Douglas County Dive Club Meeting

Wow! For all of you that missed the meeting last night; well lets just say you missed a good one.

Jim and Linda Rogers had a number of door prizes to give away last night. We all received four tickets each for a chance at the door prizes.

Dave holding on to one of the winning tickets ripped his prize open to find a can of slugs; Humm! I wonder what these taste like! Well at least their marinating in a garlic sauce, to give them a little bit of a zing before their tossed down.

Zack, Rod Smiths son also had a winning ticket. He was totally surprised to find that he had won a Dolphin pin that lit up when turned on. I am sure he found that useful last night when laying in his bed - Right Rod!

Also another winning ticket was held by Jonathan Dees one of our new members.
A cap was won. Who cares if it was a "Pink " one.

Jonathan are you wearing that today, it is Friday. Hope you don't mind the humor. I get carried away sometimes.

Dave Schramm was also quite amused when his winning ticket was an Octopus.

Enjoy your winnings!

Jim brought a short video on the Pacific Northwest Octopus. This was a very interesting video. Thank you Jim.

We also viewed a diving video put together from Teri Cremer on her 2004 diving in Hawaii.

Teri has some spectacular footage of her dives. She has captioned all the names of the fish, coral, etc that most of us do not have a clue as to what they are. Some of these fish have the ability to camouflage themselves so well, you really have to look at them to realize that their a fish and not a rock or a piece of coral.

Teri is in Hawaii right now, ( just remember Teri, we are all diving with you; you can't have all the fun!) Hey! How about some pictures for us. E-mail me some and we will post them on our site.

Richard, thanks for bringing the diving video for all of us to view.

Dale Schultz, one of our dive members gave a presentation on his recent trip to Palau.

He gave a very informative presentation on his trip and he will be posting an article on our site along with some pictures in a couple of weeks.

Now all of us want to go to Palau!

Thank you very much Dale for your presentation.

If any of you have any diving pictures that you would like to share, please e-mail me and they can be posted here on our site.

Morrie Lloyd and Gar Carlin will be heading up to Hoodsport this weekend to teach the Advanced Class. Hopefully they will be able to bring back some pictures to share with the rest of us.

Take care and we will see you at our next meeting - March 24, 2005.

Bye for now!

Marla

Next Club Meeting - February 24, 2005

The Douglas County Dive Club will be meeting - Thursday, February 24, 2005.

As always it will be at 7:00 pm Round Table Pizza.

Critter Corner this month is the Octopus!

Jim Rogers will be bringing a short video on them.

Hey! If any of you have some Octopus photos, bring them and share with the rest of us and heck maybe a story to go along with the photos.

Jim has something up his sleeve for this February club meet, so don't let this one go by.

See you at the meeting!

Marla

Honduras Trip - For April 2, 2005

Hey Everyone!

Mike from Diver's Den has scheduled a trip to the Coco View Resort in Roatan, Honduras.

Mike had all openings filled until he received notice early this morning of two cancellations.

He is now trying to fill these two openings as quickly as he can.

If any of you are interested in taking this trip with us or know of anybody who would like to go with our group, please have them contact Mike at Diver's Den - #673-3710 or his cell phone number #643-4710.

Cost for this trip: Diver $2150.00
Includes: Air Fare, All Meals, Two Boat Dives Daily, and Unlimited Shore Diving.

If interested, you can view their web site - CocoViewResort

Udate: From Mike Ferris

Hey everybody! Get ready to hit the spring diving by getting together with
your dive partner or come meet a new partner. Remember its great to keep
your skills up by dealing with other problems you may not have had.
So, we offer you a Rescue class starting February 25th. I will teach you how to
handle the situations in the most effective manor.

Remember "All things are just situations until you make them an emergency." Learn how to avoid problems by being ready for them.

This Class will be one of the most fun classes you will take. Just call any of the other rescue diver's in the club and ask how they liked it.

Remember I will be teaching private lessons if you have any friends who
just do not feel comfortable in large groups. Or we can do a referral and
they can do there check out dives in warm water on their vacation.

Lets get some new divers in our club by getting our friends to dive.

Dive safe:

Divers Den
Mike

Advanced Class - Feb 25th, 26th and 27th

Morrie Lloyd has an Advanced Class set up for February 25th, 26th, and 27th in Hoodsport.

He also is offering a Speciality Course in Deep Diving and a Night Dive.

The cost for these two Speciality Courses, run $50.00 per class.

If interested in any of the classes, you can contact Morrie Lloyd #430-5076

Rescue Class Update:

Diver's Den said...

Hi everyone. I am trying to post a comment and force my computer to work for me.

Don't worry I have a hammer close by if it doesn't work.

Thanks for posting our rescue class coming up this month Marla.

If you want to take this class, remember you need to be an Advanced Diver first.

Call Morrie or myself and we will get you signed up, or post a comment.

Mike

Rescue Class offered through Diver's Den

Mike Ferris from Diver's Den is scheduling a Rescue Class on February 25, 2005.

Two people have signed up for this class.

This rescue class is an important step in expanding your knowledge and experience as a diver.

Sign up with a buddy or your favorite dive partner. You both will benefit from what is learned.

You will learn how to solve underwater problems, locate missing divers, address dive accident scenarios and administer in-water artificial respiration.

This class also will provide you with CPR and First Aid skills.

For more information: Please contact Mike Ferris at Diver's Den #673-3710

Posting Questions?

Just wanted to get some feed back from all of you.

Are any of you having problems with viewing our web site?

Is the text easy to read?

Also does the Douglas County Dive Logo appear on the upper left hand corner of your screen. There is one member who seems to have two images that layer on eachother on his computer. Not sure what is up with that. I will have to find out that problem here soon.

Comments Anyone!

I think the web site would gain more interest if we had some comments from our members. Its always refreshing to read what someone else has to say .

Did you know that you can make comments just by clicking on comment and then go to post a comment?

Please e-mail or hey, post a comment back and update me.
Also if any of you have any ideas of what you would like posted, please make known and it can be done. ( Well, I think so! )

Thanks so much!

Update: Jim Rogers' Channel Island Dive Comments

Monday and Tuesday we dove close to the shores of Santa Rosa Island. The under water geology has long ridges running perpendicular with the shore line; these ridges are tilted up at a 30 to 45 degree angle. This allows for many shelves and deep crevices, perfect for lobster!

Between these ridges there may be small piles of rock , a hard rock surface that is swept clean by current , or white sand the consistency of large sugar grains. Covering the rocks where all kinds of sponges--moon sponge was my favorite; it was a large grayish mass that formed a semicircle and had numerous holes in it creating a moonscape surface.

Pink coralline algae, large pieces of kelp that looked like lasagna noodles, and other orange, vibrant blue sea creatures too numerous to mention were everywhere.

The weather had brought in some substantial swells so the diving in the shallows 15 to 45 feet had a lot of surge. You could hang onto something when the surge pushed against you and let go when it shoved you another 10 to 20 feet forward all the while scanning through the kelp --rocks for the "Bugs".

Several areas were covered by palm kelp which was 3 to 4 feet tall ,at the end of it's tough inch thick stalk it's top puffed out into palm tree like fronds that would flail back and forth with the surge. I did find a few lobster either clinging to these stalks or cruising the bottom and were spied, grabbed and bagged all while being thrashed about--- what sport! It wasn't all about the bigger critters though .

I saw a small brittle star ambling a long the bottom using it's legs like an octopus--curling them out and pulling it's self forward ,using it's legs to touch and examine . There were so many types of nudibranchs, my favorite I came across after coming across a large purple urchin bed; there was a large rock out cropping and in it's crevices were several different nudibranchs,but the stand out was a small 1 to 1/2 inch electric blue body with brilliant yellow /orange stripes on it's sides---what an outstanding mix of colors.

All too soon it was time to pull anchor and head back to Santa Barbara harbor, we cleaned our catch on the dock and headed for our motel. I have included a few cooked Bug pictures for your enjoyment. Jim
Lemon Nudibranch

Purple Sea Urchin







Rod and Zack

February 1, 2005

Linda Rogers is our new Treasurer for the Douglas County Dive Club.

Dues are due now for 2005.

$18.00 per person or $24.00 for families of two or more.

Please make your payment out to Douglas County Divers.

You can either send them to Linda Rogers or you can drop them off at Diver's Den with Mike or just slip them into Diver's Den mail slot in the door.

You can get Linda's address for payment from your Dive Club address sheet that was handed out at the meeting, or you can e-mail me and I will forward it to you. I do not want to have her address on the web.

Thank you and have a great day.

Marla