AQUA DIVERS NEWSLETTER
DECEMBER 2010
We had our annual Christmas party of December 5th. If you weren’t there you missed a good
Party. Steven & I didn’t make the large meal of Turkey, Ham and all the fixings this year. We tried something a little different and I believe from the comments that it went over quite well. Everyone brought their special soup and we tasted a portion of every one of them. There was tortellini, lima bean, clam chowder, chicken tortilla, and red bean soup. Also chicken and dumplings and a beer and salsa chili. Pumpkin pie, strawberry pie and 7-layer cookies for dessert. Several people enjoyed the cappuccino’s that Steven made.
We held the Chinese Christmas tree ornament raffle. There were a lot of great Christmas tree ornaments brought this year so it made it a very interesting raffle. There were tussles after a couple of them that everyone wanted and there was strategy used to get those ornaments.
After collecting the dimes we acquired from the Chinese raffle; they were raffled off and the rich man was Keith Emmerton that won those.
We also raffled off 6 prizes and the winners were:
Leroy Pryor – a pair of 3mm Aleutian dive gloves
Leroy Pryor – a pcm flashlight
Sarah Pryor – a rash guard
Donna Puchalski – a drysuit hanger
Kathy Adams – a mesh duffle dive bag
Kalyn Coleman – a Pelican dry box
We had a great variety of cookies for the cookie exchange. Everyone did well this year and we didn’t have a lot of left over cookies.
As usual we had the “divers roast”. Those that were roasted this year were:
Carl Puchalski was roasted for his trying to get into his BCD before zipping up his drysuit on the Channel Island boat trip. Carl had gotten Donna all dressed in her drysuit and gear and she did her giant stride into the water. Carl was trying to hurry to get all his gear on and join her and in his haste he forgot to put the torso portion of his drysuit up over his head and zip himself in. As he sat down and was putting his BCD on, he noticed real fast that he had forgotten that last step. So, I gave him a recipe and instructions on how to put a dry suit on. The key ingredient being a “beer”.
Al Griego was roasted for attempting to make a ballet telephone call, AKA “Maggie Connection” in Fiji. There was one spot in the resort that got good reception. Al wanted to make a phone call home so “Maggie” the resort comedian was showing him how to hold the phone straight out in front of him, stand on your left leg and extend your right leg out behind you. That was the best stance for good reception. Al performed that for us in good form.
Keith Emmerton was roasted for several things that happened on the Fiji trip. Poor Keith had just about every kind of malfunction you could come up with. He started the trip off with an injured knee; so he took his crutch along with him and picked up a wheel chair at the airport. His bungalow was at the top of the hill about 100 steps up; so with the injured knee that was a trial at half a dozen times a day going up and down those steps which were irregular in size and height. Over the week stay at the resort, he lost a flashlight, misplaced his mask, his camera wouldn’t work at first and then on the last day he drowned his camera, he thought his pins were lost for his pony tank bracket(but found them in his regulator bag). Then the village walk did his knee in after a couple of tumbles on the path, so he had to use his crutch and wheel chair to get back home through the airports.
“DIVE NEWS ALERT”
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING
Steven & I have decided to dissolve the dive club. We are turning it into more of a social club. In doing this the club as everyone knows it now will be rearranged.
We will still have monthly meetings that will consist mainly of a discussion of dives we have done and where we are going diving next.
The meetings will start at 6:30pm and they will still be held at the pool house.
We will not hold the schedule that we did before where we met at 6:00pm had potluck until 7:00pm, then the business meeting, then a seminar.
There will not be a potluck dinner, but you are more than welcome to bring something for yourself to eat during the meeting since that is dinner time. And after the meeting if anyone wants to stay around and chit chat we will be there.
There won’t be a membership fee of $50.00 any longer.
Hence when there are no dues, there will not be any prizes awarded for events.
There won’t be a $20.00 discount on the Channel Islands trip.
Diving dates will be posted on the white board in the shop as usual and a monthly newsletter will still be e-mailed out to keep you posted on dives and events.
The annual events will be rearranged and will be explained as we get closer to each of them.
At the first meeting in February we will put the calendar together. So, as in the past the group will decide certain dates to do certain dives and we will add to the calendar for dives we wish to do through the shop.
As the year goes along we will probably pick up dive dates and dive destinations when we or someone else comes up with a weekend to go diving on. We are always open to suggestions.
As the year progresses we will also be adjusting what we can and can’t do depending on the event and the dive.
Perhaps this will bring some of you that have dropped out back to our diving community. We will still be here at the shop for your diving needs and hopefully we will get you back in the water whenever you can join the group.
There will be Abalone dives as well as scuba dives in the Fort Bragg area. We will continue to dive lakes such as Donner, Tahoe, Little Grass Valley Reservoir. And of course the Channel Islands, a warm water destination, and we would love to get back up to Washington to dive. We will see what the year brings.
So, if you are interested in getting wet and blowing bubbles please stay in contact with us at the shop.
If you wish to be taken off of my e-mail list and you don’t want to receive the newsletter any longer let me know.
We will not hold a meeting until February. I wanted to get this information out to all of you now, so that you can think it over and we hope that all of you can find some time to dive next year with us.
The next meeting will be:
Date: February 9, 2011
Time: 6:30pm
Where: Aqua Divers Pool – 1530 Bridge Street
Have a Merry Christmas season and the best to all of you in the New Year.