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South Florida Divers, Inc. 


June 2004 Newsletter
CONTENTS

President's Message Come Join The Fun !
Calendar for June and beyond June program: SA Skip Hogberg 
Scuba Pics Happy June Birthday!
Ocean Fest 2004 Thank You's  

President's Message
 
        ~ By Jeff Guzowski                      

In a couple weeks, it will be vacation time for 25 members of the club, who are going to Cozumel, Mexico, for an 8 day all inclusive dive vacation.  Most of us can’t wait, since the high winds we have been experiencing here at home, have prevented a lot of people from diving, for the last weeks of April and all of May. 

The Oceanfest turn out was great, and thanks goes out to all the club members, who gave up their weekend to help out at either the club booth or for Oceanfest.  A special thanks goes to Donna Eades, who coordinates and schedules all the volunteers, every year for this event and does a great job.  The tank that our club booth raffled off was won by no other than our very own club member, Jon Black.  Congratulations Jon.

The calendar for June has a lot of dives on it.  There are two Miami dive trips, with Wayne Pantke, a Boca dive on the wreck of the Sea Emperor, with Pete Stephenson, and two American Dream dive trips .

And not to be forgotten there is a special Spiegal Grove trip with Pete Stephenson on May 30th.

Our guest speaker for June is, FBI Special Agent, Skip Hogberg, on maritime terrorism.  See the separate write up in the newsletter.

Dive Safe

SKI

 

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Come Join The Fun  !!

We are delighted to welcome new members. Come to a meeting and Join the Fun !   We look forward to diving with you!

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June 2004 Calendar and beyond


~ By Cheryl Teugels, Vice President of Calendar 


Phone numbers of trip coordinators are not posted here to ensure privacy.  If you are a club member, consult your Buddy List for numbers or call Cheryl Teugels

  • May 14-16: Ocean-Festival. Dive and Adventure Sports Expo, Ft. Lauderdale. Please Volunteer Your Time to Help Greet People at Our Booth or Lend a Hand at the Seminars. See Donna Eades for more Information
  • May 22: 9am Show,Beach Dive, Join Wayne Pantke as He Explores New Territories for Diving along  Oakland Park Blvd. and NE 27th St., 9am
  • May 28th thru 31st: Memorial Weekend in Bimini - Captain's Choice- Joe Smariga's Looking for a Few Worthy Vessels and Friends to Accompany Him on a Weekend Excursion Over to Bimini
  • May 30: 12:30 Show, 1:00 Go,Dive the Spiegel Grove on Atlantis at Captain Slates Dive Center with Pete Stephenson and Dave Schneider. ADVANCED CERTIFICATION REQUIRED,      [Directions at link], $50 includes Tip.
  • May 31:  Memorial Day (Observed)
  • June 2: General meeting. RAMADA INN FORT LAUDERDALE AIRPORT, 2275 State Road 84.  [Driving directions here] [Map here]  NOTE: additional parking on west side of Ramada.
  • June 5: Dive Miami with Wayne Pantke, on RJ Diving Adventure [directions]  12:30pm Show, 1:00pm Go.   
  • June 7: 7:30 PM: SFDI Executive Board meeting at Connections for Business, 2843 Pembroke Road, NE corner of I-95 and Pembroke Road.  Members please feel free to sit in and join us! 
  • June 12: Ocean Watch Reef Sweep
  • June 14: Flag Day.  United We Stand . Fly Our Favorite Colors Red, White and Blue !!
  • June 13-20: Cozumel, Mexico, Dive Trip with Jeff Guzowski and Michele Burzese. Stay at the Iberostar Cozumel, See http://www.iberostar.com/.
  • June 20: Fathers Day
  • June 21: Summer Begins
  • June 26: 12:30 Show, 1:00 Go Dive the American Dream II with Fred Miller and  Cheryl Teugels, Two Tank Dive. $ 45 includes Tip.
  • June 27: 1:00 Show for a 1:30 Go, Dive Boca Raton on Diversity [map here] with Dave Schneider and Pete Stephenson, $ 45 includes Tip.
  • June 27: Motorcycle Ride, Join Allan Ryant and Patti Dollard for a Ride Along the Coast up to Delray Beach. More Details TBA
  • July 3-10: 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.
  • July 4: Independence Day, A Special Thank You to All Our Armed Forces Personnel
  • July 5: Dive the American Dream II with Patty Dollard and Fred Miller, Morning Dive,  $ 45 Includes Tip
  • July 7:General meeting. RAMADA INN FORT LAUDERDALE AIRPORT, 2275 State Road 84.  [Driving directions here] [Map here]  NOTE: additional parking on west side of Ramada.
  • July 10: Dive Miami, with Cheryl Bartek-Teugel and Wayne Pantke, on RJ Diving Adventure [directions], 12:30 Show, 1:00 Go
  • August 20-22: Keys Trip, Join Cheryl and Lou Teugels for a Weekend in the Keys. Hotel Reservations at     La Siesta Resort in Islamorada. Saturday Morning Dive aboard D/V Seafari out of Tilden's Scuba Center located at Hawks Cay Resort Marina
  • December 11:  Annual Holiday Party at I.T. Parker Center in Dania Beach.
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June's meeting program:
Maritime Security and The "New" Role of the FBI

Our June  meeting will feature FBI Special Agent Skip Hogberg. Here is a preview of what Skip will cover.


The FBI's involvement is a result of Presidential Decision Directives (PDD) 39, 62, & 63, and Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) 5.  Specifically, the FBI has a lead role for operational response to a terrorist threat or
incident, as well as coordinating the activities of other members of the law enforcement community to detect, prevent, pre-empt, and disrupt terrorist attacks against the United States.

That being said, the task is monumental and our maritime experience is limited.  We are currently focusing our efforts on developing liaison relationships within the commercial cruise and cargo lines, yachting/boat sales industry, specialty nautical stores, marinas, dive shops, and maritime-related businesses.   Our hope is that such a focus will serve three
purposes;

(1) We gather "intelligence" from subject-matter experts ("you") in the maritime field who can observe/know through observation when something is suspicious, and report the activity to us.

(2) We develop a specific industry network within which we can disseminate relevant intelligence information that we receive.

(3) We learn and become more effective investigators.

We function within the "Joint Terrorism Task Force" (JTTF) concept. Specifically, we work side-by-side with designated representatives from the Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), United States Coast Guard
(USCG), Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), and local law enforcement.  We are based out of the North Miami Beach office.

To date we have investigated maritime matters involving threats (bomb/WMD) to vessels, illegal boardings by activist groups, smuggling (weapons/explosives/aliens/drugs), false mariner documents, unlicensed money transmitting, hijacking of vessels, and suspicious activities (photo taking/strange customer requests/purchase of night vision devices & underwater delivery systems by individuals from "threat countries").  Our territory extends from the Brevard County line (which is covered by the Fort Pierce office) to the Florida Keys.

We welcome any contact from you and your network of associates as we strive to develop a "working relationship".  No contact is too trivial, and we will maintain your confidentiality.  Please pass on our information to your contacts in the maritime industry.  We can be contacted at:

Telephone         305-944-9101 (24 hour duty agent) Ask for one of us.
E-mail            fbimaritime.miami@fbi.gov

*E-mail works best as we all access the same site...no attention line necessary.

We are available to talk to any group.  Please contact us to be added to our contact list and advise your contacts to e-mail us with their information.

SA Skip Hogberg
SA David Grazer
SA George Nau

FBI-Miami
Maritime/Seaport Squad
16320 NW 2nd Ave
Miami, FL 33169


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.

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Scuba Pics
Photo's by Capt. Chris Hinckley

Click Here For More Dive Pic's

 

 

                

 

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Happy June Birthday!

   

Steve Balestriero

  

Ann Guardino

  

Craig Holmes

 		 

Butch Lee

  

Mary LePage

 

Harry Nichols

  

Liz Ohlbrecht

  
   
 

 

 

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OCEAN FEST 2004 THANK YOU'S

Julie Taylor  

Ocean Fest 2004 

Ocean Fest is not Ocean Fest unless it rains and this year was no exception.  The rain was brief though.  We had plenty of sunshine and the strong breezes made for comfortable temperatures although it did curtail the diving.  

 Special thanks to Joe Smariga who works the show before opening everyday until well past closing.  He is absolutely the person that seals the relationship between SFDI and the Ocean Fest organizers. 

 Thanks to Donna Eades who organizes the volunteers who man the seminar rooms, and hospitality room, as well as the SFDI booth.  She also personally worked at the SFDI booth representing our club.

 Thank you to all the club members who gave their time so SFDI could be represented at Ocean Fest. 

  Mike Rand, Don Lawrynuik, Cathy Olsen, Jim Mancinelli, Marc Cohen, Allen Ryant, Patty Dollard, Diana Rudnick, Greg Donahoue , Kim Hunziker, Jeanne Kossey, Fred Miller, Wayne Panke, Bruce Rosenthal, Bill Dietz, Eric Rohde, Melissa Ames & Julie Taylor

  Thank you Eric Rohde and Marc Cohen for stepping up and performing Ocean Fest duties above and beyond the call of duty and unrelated to SFDI.  The Ocean Fest organizers were especially grateful.

  Thanks to John Beales for helping breakdown and transporting the SFDI booth back to Joe’s for storage.

  And special congratulations to SFDI member Jon Black who is the lucky winner of this years SFDI Ocean Fest tank raffle.

  We met a lot of interesting people and perspective new guests and members.  Please be sure to introduce yourself and make them feel welcome when they visit us at future meetings.

 

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