Monday January 31, 2011

Dive Logs Summer 2007

June 2, 2007 - DUI Demo Days at Gilboa Quarry - these were demo dives for divers trying out dry suits.   A thunderstorm in the middle of the day cut the number of dives a bit short.   The visibility was pretty murky due to lots of divers having been in the water but we still got a chance to see the airplane, the helicopter, the phone booth and the motorcycle.   Water temperatures were in the low 50's.   On three different dives I escorted 6 people who were trying dry suits for the first time.   For more details and photos go to DUI's website at Dog Rally Photos.

June 24, 2007 - Fun dive and re-orientation for several divers at Circleville Twin Quarries, South.   We made two dives this day to depths between 21 feet and 13 feet.   The water temperature was in the high 70's and most of us wore 3 mm wet suits.   Divers included: Tense Vick, Carl Workman, Steve Kender, Allan Kender, Max Mueller and Sharon Mueller.   Demi Mueller provided surface support.

July 1, 2007 - Tense and I dove the north quarry at Circleville for two dives.  The first dive we explored the south end of this quarry (not much there except attack blue gills).   The second dive we stayed in the north end and practiced buoyancy with the hula hoops and counted fish nests.

July 11, 2007 - Four of us, Kevin Fourman, Dan Walker, Tense and I dove the south Quarry at Circleville.   There was a large class in the water and recent rains had cut the visibility considerably.  Dan and I did a tour of the middle part of the lake and Tense and Kevin explored the south end on the first dive.   We were looking for the four algae eaters that I had released in the quarry on July 1.   We did not find them.  Someone has been busy running lines between all the attractions in this quarry.  On the second dive we decided to surface swim to the ambulance at the north end of the quarry and see if there was a line leading to it.   There was and it took us about 150 yards south to the bathtub.

July 22, 2007 - The Dan Barbecue.   Four of us dove on the newest attraction at Portage Quarry - the jet airplane and then enjoyed the barbecue for the benefit of DAN sponsored by the TA Club.   Divers in addition to myself were Kevin, Dennis and Allan.   The water temperature was a nippy 68 degrees at 36 feet but the visibility was "simply tropical".... meaning about 50 or 60 feet.   We had a great time, so much so that Kevin and Dennis made another dive after the festivities of the barbecue and door prize drawings.

Monday August 6, 2007 - Four divers and one snorkeler spend most of the day Lakeview Park in Lancaster.   The visibility was above normal but not as good as I have seen it at times.  Laurel and friend went west to the "deep" side and found it cold (as usual) and dark.   Kevin and I went east and then north.   We looked at the boat, the airplane and several vehicles before arriving at the arriving at the MDA reef that a group of dive store and clubs placed in the quarry as a fund raising project. On the second dive Kevin practiced using his new DAN Safety devices.  Demi snorkeled and collected shells for her collection.

August 10-12, 2007  - The Legends of Diving Weekend at Portage quarry is history for 2007 and what a historic weekend it was.

Zale Parry, who was a Hollywood stunt diver for the Sea Hunt series as well as dozens of movies, other television shows and commercials, was the star and she looked fantastic.  She is a diminutive pixy of a woman who still shows the sparkle that make her a popular icon during the early years of television.  She is also very personable and when you talked with her you really had the sense that she was interested in you.  

There was a meet and greet cocktail party Friday night with her and Sam Lecocq.   Sam, who was the one of the featured presenters last year also, is the developer of a lot of early diving equipment and still holds a lot of the patients on equipment we use today. 

Sam Miller who was also scheduled for the weekend could not get a flight out of LA due to a major lock down of the airport caused by a computer glitch. 

My grandson Max and I signed up for the Dive With Zale  on Saturday and we both got our photos taken with her. I plan to post them as soon as I get them scanned.

The disappointing part about the weekend is that there were not a lot of people there.   The official count was somewhere less than 200. Last year there were 303.    It is a shame that the dive community (i.e. stores and instructors) do not support this more.  It is really fantastic and Jeff Rice and the crew at Portage definitely go out of their way to make the event a fun one.  There were more than $10,000 worth of prizes raffled off over the weekend including a trip for two to Belize.

I won the Sea Hunt trivia contest.  I got a vintage Sea Hunt comic book.  Alec Pierce from Scuba 2000 in Toronto brought part of his Sea Hunt collection and also ran the contest.  Winning was a real surprise to me because I only recently saw any of the Sea Hunt series but it was also a big thrill.

For more details on the Legends of Diving Weekend and future events to to Portage Quarry.

October 5, 2007 - Kevin Fourman and I made two excellent dives at Portage Quarry.  Both dives were nearly an hour long.  We dove the west side of the quarry on the first dive.   I have not been to this end in a number of years.   First thing is that there is a stairway so that "seasoned" divers such as myself can get in and out easily.   There are a number of artifacts on this part of the quarry and I think Kevin and I hit them all - a car, a jet ski, piper airplane and a truck.   The visibility was not great and I was disappointed with the lack of fish.   After getting our tanks filled we made the second dive on the East side of the quarry.   We started with the jet air plane and passed the concrete wall and the semi trailer on our way to the "car wreck".   The car wreck is 5 cars nearly on top of each other.   Visibility at this side of the quarry was much better and there were a lot more fish. The water temperature hovered between 65 and y70 degrees on both dives.