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From Rick Huck . . .
Wednesday was such a beautiful day. Knowing that "Isabel" would be creating less than ideal conditions over the next few days I decided to trek the 3 miles to our backyard diving hole, Wabank. As I drove in the first person I spotted was Don Bradley. After talking with Don I noticed Jay Bell and then finally George Heck. I thought for a moment that it was a different night and that I had driven much further than I actually did. But no, it was the "Thursday Night Irregulars" making a rare pilgimage to the land of 'great vis'. I haven't seen these guys in some time. What a blast! We geared up and jumped in with a dive plan of heading to the far side. Dropping down past the U-69 and the dive-through we leveled off at 95'. I navigated the team around the edge of the deep hole compensating for the curve. Hoping to come up the wall just beyond the Loafer I realized that my slight course correction landed us on the newest of the sunken boats. Maybe I over compensated just a bit, but we were beyond the sailboat! This was the first time that we had seen this boat since its sinking. We then headed to the Spur of the Moment and finally to the Loafer. Vis was great. It was just so nice to turn around and see the "Irregulars" clearly beyond the usual 3' point!! Looking up at the wall you could see the trees looming down from the 40' level. It was an awesome view. We then headed across the open water and back to the dock. After much merriment I went home and I prepared for the storm by taking down my bird feeder. Didn't want any projectiles flying through my windows when the big winds hit!!
From Bryan Palmer . . .
Well it has been a while since I wrote one of this things but I figured it
was time to start up again!!
Well I found my self waking up at 7 am Saturday to meet the other misfits in my divemaster class(Chris, Scott, and Nate) to work on the Smokey's float for the Ephrata parade on Wednesday, thanks to the help of any and all other family members and friends that helped, I had my doubts about the outcome when I was looking at the raw materials in front of us but it all turned out really well!!!! come out and see us on Wednesday evening during the Ephrata Parade!!!!
Sunday I found myself making the long drive up to Dutch springs to meet open water diver Ron Lobb, and check out all the gear as it was DIVE Rite's DEMO days Saturday and Sunday!!!!, I have been looking at drysuits over the last few months and trying to decide, so I tried on of the Dive Rite suits during a 20 minutes dive along with a Stainless Steel Backplate and wing. all I can say is AWESOME!!!, I was so impressed with the fit of there Stock drysuit that Ron had to remind me to get my fins before I got in the water! the dive went FLAWLESS and DIVE RITE rep Pete even joined on our dive. well I said he had a happy customer and would be getting an order from me, (IE I called Cindy 5 minutes after opening Monday to place my order!!) This is a GREAT suit at a very reasonable price with some extras that you would pay extra on for other suits. I strongly URGE you look at these suits if you are in the market for a drysuit, and anyone that wants to see one or ask me questions on it I am more then happy as soon as I receive it, hopefully with in the week!!! as for Ron he was able to dive with his Dive Rite computer that he is waiting for to come in. our 2nd dive was out to the Main attraction the helicopter and then to off the rear rotor to some of the training area and around the quarry wall and back to our point of entry! I think Ron was a little surprised that I got us back to the entry point but it was a great dive we both exclaimed even some large trout and ALBINO species fish too which I was very excited to see. Well it is off to Bainbridge or Wabank sat morning IF my drysuit is in and then down to Delaware later in the afternoon for our dive on Sunday :) I am so stoked at this part, can't we EXTEND the dive season!!!! :)
From Don Bradley . . .
I'll be first with a dive report for this week. Last evening at Wabank it looked a bit like the Thursday Night Irregulars got confused and went to the wrong quarry. George Heck, Jay Bell, Rick Huck and I decided to buddy up for a nice "slow dive." Huck took the lead with the plan to go from the swim through over to the Loafer II. Huck must have had a scooter hidden somewhere because he took off like a cat shot in the butt. We cruised on forever at just over 100 feet for hours. My NDL kept dropping like a rock. At 2 mins I had to gain some altitude soon so I angled up to 60 feet still keeping the group in plain sight. My computer quickly thanked me by giving me some extra time. The vis was pretty darn good and my computers showed 37 degrees and 44 degrees so I'm not sure which one to believe. Huck must have been kicking a little harder with his right leg because our course curved a bit and we ran right into the Turtle Boat which was Huck's original plan. (yeah right). We goofed around there and then went to the Last Chance, Spur of the Moment and the Loafer II and came up to around 30 feet for a navigational run back to the bouyance course. We spent a bit of time there and at the platform. Total run time was 45 mins with a 110 foot max depth. The fish were plentiful at the deco bar and under the dock. Our after dive discussion centered on the NDL three of us were concerned about since we were doing an air dive. Our fearless dive leader was on Nitrox 36 with doubles. Now where did he hide that darn scooter? I was the only one diving wet in our group so I appreciated the fast pace a bit more than the other guys. I sure didn't get cold. Maybe it was the great Henderson Gold Core package that I was using? We finished the evening with a great feast and a bunch of lie telling in the dark and headed home. A great evening with even greater dive buddies!
From Jess Zellers . . .
Thursday- I'd like to clarify a statement that Mark made last week about the 'waffeling' constitutions of Thursday night divers in the face of Isabell. Perhaps those people at Wabank were 'waffeling', but everyone showed up for Thursday at Myerstown without even thinking twice.... it's Thursday, we go diving!!
The committee has decided it was time to migrate back to the lobster shack for winter. We picked a good week to do so, the wind was going pretty good and there was some rain.... you'd think there was a hurricane out there! I have seen chop at myerstown before, but I have never seen 2ft chop at myerstown. Step off the dock and you're bobbing around just like the ocean! Ah, the ocean... well that's the closest I'm gonna get this year. Tom, Gerhert and me went off to all the familiar places. Someone's been having some fun at the north end of the quarry. Not all the lines are in the right place, and some things aren't tied off to lines anymore. If we spent the dive wondering what was now connected to what and running out lines then you're gonna need a little more gear than a computer and modem to find out!! Get gear, get out, get wet, come see the crazy people! We may be mentally unbalanced, but was have food, a big wood stove and fun!
Sunday- Tom showed up at Bainbridge so I could kick his head for a good 30mins. Well that's not exactly why he showed up, that's just what ended up happening. The previous weekend he had an unsuccessful attempt to find the step van, this weekend he went diving with someone who had been there before. We headed out to the deep platform to start the dive since we both had small tanks (steel 95 & a 100). Yea, I'm calling a 95 a small tank.... it's been a month since my last dive with Kulp, I need a good long dive! After arriving at the bottom we ah... experienced some miscommunication. I went right toward the step van, and Tom went boating. He stayed around the deep boat for a bit expecting me to be coming shortly. I turned around to check on Tom since he wasn't underfoot as usual. Neither of us saw the other. So we both back tracked. Swim to the light!! By that time we wasted too much time and air to run out, so we headed back. Shortly after we hooked up Tom resumed his role as my personal hacky sack. This is especially annoying when the viz is as good it is. Although I'm fairly certain it's Tom I'm kicking .... which I don't mind, he can move. If it's not Tom then I'm silting up the place... and that would bother me!! And with viz as good as it was we certainly have room to create some space. When we got back to the surface I asked him "Don't that bother you when I'm kicking you?". I got a soft affirmative answer, something about at least knowing where I am. "Cause it bugs the hell out of me when I'm kick something all the time". Then we exited to the usual surface banter.
From John Gross . . .
If you weren't diving this weekend you missed one of the best weekends this year. The weather was great and the diving even better. The fresh water jellyfish are out and this is going to be a good year. They are all over the place. The hang out above the thermocline, 0 to 25 feet. On Saturday Pete Bohling, Mary Nicholson, Christopher Thompson, Ron Lobb (new diver) and myself arrived at Bainbridge to find they didn't have electricity. They were open for business but Access B was closed due to many trees down in the area. Chris was doing his final dive of his dry suit specialty. After doing the skills on the platform we were off on our dive. We went down the tower with the dolphins and around the front of the Pennsy (cement mixer) and we followed the ridge around to the dozer at 60 feet. We then ascended and came back the road. On the way back we spotted the jellyfish. Since Bainbridge didn't have electricity they couldn't fill tanks and Chris needed a fill so he left after his first dive. Ron also had to leave due to family obligations. That left Pete, Mary and myself to do the second dive. We went to the Pennsy and followed the ridge at the front bumper around to the right and came up the south wall. We followed the wall back to our exit point. Along the way we say many jellyfish. Sizes ran from pencil eraser size to the size of a quarter.
Sunday we were back at Bainbridge access A for a Navigation Specialty. Mary Nicholson, James Zimmerman, Jeff Raykos and Kristi Raykos were my students for this class and Pete Bohling was my DM. Must of the morning was spent doing the classroom portion and walking nav patterns in the parking lot. Around noon we entered the water for our first dive. Everyone did a square pattern and a triangle pattern. Everyone dove to the dolphins and sent up a marker buoy for an ascent line and ascended. They took compass headings on two fixed points and they wrote the headings on their dive slates. After removing the marker buoy everyone did a relay starting on the first platform. Pete gave everyone the compass headings to the second, third, fourth and fifth platforms and back to platform one. From platform one they were given the compass heading back to our exit point. The waters were a little crowded with classes and the divers that were raising money for breast cancer research. Due to all the diver traffic Pete and I missed Jeff and Kristi exiting the water. We waited for them at the exit point but they never came. I asked Pete to check on the surface on the top of access A. Sure enough not only were they there but they followed my directions exactly and had already started grilling our chicken for lunch. After eating lunch and recording our dives we headed back in for dive # 2. Each person had plotted a dive using their Nav Finder with at least 5 turns. They had all walked the pattern in the parking lot to make sure they returned to their starting point. When we entered everyone surface swam to the compass coordinates they had written down from the previous dive. They descended and came down on top of the dolphins. Why to go! Then they started from a platform and did their dive pattern (with at least five turns) and they all finished back at the starting platform. Great job! Both dive teams decided to dive for fun before exiting. Pete and I decided to do a deep dive to test his new dive gloves to see if they kept his hands warm. We descended down the dolphin tower, around the Pennsy, to the dozer, to the deep boat and one lap around the boat and back to the dozer. From there is was back to the Pennsy to the boat with the yellow barrel then the unmarked boat next to it and back to the Pennsy. Around the rear of the Pennsy we ran into Cindy, Josh and Beth. From there we headed northeast to the other unmarked boat and then back the road to our exit. Mary and James came up right behind us and Jeff and Kristi came up a few minutes later. I want to thank Pete, Mary, Jeff, Kristi, James, Chris, and Ron for a great weekend of diving. Also Kristi did a great job of grilling the chicken. Jess and Tom Pritchard made an appearance and dove at access A on Sunday. I'll being diving at Bainbridge "A" next weekend with an Advanced Open Water Class. Come on out and dive and don't forget to stop by and say hello.
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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