I'm running behind with this one - so hang on, there's a lot of ground to cover!!

From Jess Zellers, the Florida Connection ...

The checklist for a weekend of diving: Something new – a new DiveRite reg, it only had one dive before this weekend Something blue – I have a backup light that’s blue Something borrowed – don’t care for your primary reel because it’s too “wreck diving”, borrow your instructor’s! Something old – my drysuit, I’m the third owner and I’ve had it for almost five years.  The day every girl dreams of ... or at least me anyway! MY CAVE CLASS IS FINALLY HERE!!!

There’s two warnings about caving diving that need to be taken deadly serious. First, you need cave training to go cave diving. Second, Be warned – once you’ve experienced cave diving you won’t want to do any other kind. Alcoholics have a 12-step program to help them get off an addiction. Cave divers have a 4-step program to help us get started with an addiction. They’re called cavern, basic cave, apprentice, and full cave! This weekend was my cavern class. I’m moving next week, so in a few weeks I’ll go back and do basic.

It took nearly two years of searching, but I’ve finally found it... a quality technical dive shop with the same kind of Smokey’s family feel to it. The Dive Outpost is in Lauraville and one of Kathy’s regular instructors is Mike O’Leary, a former president of the National Association of Cave Divers. This is my new Smokey’s and where I’m doing my classes. Mike used to live on Long Island in New York, so he knows where I’m coming from. Around here as soon as I mention Pennsylvania the next thing I hear from people is ‘Dutch’ and ‘oh so you must know Evie?’. With Mike as soon as I mentioned PA, he comes back with ‘Dutch’ and ‘ah, that other one... ah... Willow Springs, do you know that place?’. Mike and I hit it off pretty quick.

The format of a cave class differs somewhat from recreational courses. We started Saturday with a couple hours of lecture, then on to land drills with reel work & tie offs. Next comes the most infamous part of any cave class... dum dad um... gear configuration. This is where cave instructors notoriously tear apart gear and rebuild it from the ashes of your former setup. Fortunately I already had that experience about a year and half ago, so this time around the event was fairly painless. Just some minor tweaking and subtle style changes so that I won’t be mistaken for a wreck diver. For example, before I go diving next I’m taking the boots off my tanks... they’re a dead give away of my North East heritage.

Only once all that’s done do we get wet. Two days of diving with plenty of drills & skills to do and repeat. The shop is just a couple of miles from Peacock state park. Peacock is one of the most extensive underwater cave systems in the country and the low flow and large cavern zone make it an excellent site for classes. Gin clear water, 72 degree water and limestone make it an excellent dive. And it looks exactly like the pictures when viewed from inside looking out!

There’s two things I like most about cave country, the caves and cave divers. Jacksonville to Lauraville is a drive, so I stayed overnight in the bunk house. Which afforded me the chance to hang around the shop after hours, and except for one diver from North Carolina all of us were local divers. And the only thing that beats a group of Southern cave divers sitting around doing dive stories and whatever else we fell like talking about, is the same group ever so slightly inebriated.

Excellent weekend, and I’ve certainly waited long enough for it. Cavern gets you overhead, but it’s still a fairly short leash. Some time next month I’ll be doing basic cave. Basic cave still has some limitations, but it’s certainly more than enough license to be doing some real diving and getting experience. I know this has gotten quite long, so for those of you who skipped to the end here’s the important part... I’M FINALLY OUT DOING MY CAVE CLASS!!!!!!!!

And from Tom Pritchard, starting with Wreck Diving ...

Terry Martzall, Gerhard Maree, and I broke the cherry on the 2006 wreck season last Saturday.  We started 2006 where we left off in 2005: On the Mohawk with glorious weather and 1 ft seas.  Although it was my 4th time on the Mohawk, it was my first on the Independence, a smaller version of the John Jack with dual 380 hp engines.  Once we cleared the no-wake zone, Capt. Dan Bartone made it a quick trip to the wreck at 28 knots.  Even with near flat seas, I was reminded that there are speed bumps, gopher holes, and wrinkles in the space-time continuum that can make for a bumpy ride, even over a flat ocean. My reminder came about 1 nanosecond after I went airborne while dressing in the cabin. As I landed on the frame of the bunk, my tailbone broke my fall and my fall broke my tailbone. I mustered one of those fake Nancy Reagan smiles, because, as you know, there's no crying on dive boats.  The good news: I wouldn't be using my tailbone for diving, unless I decided to sit on the bottom - or on my bottom, as it were.  The bad news: Some of those leg and ass muscles you use to climb a boat ladder are attached to the tailbone.  Ouch!  As for the Mohawk, just like last year, it's still a big mess down there and a wreck certainly worthy of running a reel.  Before the Mohawk met its end, it was a 387 ft ocean liner that picked the wrong time to have a steering malfunction.  The Mohawk turned, was rammed by the Talisman, and sank, taking 45 souls to the bottom.  Since then, the Mohawk was been depth charged and wire dragged and now is little more than a large debris field.  GM and I did two 40 minute dives in 45 degree water that should warm up a few degrees over the season. The Mohawk is a good digging wreck and a great wreck for beginners.  At 80 ft it is easily within reach of the single tank diver.

And from 4/21 - 

With attendance down, I'm sure Bill Jeter's 50 pcs of fried chicken thought that they had a snowball's chance in hell last night. They were sadly mistaken. Some fried chicken even went diving last night in the gullets of a few hungry divers. Colin and I decided to run reels last night as a tune up for this weekend when, weather permitting, we'll be diving off the Tuna Seazure.  We were joined by Willow Navigator Extraordinaire, Bob Hanna. The long-awaited Spring Clear Out at Willow (SCOW) still hasn't arrived so the viz is still about 5 feet, less if you're following me.  We decided to run reels from Bubba to the Mystery Boat and back, and given the conditions, we did a credible job.  I tied in and as I juggled my light, compass and reel, I decided I could use my light to either see the compass or see where I was going. Given the viz, I chose to see the compass and hoped I wouldn't hit my head on the boat.  Given my navigation skills. I felt pretty safe. I burrowed through the silt until I felt a tug on my fin; Colin had bumped into a Christmas tree. After tying off on the tree, I headed east 10 feet and stumbled into the Mystery Boat with less than a foot of line left on my 250 ft reel. Colin tied his reel into the tree and as I reeled in, he reeled out on our way back to Bubba.  Then we all went our separate ways, unfortunately.  Bob was on the verge of turning into a pumpkin, so he headed home. Colin went to retrieve his line when I wasn't looking, so there I was - all by my lonesome.  Rather than try to nav to the Mystery Boat again through our twice silted out runway with the air in my double 45s already low, I decided to return to the dock.  Just for shits and giggles, I shot a bag at the platform.  Two seconds later I was bumped, banged, and literally stampeded by two Adv. Open water students who were doing an SSI specialty called, believe it not, "Low Viz Diving." It was like being in the mosh pit of a Barry Manilow concert. Forget the normal exit - I headed straight up on my reel to get away from these clowns as quickly as possible.  Back in the Shack, we punished more chicken.  And a good time was had by all.  Thursday April 27th is the Third Annual Dan Dive.  It's a great time to get together with old friends, eat good food, and enjoy a dive in the crystal clear water of Willow.  Hey, 2 out of 3 ain't bad.  See you next Thursday!

And the "Dan" Dive

Friends and family of Dan Myers gathered at Willow Springs Park on April 27th to celebrate the 3rd Annual Diver Dan Dive. It was great to see a lot of familiar faces like Bud Fletcher, Sue Huck, and Linda Sackrison, who were thoughtful enough to come even though they didn't dive. Others like Cindy, Joe Dormer, Scott the Rock, Steve Russell, and Don Bradley cleared their schedule to make the long trek to Willow.  Some of the usual suspects were there like Greg Kulp, Colin, JZ, Big Bill, Rich Rupp and the always effervescent Huckster; others like Gerhard and Roger were down in the DR, and T-Bone was cleaning up the mess that Katrina made and George Bush left in Loosiana. Dave Ho dropped the funniest line I've heard in a while - and I'd love to tell you what it was, but there are some things that just can't be sanitized.  Later there was talk of inflatable sheep - I've got to get me some of that action!  The Myers clan - Jean, Carl (Dan's parents), Mark (the lesser known Myers), Karen (Mark's better half) , Curious Jack, and Savannah (the next Myers water bug) - came with box wine, potato chip casserole, and pork BBQ in tow.  (Sorry if I left your name off the "guest list,"  but my memory is only one of the things that no longer meets factory specs).  I understand that there are photographs proving that Mark Myers dove - in the water, no less.  Jean brought extra food because she knew that Dan was a food mooch and she figured she had to repay the debt.  We told Jean about the time that Dan hid Wild Bill's bag lunch on a dive boat. I've heard that story before and always thought it was preposterous - really - what would Wild Bill be doing on a dive boat?  Anyway, next year Jean will bring a bag lunch for Wild Bill. I had the pleasure of taking Cindy and Scott the Rock on a tour of Willow.  Since Cindy has been collecting sponges in some of the well-traveled areas of the quarry, I figured she needed to see some of the "off the beaten path" areas. After Mark Myers told me that viz was good in the north cul de sac, I figured we'd head there via the Mystery Boat. Viz was a crystal clear 5 ft as we compassed from Bubba to the Mystery Boat, hitting it spot on for a change. We compassed to the road and then used dead reckoning to find the new platform along the NW wall. Then we searched for the good viz and, sad to say, we didn't find any.  Just for the record, we didn't find the Mystery Building either. After wandering around, I compassed W/NW and damn, hit the platform again.  After ambling along the NW wall we got out in just under an hour and joined the festivities. Rock said he didn't see much and Cindy, without a dive light (say what? whatwasshethinkin'?), probably didn't anything besides the ass end of my tanks.  Everyone mingled and ate and ate and mingled. Vern didn't want to abuse his one night out per week, so he left early; others followed after a respectable period, until it was just JZ and me left.  We talked about rebreathers and made fun of Vern until about 11:15PM - and then decided to do it again next week. And a good time was had by all!

Bob Hannah's version of 4/21 - - - 

And "Special Guest" John Gross - who has finally realized that I'm going to badger the @*\# out of him to write reports!!

Open Water Class – Dive Report- April 29 & 30

 What a beautiful weekend we had for my first Open Water class of 2006!  We have such energetic divemaster and assistant instructors at Smokeys that we had more help then divers.  That sure makes my job a whole lot easier.  I want to thank Mark Myers , Jeff Raykos, Chris Sander, John Thibodou x, Cindy Willman-Kinsey, and Terry Grogan.  You guys helped directly with the class during the pool sessions and/or training dives and I want to thank you.  Other divers on site were Dave Barnhart, Kristi Raykos , Bob Hanna, and Mike Grogan.  

The students, and now newly certified divers, were Emily Buckwalter (11 year old daughter of Dour & Kerri Buckwalter), Savannah Myers (10 year old daughter or Mark & Karen Myers), Jill Wise and Zach Rudy.  Jill and Zach are college students and friends of Cindy.  Jill & Zach are getting married later this year and they are planning a honeymoon to the Florida Keys .  We met Saturday at Bainbridge for our first two dives.  Our first dive was in the shallow beach area to see the two boats, the pipe, grass along the north wall with all its fish and then out the road with over 40 feet of visibility.  We then went over the wall and cruised back to our exit point.  We were greeted by a large bass at the exit.  I understand he was trying to eat my PADI Instructor slates.  Now that’s a Largemouth Bass!  Everyone enjoyed the sensation they got hovering over the edge of the road and seeing only water as far as they could see, about 40 feet.  The water temps were in the mid to upper 50’s.  The second dive proved to be a little tougher for Emily and Savannah as the water temps on the platform on the deeper side of access A were down in the lower 50’s.  Both managed to finish there skills without problems.  Then it was out of the wetsuits and into dry clothing and wrapped for warmth.

Despite the cold everyone showed up on Sunday at Dutch Springs.  In the interest of warmth I took Jill & Zach out to the platform on the student side and did their skills.  After the skills were done I sent them to the helicopter with Jeff Raykos and John Thibodou x.  Mark brought Savannah and Emily out to me for their skills.  After the skills were completed Mark took Savannah to the helicopter and I took Emily back to shore as she was starting to get cold.  After a two hour surface interval that included hotdogs courtesy of Jeff & Kristi we headed back to the water.  This time we went to the fire engine to do our skills.  First up were Jill and Zach.  After the skills John Thibodou x and Jeff Raykos took Jill & Zach on their tout.  Then Savannah and Emil joined Terry Grogan and I on the fire engine for skills.  After the skills were finished Savannah and Mark went on a tour back to the exit.  After Emily finished her skills she was joined by her mom, Kerri Buckwalter.  Emily, Kerri, Terry and I proceeded back to the exit.  Along the way we saw a trout and a school of sunfish and crappies.  One was very curious and swam up to within 1 foot of my mask to have a staring contest.  Since fish don’t have eyelids, I lost!

With the visibility at Dutch about 70 feet you would think this would be a good day for photography.  But one of the Raykos’s, I won’t mention any names, flooded their camera and Mark flooded his flash.  Terry had some really good photos and they are attached.

After the diving was over, 12 of us went to Applebee’s for dinner to celebrate the student’s certification and Mike Grogan did his 100^th dive.   His wife did her 100^th dive on Saturday.  So they both have 100 dives to celebrate their 1^st year of diving.  Both Mike and Terry have the Master Scuba Diving Certs.  Terry is finishing up her divemaster training and Mike has just decided to start training for Divemaster along with Emily’s parents, Dour and Kerri Buckwalter.  We decide to call this the “mature” divemaster class.

Now I’m off to my Advanced Class this weekend.  Look for that dive report next week.  Or better yet come out and dive with us and you can be in the report!

And once again - Bob Hanna's Version...