President's Message

Got Resolutions?

Happy New Year!  The year 2003 for the club was a good one.  The club got a new location that seems to work for more people than the Howard Johnson.  We had some great trips, 2 Curacao trips, a Keys trip, and a Manatee trip.  We had some great parties, including the Pig Roast, Seafood Fest, and the Holiday Party.  We got some great new members join the club that came in with some fresh new ideas and suggestions. 

Speaking of Holiday Party, this year was a good one.  There was a great variety of food. Besides the three turkeys and two hams provided by the club, there were some great covered dishes made by the members.  We had an open bar, with the drink of the night being mudslides, and a DJ for some great dancing.  Congratulations to Valerie from Boca Raton for winning the tank.  She was real excited when she heard the news.  Good party.

The Holiday Lights Cruise was a success this year, even though the temperatures dropped to a cool 55 degrees that night, but we were able to keep warm with John Kansman’s Spiced Hot Chocolate drink.  Everybody was dressed in their winter clothes and had such a great time that we will be making this an annual event.

Now for 2004, we have a lot of events planned, with trips to Ginnie Springs, Cayman Brac, the Bahamas, and the annual Keys trip. 

I would like to take this time to welcome the new E-Board members for this year's board, Gerry Cowen will be at the sign up table as Assistant Calendar, Bill Dietz as your new Treasurer, Patty Dollard as Member at Large who will be doing the raffle, and Allen Ryant as Member at Large.

Last but not least, we are updating our membership database and need you to please bring your C-card and a copy of your dive insurance to renew this year.  Safe diving,

WELCOME TO OUR NEWEST DIVE BUDDY!

We are delighted to welcome new member Ron Griswold.  We look forward to diving with you!

January 2004 Calendar and beyond

Phone numbers of trip coordinators are not posted here to ensure privacy.  If you are a club member, consult your Buddy List for numbers; if not, and you wish to contact a trip coordinator, e-mail the web divemaster.
 

• January 4: Join Fred Miller for our weekly beach dive.  Call Fred for time/location.
• January 6: Join Fred Miller for a Tuesday night beach dive.  Call Fred for time/location.
• January 7, 7:30 PM: General meeting. RAMADA INN FORT LAUDERDALE AIRPORT, 2275 State Road 84.  [Driving directions here] [Map here]  NOTE: additional parking on west side of Ramada. 
• January 10, 6:30 PM:  Picnic/BBQ on South Fort Lauderdale Beach with Dave Wills.
• January 12, 7:30 PM: SFDI Executive Board meeting at Connections for Business, 2843 Pembroke Road, NE corner of I-95 and Pembroke Road.  Members always welcome! 
• January 13: Join Fred Miller for a Tuesday night beach dive.  Call Fred for time/location.
• January 15, 8 PM:  Laugh your mask off with Jeff Guzowski at Uncle Funny's.  Ski gets quite a rowdy crowd to join him; don't miss the fun! [Map to Uncle Funny's] 
• January 17, 8 AM: Private Boat Dive with Joe Smariga.  Meet at the John U. Lloyd State Park boat ramps.  DON'T be late...or you WILL miss the boat!
• January 18, 12:30 PM show for 1 PM go: Kayak the upper Keys with Florida Bay Outfitters (MM104, Key Largo) and Debby and Rick Auchter. Enjoy a half-day guided tour of Dusenberry Creek, winter home for a few Florida manatees.  $50 includes guide, kayak or canoe, snack, shuttle and FREE souvenir water bottle. There is a group discount that increases with the size of the group, so the cost could be less depending on how many wish to go.  Because this is a non-diving event, feel free to invite your family and friends.  $25 deposit due at December meeting, final payment due at January meeting.
• January 20: Join Fred Miller for a Tuesday night beach dive.  Call Fred for time/location.
• January 23, 6:30 PM:  Trap/Skeet at Markam Park with Wayne Pantke.
• January 24, 1 PM show, 1:30 go: Dive Jupiter , 2-tank boat dive with Jupiter Dive Center on the Republican, 1001 Alternate A1A [Map here].  Trip leader Brian Hufford says "water temp's in the mid 70's; cost $50 which includes tip; we may try to see sawfish, conditions permitting, otherwise two dives to 70-80 ft on a beautiful reef." It sounds like a great trip, sign up and pay at the January meeting.
• January 25, 10 AM: Bicycle ride and picnic at Tree Tops Park with Cheryl Teugels. 
• January 31: Dine out social with Allen Ryant and Patty Dollard, restaurant TBA.
• February 7-8, 2004: Annual Bogey & Bacall Kayak and Canoe Classic, Key Largo.
• March 26-28:  Ginnie Springs camping/diving weekend with Debby and Rick Auchter.  Camping Friday and Saturday nights and diving Saturday and Sunday is about $90 per person (discounts apply if we get a large enough group).  Explore the Ginnie Springs website to see all they have to offer!    Non-divers adult rate is about $60 for the weekend; kids 7-14 is about $30 for the weekend.  There is a full-service large dive shop in the premises if you need to buy or rent gear.  Bring along your non-diving family members to enjoy swimming, snorkeling, tubing, kayaking, canoeing and volleyball (see Ginnie's website for costs).  Please make a $30 deposit for each family member at the December meeting to hold your spot; payment in full can be made at the January and February meetings.
• June: Cayman Brac with Jeff Guzowski and Michele Burzese.
• July 4-11: Captain's Choice private boat trip to Andros Lighthouse Yacht Club and Marina in the beautiful Bahamas!  Approximate cost (share of expenses) about $1200.  See Joe Smariga for more details.
• August: Looe Key trip with Cheryl Bartek Teugels.

On January 7 we will have our third annual "Wacky Re-Gift Exchange" at the general meeting.  We are sure you got a Hanukah or Christmas or or Kwanzaa or holiday or birthday gift that made you say "thanks, but you really shouldn't have."  Wrap it up and bring it to the January 7 meeting and see if you can get something better! 

Here's how it works.  Bring along an unused, unwanted gift...look around, you know you have at least one somewhere...and wrap it real purty-like.  Everyone who brings a gift gets a raffle ticket. 

We will draw the tickets in "Chinese Auction" style.  The first person whose ticket is pulled gets the pick of the unopened gifts, and must open it in front of everyone.  The second person whose ticket is pulled can take the first person's gift away from them, or choose another unopened gift.  If they take the gift from the first person, the first person gets to go back and pick and open another gift.  The third person whose ticket is pulled can pick a third unopened gift, or take a gift away from the first or second person, and so forth.

Yes, it takes awhile to go through all the gifts and you will not want to miss the fun.  This is the most hilarious event of the year.  Actually, the majority of the gifts are nice items, just unwanted by the original recipient.  Surprisingly, at the end of the evening, nearly every unwanted gift goes home with someone who actually wants it.  See you January 7, gift in hand!  You are not required to participate, but if you don't, you'll probably regret it!

SFDI meetings start at 7:30 at the Ramada Fort Lauderdale Airport.  If you are not a member, and you are reading this on the Internet, please join us because visitors are ALWAYS WELCOME!  For driving directions to the meeting, visit our About Us page.

Temperatures were not the only things sinking on December 20.  Six divers braved the cold and got into the Christmas spirit  and sunk a Christmas tree on the artificial reef, the TRACY.  After the sinking, they dove on it and decorated it with food for the resident fish.  Decorations consisted of garlands of cranberries and macaroni, ornaments of grapes, mini hot dogs, carrots, dog biscuits and star fruit.

Joe Smariga, SFDI VP of Membership, and Greg Grace, divemaster of the AMERICAN DREAM II, took the tree down to the top deck of the boat, located at a depth of 56 feet, and secured it.  Following them, club members Julie Taylor, Eric Rodhe, Don Lawrynuik, Cathy Olson and Pete Stephinson took the ornaments down and decorated it.  Almost immediately, schools of baitfish came to investigate and sample the items.  Sponge Bob in a Santa hat, along with a star fruit, adorned the top of the tree.

South Florida Divers has been sinking and decorating a Christmas for the past 18 years.  It’s an annual  holiday tradition.

Click here for many more Christmas Tree Sinking photos!

Return to Table of Contents

Book Review An American  Underwater Odyssey: 50 dives in 50 states By Charles Ballinger

This impossible-to-put-down book is exciting from the very first page.  Read for yourself: "My mind raced faster than the raging waters beneath us.  We seemed to have lost the governor of North Dakota--underwater.  His brother-in-law considered a helicopter search.  Was this really happening?"

Rest assured, Governor Ed Schafer eventually surfaced further down river, but this adventure-packed tale barely lets up.  Underwater journalist Charles Ballinger set out to complete a mid-life dream: to SCUBA dive in every one of the fifty states.  A logistical nightmare and an expensive proposition...he had to take a year off from his remodeling business...this adventure will make you wish you could have joined him.  You would be surprised to hear that there are adventure dives, the "black diamond slopes of SCUBA", in even the most land-locked states, and many are more strenuous than ocean diving...like the North Dakota trip, which started at the tailrace of a dam and led to a helter-skelter sideways drift dive through a raging river.

Some of the more unusual dives include a missile silo in Texas, a flooded mine in Missouri, a sunken town in Montana, and a hot spring in Utah.  He dove quarries, lakes, dams, cow pastures, and wrecks, and found "treasure" in many unexpected places.  He actually found submerged bowling balls in two different states!

Charles met colorful characters everywhere he went.  Imagine meeting a 75-year old owner of a still-thriving dive shop established in 1971 in land-locked Oklahoma, or the "minister of SCUBA" who quotes Bible verses relating to diving, like Job 38.16: "Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea or hast thou walked in the search of the depth?" 

As you can imagine, dive conditions ranged from the gin-clear waters of Ginnie Springs to "bumping into feisty crawdads with our dive masks" in Colorado. After his 45th dive, in Kansas, he remarked "At this point, I could finally say there was legitimate diving in every state o the nation."  If you received a book store gift certificate for the holidays and haven't yet decided what to get, this is it.

Click here for more book reviews!

A database of dive sites in the 50 states

After reading Ballinger's Underwater Odyssey (review above) I accidentally stumbled onto  a wonderful website that lists activities in National Recreation Areas in all fifty states.  Recreation.gov lists areas for biking, boating, camping, climbing, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, hunting, and many more activities, but I focused on the link for Water Sports.  This page gives you access to their database of America’s public lakes, rivers, and seashores that offer some of the best water for recreation on our continent. The site says "you may enjoy scuba diving an underwater nature trail at a National Marine Sanctuary or body surfing at a national seashore."

Simply click on the state you are interested in visiting for a list of recreation areas suitable for water sports in that state.  Click on the name of the recreation area you are interested in, and you will find a wealth of information about that particular site, as well as other related links.  After reading the book and exploring this database, maybe you will be the next diver to visit every United State!

Click here for more Websites of the Month!

January Wacky Foto

Don't they know better than to fly right after diving?

 Click here for more Wacky Fotos!