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From Mark Myers . . .
Well – if you hang around long enough, you will see everything. I’m writing the dive report myself this week (Mark) and I was actually IN THE WATER!! Ok, it’s only been about a month and a half, but the way people talk around here, you’d think it’s been a year.
Sunday was a new war of the White vs Red Roses. The day dawned clear and chilly. Steam rose slowly off the water in wisps. Deer roamed, and the hawks soared. And then our group of degenerates showed up and ruined it all.
We responded to a challenge by York Divers to decorate the best underwater Christmas Tree. Our team was headed up by store manager Cindy “I’ll kill you if you don’t show up” Willman-Kinsey, and webmaster Vern “Darth” Heagy. York’s team was headed up by Jim “I go both ways” Brown. York Divers owner Jim Grimm and myself participated by shooting video footage so that those too wimpy to get in the water can see the trees – and also by signing the checks to pay for all that food everyone ate. Steve, Ed and Kelly from Bainbridge were on hand to referee and make sure that it didn’t degenerate into a brawl. Prize for coming the farthest goes to Terry and Linda Martzel and the Berks County contingent to the Thursday Night Irregulars. Of course some of them didn’t get the memo and showed up at Willow Springs instead of Bainbridge.
Too many divers showed up to list everyone – but nearly all the Smokey’s instructors were present, along with members of our Venturing crew – who very bravely put in 30 minute bottom times WET!! Susie Freedman was back in cold water for the first time in years trying out her new drysuit, as were drysuit students Nate and Bill Hockley.
In case you missed it – and you’d have to have been under a rock – the idea was to sink a tree, then decorate it. Divers can check them out, and we will take votes at $1 each until Christmas. The money raised goes to Ovarian Cancer research – and the winner gets bragging rights until next year!
Air temps started in the high 30’s and then dropped from there. Water temps were in the 40’s – actually not bad. Visibility was between 25 and 35 ft depending on how deep you got (really bad) or how close you were to the frenzied activity on the decorating platforms (also really bad). Best visibility was a moderate depths. While the divers from York took the high road with classy, store bought decorations, we went for “tackier is better” with ornaments made of old CD’s, star fish, and other miscellaneous pieces of scuba junk. Kathy Stevens did add a small bit of class with three carefully chosen, store purchased pieces of art. Obviously, she didn’t get the memo.
From Darth Vern . . .
Since I was in charge of the logistics and supplies, I need to announce the sponsorship that we got from local business's. Lancaster Mortgage Services Company donated our artistic tree. Sign Medix donated our "snazzy" sign that marked our tree. White Oak Printing donated the vote slips everyone is using to vote for us to win!!!
I also would like to explain why our tree is so "thin!" Once we were challenged to the friendly competition from York Divers, I sent my brain into action on how to make a better tree presentation, so we would win of course [this is of course a scary proposition]! I was thinking of a better place for our tree than a platform, so I came up with the roof of the cab of the 'dozer. The only problem is the 'dozer sits on an angle. So since I have been sick the last 2 weeks Cindy volunteered to measure the angle for me.
Well she presented me with the measurement of 3 inches. I said "WHAT" and left it at that. I took our tree to my best friends woodshop and he assisted me in building a great angled tree stand ready for mounting on the roof of the cab of the 'dozer. Our plan was to sink it last Thursday but the blizzard foiled that plan. I took the tree back home and out of my SUV.
I showed up at 8 am at BSC on Sunday morning with John Gross, Ralph, Peter and Cindy to sink the tree early so it was ready for decorating at 9 am when our divers got there, since we know York Divers don't show up till the afternoon when its warm. Well taking the tree out of my SUV it broke of the stand. Needless to say I swore for about 15 minutes because it was unrepairable there.
So it was onto Plan B. After frantically searching for an idea, I found a cinder block down by the water. The tree actually fit in one of the holes - THANK YOU LORD!. John volunteered to float the tree out and I got a liftbag to get the cinder block and the sign out there. After some wiggling around and with Huck's help with the rope we were successful and our tree was secure and ready for decorations.
The whole tree story was covered by WPMT Ch 43. A camera crew was out mid-morning to cover York Divers taking down their tree, since ours was already down. After I emerged from putting my ornaments on our tree I was interviewed in the water by Heather. You can see the video below. I was making light of York Divers coming later in the afternoon since most of their divers are wet divers, but somehow it made the TV spot. Sorry York!
You can see the news report from Ch 43's website here.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH to all the divers and volunteers who helped make this day a great success and hopefully raise a bunch of money for Ovarian Cancer research. and a special thank you to Linda Martzel for the Diver Down Cake - I think I ate 1/2 of it.
IF anyone would like to make a donation to the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance please make the checks payable to OCNA and please either bring them into the shop or mail them in.
The Krazy Klub attempted to brave the Thursday blizzard but it proved unsuccessful. Chris Mayo and The Rock made it to BSC. I was coming down Rt 23 when I got a call from Uptown Jim Brown saying Cindy called it off. Since Cindy had The Rock's gear, he and Mayo could not dive, an opportunity missed. Call the shop for this weeks morning event if you are interested, it is still "in the works."
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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