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From Tom Pritchard . . .
The great viz at Willow didn't last long - only 15 ft last night. With doubles and expectations of great viz, G-Man, Z-Man, and I planned to wander all over Hell's half acre as well as swim the length of the quarry. We ad libbed it through the bowl, found the 45 degree boat, and traipsed over to the fire truck. To our chagrin, the Dan plate on the ladder was gone. All that was left was a rusted clip; the plate was hidden under a board on the bottom. We rescued the plate and for reasons that still aren't clear to me, hid it somewhere else. It looks like Huck and the Palm will have to rehang the plate next Thursday. After Gerhard did what can only be described as a lap dance on the rear fender of the fire truck, we headed for the Quest. Suddenly, Gerhard and James stopped, both thinking that I had popped or just gotten lost. Neither saw me hovering about 2 ft above Gerhard. They returned to the fire truck to look for me; I followed about a foot behind. Classic three stooges comedy! Off the starboard side of the Quest to the pipe, then to the outhouse, until we turned the dive at the steam shovel. Back via the mixer and the bow of the Quest. 110 minutes - that's right, a buck fifty - in 50 degree water. We still had air left, but we were so cold nobody wanted to use it. Even my Light of God pooped out after 100 minutes.
Back on Mother Earth, we found out that Jess had some success clearing her troubled ears and had done a 53 minute dive - all at 18 ft, unfortunately. Feeling moist for the first dive in more than 10 weeks made Jess decide it was time to fix that annoying, talking fish plaque that usually hangs mutely on the wall. As Jess tried to disassemble the plaque, I showed her my stuff, but she said my tool was tool large. I beamed! James offered his tool and was refused. I think Goldilocks found the right sized tool in Kulp's gear. I just hope nobody gets hurt next week in the scramble to throw that &%#$@! fish plaque in the quarry.
From Sharon Slieker-Jones . . .
Well, where do I start, after much delibration I decided to join propeller Palmer ("Cheeky Monkey") on his trip to NJ, after several navigational problems we finally arrived at our destination late Friday night. I have to own up to being the culprit for causing some of the delays by turning up an hour late at Smokey's as I managed to get lost....don't ask, long story. Then because of the constant chit chat on the journey, one or two wrong turns were taken. Unfortunately, by the time we woke up the captain had made the decision that the dive was cancelled due to the weather conditions being too severe, we did get to experience the speed of the boat, short lived, but fun. After some thought and the toss of a coin we choose to head back to BSC to dive rather than visit Atlantic city, actually there was hardly any time spent deciding. We managed to make it back with only one detour, which was nice! We got to BSC around midday, that would be 12:00pm to the majority of you. It turned out for the better, we got two dives in, and lunch fetched, brought, and delivered to us by the one and only JB. The second dive would have been brilliant if it were not for the fact that my undergarment had allowed my neck seal to seep in water, and soaked the whole of my front.
Sunday: Again another fantastic day of diving at BSC, managed to stay dry! "Cheeky Monkey" failed to turn up on time, and I was forced to dive with the navigational expert himself, Vern, lucky for the rest of us Huck was assigned the duty of leader (only joking with ya Vern, I'm sure you will get your own back for that comment and the picture, but there is more where that came from, only problem I see is, you have control of the website, hmmm!).
And finally, thanks to Scott "The Rock" (A.K.A "Metrosexual" after displaying his not so manly unicorn tattoo) and Bryan for allowing me to teach you how to fix the tamer brackets to my tanks, if you require my help in the future just ask, I will be more than happy to assist, cheers guys! I believe JB took a shot of my training abilities.
See Bryan, I didn't even mention your bizarre and anal organisation of your cd collection...oops!
From Becky Tallman . . .
Hi Vern - Good to see this afternoon! In case it's a slow news week, I just wanted to let you know that Frank and I had an awesome end to a routine dive at BSC. By the boat, right there in 8 feet of water on up-close-and-personal-fishTV, we saw a 2-2 1/2 minute show of bass mating or territorial behavior. Complete with chasing each other in a tight circle and even locking jaws and spinning around. It was neat and they paid absolutely no attention to us. I even ducked at one point becasuse they were so close. A third one swam in but didn't stick around. It was incredible. I had the camera but I was so mesmerized, I'm not sure what kind of shots I took. I'll let you know when I get them back.
From "Uptown" Jim Brown . . .
The scorching sunshine confirmed that Spring has sprung and the dive season is in full bloom. We also saw some full bloomers too but that's another story (just look at the pic and you can fill in the blanks!). There was so much activity on the dive site that I can't possibly recall everything from within the complex nitrogen-laden tissues above my neck seal.
So, the highlights follow: welcome to our two newest OW-certified divers Todd Parsons and step dad Dave Hoffer! Wild Bill led them through skills and exploration while Gerhard Maree (D.I.T.) and I nudged and prodded. Instructor Ray and DM Rock were getting retrained by four or five Boy Scouts learning to dive. Rock had a blast, just ask him! See the pic of Instructor Ray's words of wisdom to help keep his boyz on track on Day 2! I think they picked up all of their gear on Day 2. John Gross, AI Pete and Tom Pritchard (D.I.T.) took Jeff & Kristi Raykos on the finishing touches of their Deep certification (or was it AOW?).
The cast of usuals showed up too over the course of two days including Palm & Sharon (blown out on the Tuna Seizure in Jersey), Handsome, Darth, Dr. Deco, Caveman Nast, Ron Lobb (aka Crash), Frank Herring, Mike, Dennis Boyle, Bec Tallman, etc. Sharon learned the art of carefully tucking in her dry suit insulation as she got quite a squirt from the neck down (see pic for full effect). Sharon seemed to redeem herself though as she offered a grooming lesson to Darth. As you can see in the pic, he didn't seem to be paying attention (big surprise there!). You can also witness the Rock getting a gear configuration lesson from Sharon. That will be the last time he offers to help! Further, after my fin fiasco a month ago, Ron Lobb drove over an hour to the dive site without his BC. He sure looked pretty in that borrowed truck rig; just look at the pic to see him struggling to mount up - that'll teach him! Saturday afternoon on Dive #3 I took Sharon and Palm SE from the deep boat to see a new feature on the south wall, the drive chain and ladder. They are still in search of the Blossom Tree and are beginning to doubt its existence. Sharon used this opp to breath her new pony bottle in preparation for our mid-May NC wreck trip. Always test and use your new gear in familiar surroundings and conditions so you're ready to go when it counts!
We're pondering a Dutch Springs trip this Saturday, possibly with an overnight on Saturday to take in a night dive. If you're interested in going, drop me an email!
From Bryan Palmer . . .
Ok, here we go off and running. Well I had set up a Dive on the Tuna Seizure out of Tuckerton, NJ for Saturday. Vern and Sharon had both voiced an interest in going Vern ended up bailing and well Sharon made the commitment. I'm going to be kind of easy as she is a Yorkian, but after she showed up an hour late getting lost finding Smokey’s we hit the road. That was the first sign that this would be an interesting trip. After a few missed turns here and there and some long about ways we finally pulled into the boat slip at 11 o’clock. We grabbed our sleeping bags and then off to sleep in the boat. Morning came quick and so did the bad news we were blown out 5-7ft waves. They offered to take us on a quick run out on the boat in the bay. Some previous warning from Mike Nast and Kent Hirsh to hold on out of the slip was well heeded. We cruised around the bay for about 30 minutes at 28+ knots pretty quick!!!!
We decided to head back to PA and made it to BSC by 11:30 long enough to get 2 dives in and converse with all the people that came out. What a great day, class upon class, it is great to see new people getting certified and enjoying scuba diving, I also tested a camera housing for Vivian and Diana who are heading to Mexico this week.
Sunday came quickly and I wasn’t able to get out of bed to early so I met my York friend Scuba Steve at BSC at 10:30ish, after a few British complaints from Sharon about not being there earlier. Steve and I set up and headed in for our first dive down to the deep boat and to the hole where we had a slight gear problem where his regulator starting to free flow after some level headed thinking between the 2 of us we resolved the problem and continued on with or dive. Second dive saw Sharon, Steve and I diving together. All had a good dive and we ended up with our nitrogen fix.
After some Dive talk and planning for next weekend we were provided with some Entertainment by our very own Mike Nast and Kent Hirsh. Time finally came for me to pack up my gear and head to GM. By the way did you know scuba diving is a TEAM sport? I learned all the aspects of this when I saw Kent pulling up with tanks for his dive buddy, and mike asking can I use your backplate mine won't fit.
I then headed of to Golden Meadows for a snorkel class with Peg and Larry Findley and a Refresher class with Gary Dunn and Victoria & Carl (sorry no last name). Fellow DM Chris Mayo was assisting Instructor Kathy Stevens with an open water class. Both of my classes went well and it seemed that so did Kathy's class. All and all it was a great weekend with the crowds starting to come to out and the water slowly warming up, Get out and Dive!!!!!
From Darth Vern . . .
Not a lot I can write about, I am always last, so everyone gets to write about things before me! But I do have it on good authority that the flowers at BSC are blossoming quite nicely this time of year. Also I found a very cool article on how someone gets a nickname and I am negotiating on getting reprint rights to post on our site. Alot of people ask me where these nicknames come from and I try to explain it, but end up confusing the person even more [go figure].
So anyway we are out in full force at Willow this Thursday night and we are looking to make a caravan trip to Dutch Springs this Saturday morning. All are welcome and none will be turned away!
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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