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From Tom Pritchard . . .
With attendance down at Willow last night, it was clearly a quality vs quantity issue. Our local lovebirds, Terry Martzell and Linda Sackrison, were the first in and first out. Jay Bell, after basting in his own drysuit juices for about 20 minutes waiting for Gerhard and me to get going, did a 30 minute dive with Paul Burnhardt. We've got to help Paul remember that BCS stands for BrainRidge because some people have been messing him up with the name - and he's all confused. Gerhard and I were going to make an expedition from the lobster shack to the caboose, but got sidetracked by Terry on the platform who insisted that we (i.e., Gerhard) practice using his wreck reel. After knitting a cozy sweater around the school bus with his line, Terry left us in peace. Seriously, Terry said he practices using his wreck reel twice a month in the quarry so that he'll be sharp when it counts during an ocean dive. Good idea! Thanks for the tune-up Terry. Our tanks were now less than full, so we bagged the caboose idea and headed for the Quest via the Minnow. With the quarry grass growing faster than my lawn, Gerhard and I got off the line at the Minnow and headed to the fire truck along the bottom where we blundered into a couple of seldom visited boats. In addition to a few stray fish, I saw these 1 cm long critters crawling over a rock. Cool! White, almost translucent creepers with a lot of legs. They looked a lot like saber-toothed crotch crawlers, but not quite as big. 70 minutes in 55 degree water with twenty plus (that's 20+) ft viz. The viz was so good Gerhard and I found Dave Balley in the quarry. We dined on a spectacular 3 foot sub, complements of Gerhard, while a truly impressive thunderstorm wreaked havoc outside (and inside my truck whose windows were open). If Roger Heins were diving instead of conducting police business at the donut shop, I'm sure he would have closed my windows (again). And a good time was had by all.
From Bob Hanna . . .
For the 11th year in a row, I went diving in N Car, all of it through the Olympus Dive Center located in Morehead City. From June 9-14 we did 6 straight days of diving totaling 14 dives as follows.
June 9-11 Live-a-board anchored over the City of Houston. On October 23, 1878 this freighter sunk in a storm off Cape Fear, N Car. (Many Smokey Divers access this wreck from Southport) Our trip was a 3 day live aboard --the Olympus--owned and operated by the Olympus Dive Shop located about 90 miles away in Morehead. A first time diver, Kelly, came back with 6 porcelain door knobs that match and can be cleaned up and used, along with an intact dinner plate. I came back with a wooden toy top destined to spend the next six months in P.E.G. (7dives there and one more on a different wreck on the way back.)
June 12 Weather was not good. We did one low viz dive on my favorite Shark Dive, the Caribsea, torpedoed and sunk near the Cape Lookout Shoals. The second dive was done on the Ashakabad also torpedoed and sunk near the Caribsea. Also a low viz dive do to the weather.
June 13 Two dives on the Caribsea now with 50 foot minimal viz. Lots of Sharks including several 10 footers. (They have grown larger since last year) Good day.
June 14 Dove U352 and the Shurz. The former is a largely intact German Sub sunk off our coast in 1942, one of 2-3 subs sunk between Jan of 42 and August of 42 vs 600 ships sunk. Most people know very little about the battle off our coast in the early part of our direct involvement in WW II.
The Shurz was sunk by accident in 1917. This Spring George Purefoy the owner of the Olympus dive operation recovered the ship's bell which sits in the Dive Shop next to the ship's bell recovered several years earlier from the Home by his son. Always a fun dive. Brought back some Ammo from the ship's Amo locker.
If there is interest, I would be willing to attempt to put together a trip composed of Smokey Divers for next year. Most of these dives can be handled by relatively in experienced divers as well as enjoyed by veterans. None of the dives exceeded 115'. Only 2-3 even broke the 100' depth. Nitrox is recommended to extend the No Deco limits. (Don't tell Dr. DECO)
I am a big believer in lots of quarry dives because it makes these dives seem so easy. I am a big believer in doing some low viz dives at places like Willow Spring as well as higher viz dives at the other quarries. Olympus prefers divers with at least 20 dives but that is not manditory.
There were lots of dive masters and instructors on the live aboard. My partner, Ed, has only open water, but about 2,000 dives. I have lots of certifications including Dive Master plus about 100 dives just with Olympus.
From John Gross . . .
This weekend I had the pleasure of doing Open Water training dives for Jane Lockard, Paul Gera, and Scott Stephan and Jim Brown was my divemaster. BTW, Jim thanks for all the help! We got started late Saturday afternoon at the beach area of access A. After checking for proper weighting we descended onto the platform and allowed everyone to get comfortable. From their we headed to the boat. Vis was pretty bad and we lost two of our divers. They were with Jim and after surfacing and locating there bubbles Jane and I descended to link up with the rest of our divers. We traveled a short distance out the road and came back to the sunny beds. We saw a catfish that was very curious. He swam up to me about 1 foot away and just watched me. This is unusual for a catfish. They usually leave the area when a diver arrives. After doing one dive Saturday everyone decided to skip dive two and do three dives on Sunday. With the poor vis, heavy cloud cover, and rain I understood why they wanted to skip another dive Sat. They were all hoping for better conditions on Sunday. Because of all the fun we were having and the stories after the dive Wendy, Scott Stephan's wife, decided to take Open Water Diver training in August. That's really great Wendy. I look forward to seeing you in my August class. What fun you will have diving with your husband. He is really pumped up about diving.
Sunday we were all at Bainbridge between 8AM-8:30AM. After our skills we took a tour on the boat with the yellow float. Our divers found out what cold water feels like. Jane, Paul and myself were waiting at the boat for Scott and Jim to come down the line. Jim had some ear problems and our bubbles were a little disorienting for him. BTW the time he arrived Paul was giving me the cold sign. I thought it was odd that he got could before Jane. After surfacing Paul said be was only passing on the cold signal Jane gave him. But I never saw Jane give the cold signal to him. Jane denied giving the cold signal so I guess we'll never know the truth.
For our second dive we descended down the line to the cement mixer. This time Jim and Scott went first so Jane and Paul could experience the disorientation from the bubbles from Jim and Scott. I had to show Jane and Paul that their was no skeleton behind the steering wheel. Then we checked out the bucket and headed back to shore after a 3 minute safety stop. Jim and Scott did their own thing. They claim to have seen the mother of all catfish!
Of course all weekend we were telling the new divers about our fresh water dolphins. We told them they are pretty easy to find. So after the skill for dive 4 we headed out to find the dolphins. They could hardly believe their eyes when we found the dolphin family. If you haven't seen them you need to check them out! We then did a shallow dive through Sherwood Forest to see all the fish hanging around the tree limbs.
If you get a chance to meet Jane, Paul or Scott say hello and congratulate them on becoming the latest members of the Smokey's Divers Den family of Certified Divers! To help you recognize them I have attached photos of each of them.
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| Jane Lockard | Paul Gera | Scott Stephan |
From Jim Brown . . .
Saturday morning the four musketeers trudged into BSC, not far to the water these days from dry land, to make the highly coveted Barn Run. Its a long swim to the east end of Access A, and now that the water is up, the marker buoy is UW so we had to nav underwater! e- gads! Darth Vern, JB, O-Legal-One Mike Nast and the doctor of deco Kent Hirsch set off on the journey. I was armed with no more than a lil' 120 cube with 30% gas while the boyz sported manly doubles. Not sure if Kent was loaded with devil gas or not.
We entered at the end of the road, dropped over the wall, passed the deep cruiser to the step van and tanker. Have I mentioned yet that the vis was awesome? Below 60' God's world opened up. The water clarity was pristine albeit a little dark due to the algae sludge, training silt and thermoclines down to 45'. Just past the tanker Vern gave me a tug to say Kent and Mike were not trailing as expected. A simple UW shoulder shrug from me prompted him to follow the plan! After all, I was managing an itty bitty gas supply on a long swim. I didn't have time to wait for the cavers.
We came upon the two landmark debris piles just north of the Barn, the closed cylinder and a whopping clear landscape. We found a new lawnmower to the east of the Barn, about halfway to the wall. Kent tried to start the Briggs & Stratton and mucked up the works but hey, he tried. A quick pass through the Barn sent us to the SW to the south wall where Kent marveled at the chain and ladder (new UW board game), and began whining because we didn't wait for him. Ha, even his dive buddy wasn't waiting - he was following the Lewis & Clark expedition leader! We passed over the boulder to the Blast Shack and witnessed a soft landing by BSC's new resident turtle. He sits right on top of the Blast Shack. Don't touch him though, his resting place is fragile and he bites, hard! Off to the north over the pond, past the upline and deep boat back to the dozer to begin the end. We could see both 60' platforms and the deep boat on our way through - awesome vis! Darth and I carried on without the cavers to our stop at 15-20' just below the road.
I spent my 10 minutes of deco and three minute hang while Vern still had 15 minutes to go. Ha, so much for air in the doubles! Well, being the nice guy that I am, I stayed with him and swam back and forth along the road at 20' until he was clear. We spotted some nice bass and some juniors just waiting to grow up. An awesome dive with a total 1:20 run time to 97'. I love my new steel 120!
SAT/SUN - BSC
After the marathon swim I DMed for John Gross and three OW students. Our first training dive was in the lagoon on the platform for skills followed by a short tour. John, what did you say? What's the plan? I had a terrible time following John's directions. I think he kept changing the plan, UW, so I couldn't hear him! Sheesh! He was very patient with me. He knows how I can get, and therapy isn't working.
Day 2 was decidedly better as we used platforms in the Bowl. They liked the better vis and especially enjoyed the thermoclines! The dolphins were sighted, Scott and I DID see the mother of all catfish at the dolphin tower, peered into the tunnel and just enjoyed the UW tranquility (right Scott?). Everyone did a super job and completed OW cert late Sunday. Congratulations to all. Scott will be joining us at Wabank one of these Thursday nights and probably at BSC again. His wife Wendy is getting OW cert in August with John. Many thanks to Palmer Lockhard for his steadfast surface support, even in the rain. He's a certified diver and looking forward to his new dive buddy Jane getting in the water with him, someplace tropical, and soon.
From Jess Zellers . . .
The Annals of Wabank: This week three Myerstown irregulars dared to show up at Wabank for thrusday diving! Bill Siwiec, Don Bradley, and I came to see how the other half lives. Wabank has a lot to offer- Viz, depth, every certified diver in the state.... too many people to mention because I'd forget someone. Jim Brown was there, he did not have a camera and did not sit on my lap. Kent Hirsch and Mike Nast came for a later dive, well the techincal term for what they did is a traverse. They claim to have been looking at fish in warmer water. To come back to the same dock I think our intrepid cave divers need to tie a line off to it! Its been too long since Don "my myerstown buddy" Bradley and I were diving, but a well worded email goes a long way in correcting that. We did the right loop, minus the 30ft boat (stayed on the wall) out to the Loafer and came back the same way. One big difference between Wabank and Myertown is the bottom. While Myerstown has a very intersting bottom the lower viz demands more dives to see it all.... and even longer to learn it. Wabank you can see alot at one time, but it's fairly plain. So Don and I had a lot of travel time between stuff, that's a good time to mess around with gear! The viz is incredible and when I think about what the guys had at Myerstown the viz becomes even more amazing. But with no food, everyone spread out far and wide, no nudity, genuine respect and amazing viz the harsh realities hit you... this just isn't right! Next week I'll be back where I belong at home in Myerstown. Now everyone come up and visit us, the viz ain't that great, but we have FOOD! Everyone's welcome to come build character.
Sunday, Greg Kulp and I hit Wabank for one farewell quarry dive before his dive trip to Canada. Now, it's taken me awhile to get around to diving Wabank, but now that I have there's an expection.... VIZ. I expect to get spoiled. Its been heavily raining. We were not spoiled. Until we got to Peaches and the back wall viz was crappy, keep in mind if this was myerstown I'd be talking about descent viz! In diving, viz like dry is a relative term. We did a solid hour completeing our only dive objective... on gasing and off gasing. After some topside time we headed back to the water for some reverse wreck looting. Here's the basic idea... start with a goodie bag full of dishes bottles ect, dive around wrecks, empty said goodie bag. No crowbar or hammer involved!! All this was part of the plan, what wasn't was my hood flooding as soon as I hit water... which couldn't be fix. So at 4 mins I have my shortest dive ever. Kulp found some good places to put the artifacts, if anyone finds the Coke bottle let me know there's a booby prize!
With Kulp taking off to dive Canada, I'll be in need of someone to do weekend diving with. Now usually I send out a 'special invitation' to some people.... ok it's a semi-nice harrassing email to people I think don't dive enough. If you've never gotten one, good work!! My problem this time, everyone (minus two) who got one last time I've seen diving over the past 2-3 weeks..... except! Jim Diesley and Mark Myers, long standing number 1 and number 2 on my hit ..err dive list. Guys, pick a date pick a quarry!! I'll even wash my drysuit underwear! That's actually a big offer since I haven't since ..ah, Aug/Sept? maybe July I can't remember.
From Darth Vern . . .
I had the fortune of catching a movie with some really good u/w recovery footage in it. It was called Airport 77, it starred Jack Lemmon [in doubles], Olivia De Havilland [no doubles, sorta], Christopher Lee and Jimmy Stewart. The premise is Flight 23 [Boing 747] is hijacked and crashes in the Bermuda Triangle and everyone is sealed inside. Navy divers recover the plane with huge lift bags and raise it to the surface to rescue all the big stars. Worth watching!!!
The good thing about diving with the good writers is - I don't have to write any reports - a BUG PLUS in my book!!!!
Last Thursday found us diving at Wabank, along with a ton of divers. Cast of thousands, too many to name. Much fun and plenty of "ribbing" - COME ON OUT
Also check out the new joke on the Lighter Side - very funny!!!
Get Out and Dive and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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