12/07/11

Meeting Minutes for December meeting:

  In attendance: Alex, RyanB, Bill, Nena, Kent, Sarah

  Discussions: We met at the AFK Tavern and although it was a nice place, friendly people and what seemed like good food, there was too much noise and no real room to meet. So we will continue to search for a meeting location.

   Meeting date is changing again. As the Open Water classes are routinely held the last two weekends of the month, we thought it would be a good idea to schedule the meeting closer to the class. So we will shift to the third Wednesday of the month, starting January 18^th.

  We will have the Project Aware class at that time, so we may hold this one at the shop. Adam will be instructing the class. This is a non-diving specialty but we will see about doing a cleanup in conjunction with the class. The cost will be $40 for club members. Please sign up for this so that we can get material out prior to the class. One cleanup site mentioned was on Camano Island…

  Upcoming dives: the Christmas dive is this coming Sunday at Langley. Please let me know if you are going to make it as I want to make sure we have enough food and drink.

                Discussed a boat dive in February and a weekend trip to Cresent Lake in the late summer. Ryan said he would look into it: the lake dive that is. Ryan P will get emails out about other upcoming dives. We did hear that Keystone might not be a good idea for a bit as they are dredging the ferry terminal there for the next 2 months. But Edmonds is supposedly reopened.

                Gift ideas: Club members are being offered an annual air card for $299. The catch here is that as a club member the card would be good from whenever you buy it until the end of February 2013! What a deal!! Stop by and see Aaron about it.

  If I don’t see you before, have a Merry Christmas and a wet New Year

Chad

11/21/11 The montly minutes went out the club members this past weekend. Use the link above if you did not receive your copy and I will check to make sure you are on the mailing list. Check it for dates for the upcoming dives and for the upcoming Christmas party.

October 3rd meeting. Well as I figured, this meeting came too quickly to get all the details figured oiut with for the Project Aware course. So we have put it off till next month. Look for details soon.
  Did some dive planning. Ryan will send out a list. The next shore dive is at Sund Rock on the 9th. Still looking to get a group together for the missle silo dive. If you are interested, please let Ryan know.

September 12th meeting.
  Dan Clements presented at this meeting. He discussed sharks and some of the over fishing statistics along with some very good pictures. Dan has a passion for protecting the sharks and it shows on the pictures he has taken. It was amazing to see and hear about his trip to Tiger Beach.
  Beside the shark presentation, Dan showed us a sneak peak at his new e-Magazine. It will be out any time now and as soon as i get the link, i will post it for all of us to see. It looks very good!
  Ryan discussed some up coming dives including one this weekend to Keystone and one on Oct 1st at Cove 2. The one on Oct 1st is also the same day that Dan will be hosting a photo walk there. So if you are interested in diving and or taking pictures, that is the weekend to do it! See Ryans email for more detatils
  We are planning on having our regular meeting in Oct, which is not too far away. The hope at that meeting is to have a Project Aware seminar and specialty course. The current thinking is that it will be $25 for club memebers which gets you the cert for the course and maybe even some food.... we will see about the food. Pleas try to let me know if you are planning on making it for this meeting so we can arrange instructors. Thanks

 
July 11th Club meeting
  At this meeting we dicussed the use and care of Dive computers and how they can help with the dive, with planning the next dive, and with tracking your dives for you. Aaron talked about the different types of computers and benefits of each along with some tips to keep them working.
  We had a couple new members turn out, nice to see you guys and welcome. Discussed upcoming meetings. The August meeting is being canceled due to the busy summer schedules so the next meeting will be September 12th. Dan Clements has volunteered to give a talk on Sharks, so I have asked if he can make it to this meeting. Hopefully he can as he always has some great photos. 
  Talked about getting the REEF folks out to talk about fish IDing. Carl is looking into a contact to give us a talk on tides and currents, and we are still looking at doing a Project Aware course in the late summer.
  Club dives: July 30th at Alki (I think.. not sure about this one, I recall we canceled one and this might have been it.)
    Aug 7th at Port Townsend. Meet there at about noon. We will be doing two dives. Bring the non-divers along as there is lots to do on shore too. The plan for this one is to go looking for bottles, so bring a goodie bag!
  Aug 20th at Keystone. This is a great day for tides at Keystone, hardly any current. Should make for a pleasant day in the water.
  And finally dues are due. Many have already paid. If you have not, please stop by and drop off your dues. I will be updating the roster soon and getting out a listing of all club members, so if you don't see your name on the list, see me. Thanks, Chad

June 6th Club meeting
  Had a well attended meeting where we discussed upcoming dives, Care of dive lights and other club activities. Aaron did a great job once again explaining lights, how to care for them and what types to use in what settings. Ryan has dives scheduled for rest of the month adn a possible one this summer to a missile silo.Look for his emails on dates and times.
  Also let eveyone know that the 2nd annual CamOcean event is happening on the 18th of june at Cama State Park on Camano Island. Stop by if you have time for lots of ocean related activities.
  Brought up officers again. Our treasurer has stepped down, so if anyone is interested let me know. And we can look at elections for all positions. So if anyone is interested in any of the positions, let me know.
  And finally a reminder that dues are up next month. Thanks to those that paid on Monday, the rest of you will need to drop off your dues to keep your club membership active and to keep receiving the 10% off.
  Thanks

May 6th Gas Management class
  A great class for all of those that made it. Brian Wiederspan gave a talk on how to calculate bottom time based on having enough air left in your tank to ensure a safe return to the surface with all safety stops being met. There was a bit of math needed for this but we all seemed to catch on even on a Friday evening. Brian has promised to share the simple math way to calculate this with us at some point. So check back here to see it once i get it posted.
  If you are interested in seeing and or seeing this again, here is his website: Frog Kick Diving Look under the Knowledge tab to get to the pages on how to calculate bottom time and air consumption. And while there shot him an email thanking him for the info.
 
May 2nd Meeting:
  This was an exciting meeting as it was Aaron's Birthday!! We had a really cool cake to celebrate. So next time you see him, wish him a belated birthday.
  And Aaron was the keynote speaker. The first part of the meeting was devoted to talking about how a diver can get 'bent' even while staying within the parameters of a dive computer.
  The rest of the meeting was spent talking about regulators, how they work and how to care for them. It was very informative and he gave us some very good tips on how to keep these very important pieces of equipment working for years.
  We ended with some dive planning by Ryan. We are meeting this coming Saturday the 7th at Alki cove two. Meet at 8AM to catch better tides for the dives. Another dive was planned for May 15th to Sund Rock. More info to come on that but we will be forming carpools to help offset the cost of gas or Diesel, and to get parking at the site. This will be a two tank, possibly three tank dive. More details to come on this one.

 Next meeting is June 6th.

April 11th meeting:
 The meeting was as always held at the shop. The first order of business was a nomination of Ryan Phillips to be the Dive Coordinator. This was seconded and all present approved. Ryan is now the Dive Club's dive coordinator. He will be working on setting up dives: Sites, dates and times. Watch for email from him and feel free to email him about any dives you are interested in making.
  Branden then asked to see if there was interested in bringing in a speaker to discuss dive planning from a gas consumption standpoint. We all thought it would be a good idea and will pursue securing a date and time for this. 
  Aaron then went over the care of a SCUBA cylinder. This included how to make quick fixes to issues that we can fix at the dive site. He also discussed what service should be done on a regular basis and what to look for to know if your tank needs attending to. Once again a great learning experience.

March 7th meeting:
The meeting was held at the shop with a good number of attendees. All were treated to a very well done demonstration of how to take care of your dry suit so that it will take care of you. I know i learned more than one thing from the talk.
  Dan gave us an update of the progress of the Mukilteo T-Dock site in short order - nothing has been heard from the city planners. However we did have a good conversation of what to do next with the site. Plans were made, and modified and changed and re-modified. In the end we figured we would scoping out the site this Thursday with the intent of defining an area to be used for 'building' a reef. Stay tuned or ask Aaron how to help.


feb meeting:
  We had our monthly meeting, though not highly attended, it was a very good meeting. Aaron gave us a inservice on how to maintain our BCDs. It was very nicely done and as the BC is an often overlooked piece of equipment when it comes to service, it was good to see what we can do to keep it in good shape. Also note that it is only $25 to get your BC serviced at the shop. So if you have had your BC for over a year and have never serviced it, bring it in!
  Also planned a few dives: THis coming Sunday the 13th we are headed to Sund Rock. Let Aaron or I know if you are going so we can set up carpools.
 - There is a boat dive on the 27th of February. It is a three tank dive and should be very good. Call to reserve your spot before they are all gone.
 - Talked about going to Salt Water Creek this spring or summer, so think about it.

 Next meeting we will have a Dry Suit maintenance course by Aaron and will have MJ do a REEF lecture soon. We will also start bringing in pictures of critters we see out there and ID them so we all get to know who we are sharing the waters with.

Scuba Feeds from around the world.

Shore Dives:

9/8/11 A groiup of us went out the deep boat to see if the Octo was still there. I totally missed her, but others did manage to see her inside the boat this time. Will try again next week to see her and get pictures of the eggs.

7/7/11 Had a good group of guys here for the Thursday night dive. I did not make this one due to a sore back. Heard there were lots of crabs to be had, esp by the old oil docks!

  5/17/11 We have had some major tide swings this week so maybe this thursday's dive will have better viz. Come on down and join us!

  We did a Friday dive after the Thursday dive last week and had a great look at the Octo. She is still there and looking pretty healthy, so its anyones guess as to how much longer she has to go. If you get a chance, it is a fun dive to make.

  Sorry I have not updated this for a bit. Thursday evening dives are ongoing. Viz has been pretty bad but it is improving and will hopefully get better as the rain slows a bit. No weekend dives planned just yet.

  This is the last week of the weekly 'night' dives. As daylight saving time is this Sunday, the Thursday dives will be done before the sun has a chance to set. Oh the joy of seeing the promise of longer days and warmer weather. So now there is no excuse for anyone to come out and join in.

  The Thursday night dives are still on however the cold has kept many of the usuals away. The Viz has been OK, not great, and the water temp is now 45 degrees, a bit on the chilly side. However a few of us still get out there to visit the Wolf eels and other critters. 
 

Saturday Jan 30th class and fun dive. The last of the open water dives for the first class of the year were finished at Alki on Saturday. There were many many divers out that day, but the vix was not too bad. Both new students did great. Look for Lance and Bruce on upcoming dives.


Charles and I did a late afternoon dive at cove after the class was done. It was a great dive, went out to the I-Beams and had a friendly visit by a huge Seal Lion. He did not stick around too long, but did cruise around us a time of two.

Thursday evening dive was not as bad as I had expected. The Viz was a bit better than last Saturday, but still not back to normal for this time of year. It will hopefully continue to improve.

Saturday January 22 - We tried to do an open water class but were severaly hampered by the horrible viz! The students did get into the waer, check weighting and get fins one. As soon as we went down, everone got lost! Could not see a thing so the class was canceled. I have never had this happen before but it was definatly the right thing to do. Hopefully viz will improve for the Thursday night dive.

Sunday Jan 16th - Keystone. Ok so some of you chose not to go on this dive so you could watch the Seahawks, hoping they would win. And for a bit it looked like that was a the better choice. The wind was blowing when we got to Keystone, and the waves were good sized, but we decided to dive anyway. Keep in mind that there were two other dive clubs slated to dive this site today, and one other was well represented. However, it was our club that made the call to stick it out and brave the big waves!! But they weren't that bad, and after the first dive, the wind abated altogether, the waves subsided and the sun came out! Go figure, it was a perfect day for a dive! I think in all we saw 8 GPOs, a ton of big ole ling code and even a couple Puget Sound King Crabs! One was a fairly good sized guy too! Check out the pictures on the photo page. So sorry the Seahawks didn't win, cause i really wanted them to. But this was a much better use of a Sunday.

Tired Seahawk after being beating up by a Bear

Sunday Jan 9th - T-Dock. there were a few of us that braved the snow this fine January day. However the viz was not too good, so the rest of you did not miss too much. However Mark and Alex spotted a Wolf eel in the dome. It was on one of the uphill joints. So next time you get there, take your time and see if you can find him. We also spotted a very small red Octo by the t-dock. Cute little guy.