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South Florida Divers, Inc.
July 2008 Newsletter
President's Message Time to get wet......... ~ By Pete Stephinson
During
June, two of our summer trips took place, the first to Cozumel and the
second to Roatan. The feedback I received from those who participated was
that they had a great time. Summer weather is upon us. The drought has ended and we are in to the usual summer pattern of thunder showers in the afternoons. Now that shouldn't stop any of us enjoying ourselves in the water - so if you haven't got wet this summer yet..... now's your chance. We have a full calendar of dives planned so get along to our July meeting and get signed up. As well as dives we have a number of other events and activities planned such as our annual member's appreciation party on the beach at Fort Lauderdale on July 26th. That's always a fun event which I look forward to attending. This month, we are moving to a new venue for our monthly General Meeting. We have been at the American Legion for the last several months but have found it a little crowded for the number of members we have attending. Faced with the choice of limiting attendance or changing venues we decided to move to the Lauderdale Isles Yacht Club. For those of you who haven't attend one of our annual Pig Roasts or Sea Food Fests you can find the directions elsewhere in this newsletter. (that's a clue -- if you found your way to one of those events you can find your way to the July General Meeting) For those of you keen Lobster hunters, It's time to get your lobstering gear readied for action. Lobster season is just around the corner with mini-season being July 23rd and 24th this year. The lobsters are looking forward to it too.... with a similar enthusiasm to that of Turkeys looking forward to Thanksgiving. Anyway -- enjoy you summer of diving. and whatever other activities you get involved with And as usual, I hope to see you in the water some time soon Pete
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NEW MEETING LOCATION AGAIN !!!
New meeting Location for General Meeting starting Wednesday ,
July 2nd
Lauderdale Isles Yacht Club, 2637 Whale Harbor Lane, Ft. Lauderdale
The Same Place We Have The Pig Roast !!
Directions:
1. Take I 95 to Davie Blvd. Head West.
2. Turn Left on SW 24th St. ( Riverland Rd. )
3. Follow around and Turn left to stay on SW 24th St.
4. Turn left at Whale Harbor Lane.
5. Lauderdale Isles Yacht Club is on the Right
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WELCOME YOUR NEWEST DIVE BUDDIES!
We are delighted to welcome new member William Wang !! We look forward to diving with you. As a Reminder to Everyone, We are a NO-DECO Dive Club. Always adhere to Safe Recreational Dive Depths and Limits.
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JULY... and Beyond - By Dave Schneider, Vice President, Calendar
Phone numbers of event coordinators are not posted to ensure privacy. If you are a Club member please consult your Buddy List for the number you need. If you do not have a copy of the Buddy List one will be available for you at the next General Meeting. Just a quick reminder.. The Calendar exists for the information of all our members. Should you see an event that is of interest to you please contact the Coordinator directly. You can sign-up for the event(s) of your choice at any time of the month. The Coordinator will be more than pleased to place your name on the list and tell you where to mail payment. HELP MAKE YOUR CLUB BETTER ! .... We need more people to step up and run events. If you are interested in coordinating a dive.. a trip.. a dinner or any other type of event please contact an E-Board member. Any member of the Board will be more than happy to assist you. June 28: Sex and Cosmos Night (Saturday) Donna Eades has planned a fun night for all the girls (and any guys who wish to tag along)! Sex i8n the City is all the rage and Donna will lead the group to the movies with a big pitcher of Cosmopolitans in her generous little hand. All the details will be mailed to all the members in the very near future, or give her a call. She loves to hear from y'all. July 2: General Meeting 7:30 PM (Sharp!) New Location. Click Here for Map Lauderdale Isles Yacht Club, 2637 Whale Harbor Lane, Ft. Lauderdale.The Same Place We Have The Pig Roast !! Directions are available at another location on this website. Hope to see y'all there. July 4: Happy Independence Day! July 5: 1:00 PM Show 1:30 PM Go (Saturday) With only a week to go before the Dominica trip this is the perfect time for a great day of diving. Join Dave Schneider for an afternoon aboard the Lady-Go-Diver out of Deerfield Beach. Cost will be $53.00, tax and tip included. www.dixiedivers.com. July 7: SFDI Executive Board Meeting at Connections for Business, 2843 Pembroke Road, NE corner of I-95 and Pembroke Road. The meeting starts promptly at 7:30. Summer is here, so why not think of an event to sponsor and join us at E-Board to get it on the Calendar? July 12 - 19: Dominica! July 12: 8:00 AM Show 8:30 AM Go (Saturday) Private Boat Dive Dave and John are ready to go again and as many members as can squeeze aboard are welcome to join them. The boats leave promptly from John U. Lloyd park. Spots go fast, so be sure to sign-up at the next meeting.
July 26: Member Appreciation Day (Saturday) For the third year in a row we pay tribute to ourselves with a super party. This is another one of those days you don't want to miss. Steve Oller will be coordinating a beach dive (hopefully), free food, free beverage and lots of fun. Steve plans to start the beach dive around 4:00 PM. Party time will start around 5:00 PM. Nothing is set in stone as yet, so let Steve know your great ideas! Mark your calendars now! Ft. Lauderdale Beach, opposite the Yankee Clipper hotel. July 30: Dinner-at-Large (Wednesday) What a treat! Adelle Nicholson will be our Maitre'd for a great meal at Le Tub, the home to what GQ magazine called the #1 hamburger in the U.S.! Weather permitting we will dine on the back deck, right on the Intracoastal. The dinner bell shall be rung at 7:30. Located at: 1100 A1A, Hollywood. Check out the menu at www.theletub.com. July 30 - 31: Mini Season! August 6: Lobster Season Opens! August 6: General Meeting 7:30 PM (Sharp!) New Location . Click Here for Map Lauderdale Isles Yacht Club, 2637 Whale Harbor Lane, Ft. Lauderdale. The Same Place We Have The Pig Roast !! Directions are available at another location on this website. Hope to see y'all there. August 11: SFDI Executive Board Meeting at Connections for Business, 2843 Pembroke Road, NE corner of I-95 and Pembroke Road. The meeting starts promptly at 7:30. It's always nice to have members come and help us keep our Club growing. August 15-17: Annual Keys Weekend Our favorite party weekend, once again we will be going to the Islander in Islamorada for some quality fun in the sun. Friday night features a bar-b-que. We will be doing a couple of excellent dives Saturday morning with Bud & Mary's followed by an afternoon around the pool and dinner at a special place Saturday night. Cost will be around $250.00 for lodging and diving. Call Jeff Raffa or Ginny DeMattei for more details, and be sure to register early and get a deposit to Kim Hunziker as this one sells out quickly. August 27: Dinner-at-Large (Wednesday) Bravo! Bravo! Bravo Italiano! Bruce Wills invites everyone to join him for some of the best Italian eats in Broward County. The Bravo Italiano Ristorante is located at 1515 SE 17th. Street, Ft. Lauderdale. Bruce will ring the dinner bell at 7:30. Get more details and view the menu at www.bravoitaliano.com... or give Bruce a call. August 31: 8:00 AM Show 8:30 Am Go (Sunday) It's time for our annual pilgrimage to the Biscayne Wall. Pete Stephinson will lead a lucky group to one of our more popular dive sites. Cost will be $60.00 and this fee is very reasonable since tax, tip and two tanks are included. Call Pete for more information. September 13: Seafood Fest! (Saturday) Always a highlight of the SFDI Calendar as we go through another fun- filled hurricane season. Plan to dive today so you can bring your catch as well as a covered dish to share with all. As always there will a keg, wine and chicken on the barbie. 5:00PM to Midnight. Cost will be $5.00 for members and guests. Lauderdale Isles Yacht Club [Map here], 2637 Whale Harbor Lane, Ft. Lauderdale. September 19-21: Annual Bahamas Weekend Flushed with success from their Keys Weekend, Jeff and Ginny are back with a special weekend of fun and diving in the Bahamas. We'll be cruising to Grand Bahama aboard Discovery Cruise Lines. Luxury accommodations have been secured at Pelican Bay resort. Saturday will feature two morning dives and two afternoon dives. There will be two more dives Sunday morning. As an extra treat one of the dives will be a shark dive. All this for the bargain price of $450.00. Space is limited and will go quickly, so sign up and have a $100.00 deposit ready at the June meeting. September 27: 8:30AM Show 9:00AM Go (Saturday) Three Tank Dive Day We're planning a Key Largo dive with Slates' Atlantis that will be a great day of Keys diving. As we've done for the last several years this will be a three tank, four dive day where we pick the dive sites. We will do two dives, break for lunch and do two more dives before returning to shore. All for only $99.00, tax and tip included, plus the box lunch you bring along with you. Call Dave Schneider for more details. October 17 - 19: Penne-Camp Weekend The Spring camping weekend was so successful that we're gonna do it again, this time at John Pennekamp State Park. There will be room for tents only. This location will allow us to dive the park, explore Key Largo or just kick back and enjoy the good life. Cost will be about $15.00 per person for the tent site. Amusing yourselves, extra. Call Dave Schneider for more details. November 1: Marine Mammal Conservancy - Key Largo (Saturday) Adele Nicholson has arranged for us to join with the staff of the MMC for an afternoon of training in the basic handling, evaluation and transport of marine mammals. The session is 4 hours and will cost $5.00, training manual included. After, we can all enjoy dinner at a local restaurant. As an added after dinner feature, those "with the stomach for it" can visit MMC's Haunted House for an additional $5.00 contribution. Further donations to the Conservancy are encouraged. Call Adelle for more information or go to www.marinemammalconservancy.org to learn more about MMC.
INTERNATIONAL TRIPS FOR 2008 - 2009 January 6 - 18, 2009: Raja Ampat, Indonesia Seven Seas (liveaboard) $4500.00+/- The trip includes 12 nights on the Seven Seas, all diving, meals, coffee, tea, drinking water, sodas, optional land and beach trips. Trip cost is based on double occupancy with a deposit of 30% and balance due 90 days before departure. Cancellations made up to 90 days before departure are subject to a $500.00 cancellation fee and within 90 days there are no refunds. Not included are all airfares, hotels, transfers enroute to Sorong and mandatory trip insurance. Departure will be on or about January 2, 2009. Return home should be by January 20,2009. For more information please go to www.thesevenseas.com or give Fred Miller a call. May 2009: Brian Hufford's Tortugas Adventure Brian will have details for us in the near future. An interest sheet will be at the next meeting. June 2009: Beqa Lagoon, Fiji - Susan Judah & Ray Gonzalez It's too early to nail down the details so keep an eye out for more information. At this point it looks like the trip will run $3300.00 +/- plus air from here to California. We will have 7 nights on Beqa, which will include all meals and 10 dives plus unlimited shore diving. A sign-up sheet will be at the next meeting and deposits will be accepted from people who sincerely want to go.
AND SOME LAST IMPORTANT NOTES... Club Policies on Dives and Trips: Dives, Trips, Activities and events are run according to the SFDI Policies and Procedures, which are available to everyone. If you don’t have a copy, please ask the Membership VP, or other E-Board member at the next General Meeting. Here is a summary of some of the important ones: 1. Payment for Dives, Events and trips: A member is confirmed on a dive, trip or event only after they have paid. Payments for dives should be made when signing up. Payments for trips should be made according to the schedule as outlined by the trip coordinator. In the event that a dive/trip/activity is oversubscribed, then those confirmed will be determined by the order of payment. 2. Cancellation: Once a member signs on for a dive/event he or she is obligated to pay for that dive/event unless they contact the coordinator for that dive/event and cancel by the specified cancellation time. Not paying immediately does not eliminate the requirement to make full payment if you do not cancel within the designated cancellation period or simply fail to show up for that dive/event. 3. Certification Requirements: Some dives will be restricted to divers with certain minimum certification levels. For example Advanced Open Water. In some cases, these requirements will be set by the dive operator. In others they may be set by the dive organizer in conjunction with the E-Board based on the profile and characteristics of the planned dive. In these cases the minimum certifications required for the dive will be clearly identified on the sign up sheet and in the published calendar. No exceptions will be made for any reason. 4. Special Needs: Some of our members have “special needs” when participating on a dive or trip. These can be cases where the diver needs extra assistance on a dive boat or a member has particular requirements regarding accommodations. Dive organizers will check for the common ones, such as the requirement for extra assistance getting into or out of the water. However, it is the responsibility of the member to make sure that his/her needs are known to the organizer and if there is any doubt the member should contact the operator in advance. It is the responsibility of the club member to verify that their needs can be accommodated prior to the event/trip/activity.
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July Dinner at Large
Wednesday, July 30
Dinner-at-Large
(Wednesday)
What a treat! Adelle Nicholson will
be our Maitre'd for a great meal at Le Tub, the home to what GQ
magazine called the #1 hamburger in the U.S.! Weather permitting we will dine on
the back deck, right on the Intracoastal. The dinner bell shall be rung at
7:30. Located at: 1100 A1A, Hollywood. Check out the menu at
www.theletub.com.
July Meeting Program
SFDI SHARE A BOOK
Read any good books lately? If you have, perhaps you would like to share them with your dive buddies.
Bring a book you would like to share to the monthly meeting. We’ll put it in our “Library” with the following book plate on it:
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If the book hasn’t circulated in 90 days and you don’t want it back, we’ll donate it to Hospice
DIVING SMALL
A Feature by Brian Hufford
Gettin' tried of seeing the same old schools of grunts on every dive? You know, the mixed schools of French, Blue Stripe, White, Tomtate, and Small Mouth grunts we see on every wreck and reef we dive on. They're fun to see and it's good the reef system is healthy enough for them, but there's a whole 'nother world in the cracks and crevices, under the ledges, and sitting on the coral just waiting to be discovered. It's the world the macro photographers love, the small stuff. We've all seen the Saddle Blenny, with the distinct dark saddles on it back. Just in our diving area alone, there are over 100 species smaller than 3”. Many of them live under the ledges, like the Cardinal fish, glassy sweepers, and some of the gobies. Some of the other gobies and blennies are just sitting out in the open, either on coral or the rubble next to it, using body color and marking as camouflage. They often let a diver get very close before scooting off to a nearby hiding place. My favorites are the tube blennies; they live in old worm holes, with just their head protruding. They're small, the head is about the size of a pencil eraser. They'll dart out and grab a bite to eat or go fight with a neighbor that's gotten too close.
Here's some tips for enjoying these fish. Go SLOOOOOW!! Anyone that's been diving with me knows I go very slow. There's lots to see going slow, and it doesn't spook the fish, even the small ones. Make sure you can see up close. We older folks often need vision correction, so if you need reading glasses to read (this), you'll need them in your mask too. Guage reader inserts work great for. (Don't use the “stick on” kind, they don't stay in the mask very well.) Carry a small dive light for seeing back under the ledge or in a hole. I also carry plastic magnifying glasses, so I can see the marking and tell some of the very small ones apart.
