the old candy bars. If it had nuts, it was a boy; if it didn't it was a girl. Anatomically correct Hershey bars might be a big seller, at least in the blue states. Jay Bell missed last night because his mother is ailing. Let's all wish "Ma Bell" a speedy recovery. And here's wishing Zachary Taylor another 220! Go Zach!
11/28 - The Mystery Building.
When the viz is good at Willow like it was on Sunday and Gerhard and I wander into the cul de sac at Willow, it's hard not to look for the Mystery Building. In case there's anyone in the free world who hasn't had a chance to bust our stones, here's the story. Gerhard, Dan, and I found a building in the cul de sac at Willow, not once but twice, in the Spring of 2003. If I knew the quarry then as well as I know it now, I wouldn't have lost the building. In my defense, both of those dives were at night, and for at least one and maybe both dives, my light had pooped out. If hard pressed, I would have to admit that there is no Mystery Building and what we probably saw those nights was the Mystery Boat, which is about where we were those nights - if you're willing to take the word of someone who was lost AND can't tell the difference between a boat and a building. But when I'm in that part of the quarry, I can't resist the urge to scan the "horizon" looking for the Mystery Building. Knowing that it's not there doesn't seem to matter. I think what does matter is for a few moments it's Spring 2003 all over again. It was a time when there was a Mystery Building - a time when Gerhard, Dan, and I could dive together, get lost, and find stuff that isn't there. I still find stuff and I still get lost - but it just isn't the same.
From John Gross . . .
11/21 - The weather was cloudy when I left home for Dutch Spring. I arrived around 8:40 AM and more then half of the divers were already down at the water setting up. I guess everyone was as anxious as I was to have fun diving.
Here is a list of everyone:
Dwight Benner
Delandis McCoy
Kristi & Jeff Raykos
Rick Huck
James Zimmerman
Tom Pritchard
Gerhard Maree
Ralph Spayd
Bob Hanna
Dave Barnhart
Chris Sander
Ron Lobb
Jeff, Jenna, Carly, Nina Evangelista
I apologize if I missed mentioning anyone. I did hear that the Thursday night irregulars, i.e. Tom, Gerhard, and James, were blinded by the clear viz. For our first dive Kristi was doing a Discover Local Diving experience with Jenna, Jeff & Ron as her divers. They decided to surface swim out to the helicopter but shortly before reaching the helicopter Jenna got cold and wanted to go back. I told Kristi to take Ron onto the helicopter and I would escort Jenna and her dad back to the exit. I did get Jenna to descend a few feet on the way back but she probably had one of the shortest dives that day. After she was safely back on land and Ralph was helping her out of her gear I took her dad, Jeff, back down to the cruiser (boat) at the end of the dive platforms. He got to checkout the inside of the boat and he had fun on the way back watching the large trout and bass.
During our surface interval everyone enjoyed hamburgers and hot dogs, cheese & crackers, and Jeff Raykos brought some homemade salsa & chips. Kristi Raykos made a sheet cake with white and red icing and it looked like a diver down flag. We had a wonderful time sharing our food and our diving stories.
For my second dive I tried out my Sea-Doo scooter. James Zimmerman had about 20 minutes left on his scooter and he gave it to Kristi to try. So Kristi and I both had scooters. Kristi’s husband Jeff and Jeff Evangelista were following us. Kristi and I left the entrance and scootered along the platforms to the boat and followed the rope to another boat, then to the airplane and to the helicopter. We went around and through the helicopter and then back to the airplane and that is where we found Jeff & Jeff. We followed them to the helicopter and Kristi let her husband, Jeff, try using the scooter. Of course she timed this well as the battery went dead a few minutes later. I decided to try the power of the scooter, so I told Jeff Evangelista to hold onto my tank valve and the scooter towed us both back to shore. Along the way we saw several trout and bass.
The Sea-Doo scooter did a fantastic job. If you don’t know what you get the diver in you family for Christmas consider the Sea-Doo scooter. Asking Mark or Cindy to show you one. I think the shop has one or two in stock and the price on this scooter is very reasonable.
From Darth Vern . . .
I got a call Thanksgiving night with regards to a "dive shop" that was practicing search patterns for a Rescue Class on that holiday afternoon and a woman found a "bone." Well the call meant we must mobalize the Dive Team and search for this bone [which she put back after calling the police] Well we showed up at 9:30am Friday morning at the Conestoga River and set up a smal search. We put Jim Brown and Chris Mayo in gear and our two new divers [zig and Krisco] in drysuits and snorkeling gear to search. The Conestoga is about 6 feet deep and relatively clear due to the current. We ended up finding the "wrong bone" and Jim Brown was nice enuff to find a sawed-off shotgun for the police detectives to research, I am sure they appreciated that. A good day and excellent practice for the team.
On Saturday me and JameZ decided to look for a wallet an E-Town man thought he dropped in his pond. We showed at the pond at 8:30am Sat morning and geared up. As luck would have it, we could not even see our gauges pressed against our masks. It was pitch black in the water. We searched for 1/2 hour and decided it was not there. IT was a small pond and we knew where the man "fell in" but not luck. Again good practice for the type of diving the Dive Team does - "crap" diving I like to call it.
DON'T FORGET
Underwater Xmas Tree Decorating Day
Sunday Dec 12 - BSC, Upper A!!!!
"The Comedy of the Sinking" starts at 9
and decorating at 10am - IF ALL GOES WELL
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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