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From Mark Myers . . .
Divers from across Central Pennsylvania showed up Sunday afternoon for our spring sale – and Sunday evening for Cindy’s obstacle course/refresher evening. Once again, I’ll not name names, because chances are I’ll forget someone and insult them. We saw a lot of people in the shop that we haven’t seen all winter, sold some good gear – and this being a diving related activity – had a ton of junk food.
Sunday evening we adjourned to Golden Meadows for an evening of playing in the pool. A special thanks to Mares Representative Byron who shows up to work the sale, then came out to the pool with some new Mares toys for us to play with. He allowed us to demo two new bcd’s. Just when we thought the you could not get a better regulator for the money, he showed us the MR22 Proton. Think “Breaths like an Abyss at half the size and weight…” and you’ve got the idea. There were divemasters aplenty along with a lot of fun customers and even a class lead by Dennie Leese.
Again, a big thanks to all of you who helped out – Bryon, Kelly Groff, Liz, Jim “I have a second career in selling scuba” Brown, “Darth” Vern, Ralph Spayd, Pete “I also have another career selling scuba” Bohling, Fran “I’ll do what ever you want, just don’t make me touch the register” Rebert, and “Beautiful Bud” Fletcher… again, my apologies for whoever I missed –and I’m sure there is someone. Among the customers were Sam and Jean Sellard, Dennis and Barb Gallagher, Cindy Sites, John Ruble, and many others who I should know but can’t remember names. It was a fun evening, and a great way to kick off our spring dive season.
From Tom Pritchard . . .
Bill Siwiec and DIT Bill Hockley introduced me to the marvels of dry suit diving this weekend. The Bills answered all of the 4,671 questions I had except one: why are they called dry suits? After the pool session I was soaked through and through. According to Wild Bill, it wasn't pool water - it was sweat. And because the seals did work, I was pool-roasted in my own juices. Yummy! I figure if the Ephrata rec center knew how much people sweat in their pool, they wouldn't care half as much about the people who pee there. Most of that sweat was generated doing my 360 degree rotation during the inversion recovery. In case there are any other overachievers out there, 180 degrees works best. My 360 left me upside down with my finless feet at the surface. The Bills got done laughing before the swimming bozos at the pool. Even the swimmers, who know nothing about diving or why dry suits are called dry suits, knew I was an idiot. Willow went much better. Although pea green water is usually pretty gross, I was comforted by the fact that nobody further than 5 feet away would be able to see me screw up.
All in all, I didn't find dry suit diving to be much different than wet suit diving. You still get wet, you still get cold, and you still float in the water for 5-10 minutes waiting for Wild Bill to get his duds on and get in the goddamn water. And a good time was had by all.
From Dennie Leese . . .
Information and reservation sheets are now in Smokeys for the Prescott Canada Labor Day trip. Stop in and pick up a copy. It contains all the info you need and has a reservation and deposit info sheet attached. If you can't make it into the shop, email me with your email address and I will attach a PDF copy for you to download and print. Also, more details are being finalized on the Isla Mujeres, Mexico trip for 2004. The dates have been set for August 14-21, 2004 (Saturday to Saturday). I've reserved all 9 rooms and had to fork out $2,400 in the process. Info and reservation sheets will be in the shop soon, but airfares won't be announced until about the end of Sept., 2003. The trip will be approximately $1,300 per person, diving and about $900 for a non-diver. I've had many people express interest in this trip. I'm now taking reservations for spaces and there is only 18 total available and 2 are already officially gone. In order to reserve a spot, I need a deposit of $150 per person for any couple requesting a room with a King bed, of which there are only 3, and 1 is already taken. Singles or couples requesting rooms with 2 double beds need to pay a deposit of $125 per person. This locks you into the trip and puts a deposit on your room only. Once the airline announces their prices in Sept. I will need an additonal $150 deposit per person to lock into a seat on the plane. Although I've been holding rooms for those expressing an interest, the reservations are now officially open and on a first come, first go basis. Once I've received 18 deposits, it's waiting list time in case somebody drops out. I will provide all the details that I know soon, which is actually everything but the cost of the flight. If all the people that say they're already going actually sign on with deposits, this trip is already more then half full. Don't wait long. Although it's 17 months until the trip, it will fill up fast. This gives everyone an opportunity to save their money for it over the course of a year. I will accept monthly payments if anyone prefers to do it that way so you don't have to worry about spending it on something else first. If you wait until a month or so before the trip, my guess is there won't be any spaces and you'll have to just read about how much fun it was. Email me at home if you have any questions I can answer for you. Once I have the information and reservation sheet put together on this, I will also send a PDF copy for you to download and print if you request one. You will need the Acrobat Reader program to open and read it. It's a free download in case you don't know what it is or don't have it yet, and comes in real handy.
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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