From Jess Zellers . . .
Thursday: Myerstown - Thursday was a small night yet again, Bill, Speedy, Huck, Tom and I were the only ones in the water. Although Terry did stop by to let us know he was on his way to North Carolina. And I meet up with Eli, a friend of mine from Rochester, who promptly upon arriving had Terry declare the array of bungies on his trunk a 'car thong'. Everyone was headed to the Quest, so Tom and I gave the others a head start. You'd think someone could have seen it coming, but nope. When we arrived at the Quest I was jumped from behind. I turned, frankly expecting to see Speedy, and instead found and embarrassed the offending Rick Huck. When Tom and me went into the cloud of silt... err the Quest.... eerr no they're one in the same. The clip was gone, but hey searching by feel's fun. We proceeded back along the tracks with the mixer and jumped over to the out house. Where we once again ran into Huck. I flipped my light off (stealth mode) and started the chase. Just when I was inches away from returning his favor from out on the Quest, he turns the corner of the outhouse. When I did he was a few feet above me, had turned around and was looking back at me. You can't whistle and twilttle your thumbs underwater, so I hung there and twilttled my thumbs trying to look as innocent as possible. In the chase he must have gotten a little soiled. Huck was hanging there taking one finger and brushing something off the top of another finger on his other hand, while at the same time shaking something off his head.

Sunday: Wabank - All day at the quarry and almost three hours of bottom time, the dive report would simply be too long! Here's a highlights package:

• Cindy was out diving! and it's not thursday or a weekday mornging.
  
  
• Nate Brommer and The Rock showed up for a quick dive, before both went off for more 'responsible' pursuits
  
  
• Kulp and I installed a TV and cable on the sailboat
  
  
• Dive hint : Doing a mid-water, no reference, compass swim while hauling an object on a lift bag is much easier (but not as fun) if you avoid it all together!
  
  
• With the downpour Sat, you had to get down kinda far to find 'Wabank' viz
  
  
• Everyone watch out for Huck!! He's a sneaky one. Thursday jumps me on the Quest, then today he shows up AND dives AND gets out and dry AND loaded his gear in the van all while Kulp and me are on our first dive.
  
  
• For our second we took care of the electric and cable wiring needs of the TV. Then I showed Kulp some of my handwork with line and ended up laughing so hard my hood completely flooded.
  
  
• Frank with several of his friends sunk, raised, moved, then ended up resinking a possibly new attraction to Wabank. At this point in time, it's still diveable.
  

Thursday's at Myerstown & Wabank. Three quarries to choose from for weekend diving. And Cindy's ladies dive at Bainbridge this coming Sunday. THERE IS NO EXCUSE NOT TO BE DIVING!


From Tom Pritchard . . .
Last night the Thursday Night Irregulars were joined by the one and only Rick "Wet Dick" Huck, who was diving wet while his drysuit was up on blocks. Jess Zellers and I headed to the Quest to look for the big brass clip that she found in the hold last week. With Wild Bill Siwiec, Paul "Speedy" Bernhart, and "The Wet Dick (TWD)" inside the Quest, it was SRO when Jess and I arrived. No brass clip this week but we did manage to dislodge every piece of silt inside the Quest. While Jess and I headed back to the cement dock via the mixer, Huck went off on his own - until he did an inverted hang about 2 inches in front of my mask. Ahhhhh! The Wet Dick is even uglier upside down. Later TWD said he was going to do the same thing to Jess after he "did me" but he couldn't catch her. I thought that was a particularly poor choice of words, but hey, he'll be your problem at Wabank next week. Water was 57 degrees with viz about 10-15 ft. Not bad for August.


From Bob Hannah . . .
Bob Hanna, Ralph Spayd and other Smokey Dive Masters certainly express a word of encouragement to all those thinking about taking John's Rescue Refresher and Navigation specialty course on September 6, then come dive with us as we explore, and I mean explore some interesting parts of Dutch Springs.

On August 17th Ralph and I tried out a newly purchased Gazebo from Dick's Sporting Goods. It fits over top of any standard picnic table or as in our case can be set up on the ground providing protection from the Sun and Rain.

Our first dive conducted completely underwater took us from the Peninsula to the North South Ridge near the helicopter. Our starting point was the large unmarked Cabin Cruiser at a depth of 50-60 feet. We followed the Ridge N to the N wall discovering (for us) another boat. We followed the N Wall West, then proceeded S around the Peninsula to our starting point. We surfaced only to exit. How did we do this. John's class will provide the basics. We can help build on those important basics.

Our Second Dive was more adventuresome. Starting from the same location we proceeded by compass by compass to the S Wall. It took about 4 minutes to swim to the crane. From there we went S to the wall crossing over some very interesting rock formations. This part of the Quarry gets fairly deep. We did not go below 90 feet but the Quarry definitely did. We avoided getting into a decompression mode, and got back to the N side with some air to spare which we used as a wall dive along the N wall.

We have decided to return to furthur explore the N side. To do this dive 100 cf air tanks or larger are recommended.

There are 50 surface acres to this Quarry. Most of it is not used by the 100s of divers who annually take classes there. We hope over time to explore most of it.

I plan to dive there Sat 8/23, Sat 9/13 and the weekend of 9/ 20. I bought a new Grill to try out. It is not as good as Bill's or John's, but I keep trying.


From Darth Vern . . .
We returned from Vancover BC this week and I have been busy, actually working for once BUT I will post our pics in a photo album as soon as I get some surface pics [HINT: Frannie] STAYED TUNED.

I had the priviledge of diving with Mark and Nick Caloyianis this past Thursday evening at Wabank. Nick was testing a housing and me and Mark were . . . well screwing around, but we had fun! See the included pics!!!!



Get Out And Dive - LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!