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Doing It Right - the DIR school of diving

Program - Friday June 13th (regular Ranger Meeting)

Quarry Session to be Scheduled

Ranger Gary Truslow will give a presentation on the DIR dive philosophy at the club's June 13th meeting. Gary will follow up the "classroom" presentation with a practical session at Haymarket Quarry on a date to be agreed among the interested participants. Try diving doubles and get hands on experience with the DIR equipment configuration.

Click to Check Wikipedia for more on DIR.

Galapogos: May 5-13 2010

This one requires a lot of advanced planning, so we are starting early. Preliminary show of interest needed to secure the dates. Click here for a flier.

Boanire: July 5-12 2008

Rangers have access to a trip organized by new member Chuck Grempler (cgrempler@comcast.net). Cost is $1590 for airfare from BWI plas a full week at Captain Don's Habitat. Reservations needed by March 7. Click here for a flier.

Manatee Tour - January 18-21 Cool in Every Way Six Rangers traveled to Homosassa Springs on the Gulf Coast to meet our Florida Branch (Lee Wahler) and spend a weekend in warm water - but unfortunately chilly air - of Florida's springs. We had two early AM excursions to snorkel with manatees, one afternoon of spring/cavern diving, and a drift dive in the Rainbow River. Raimund did another outstanding job of arranging accommodations and diving and we discovered a gem of a local restaurant. Full report coming soon.

Photo by Heather Sears

Other Recent Dive Trips
	September - The Maldives Five Rangers joined a group of divers from Germany for a week of diving in this exotic Indian Ocean archipelago. The trip must have been especially rewarding after Rangers Kim & Rob Seegers presented a Maldives photo show at our August meeting. The Seegers' pictures were from 2002 and 2006 trips and showed Kani Island (north atoll) and Vila Mendhoo Island (Ari Atoll). More info on the 2007 trip coming soon.
click photo for larger view	October - Beaufort NC Six Rangers spent a weekend diving with Capt. Leroy off his 6-pack Captains Lady out of Discovery Diving. It was mostly sunny all weekend with air and water temps in the low 80s/ It was bit rough on Saturday so we stayed in-shore to visit the Hutton and Indra. Visibility was poor, but we had the opportunity to check out new equipment on an open water dive. Sunday was almost calm and we headed off shore to the Schurz and Spar. Visibilty was 50 feet or better except when completely surounded by fish. Highlight was the abundance of lionfish on the Schurz. We'll have 2 or 3 trips to Beaufort on our 2008 dive schedule November - Bonaire Bonaire in brief: air 80-90F, mostly sunny but occasional brief showers, pleasant breeze; water 84F; viz 60-100'. We did 3-6 dives daily sometimes starting at dawn and ending with a night dive; 21-26 total over 6 days. 6 were off boats; the rest were shore dives. Our package included airfare, airport transfers, accommodations at Buddy Dive Resort for 8 people in two 2-bedroom suites, a 4-door compact pickup truck for each suite, daily breakfast buffet, 6 boats dives and unlamented tanks for shore diving (air or 32% nitrox). We could pick up a tank at the dock any time or take our truck to the drive-thru fill station and load up on tanks to take to the 30+ marked shore dive sites on the island. Best dive was at dawn when all the fish seem to boil out of the reef, Photographed octopus, sea horses and tropical fish of every description. Saw no large animals, except a couple of turtles. Possible return trip in 2009
click photo for larger view

Curt Newport Briefs Rangers on Deep Sea Salvage & Exploration

Curt Newport from the deep-sea salvage and exploration firm Phoenix International spoke to the club about his line of work. He described high-profile undersea operations such as the search for the Space Shuttle Challenger, TWA 800, the broadcast of live images from the sunken ocean liner RMS Titanic, as well as many other classified missions involving the loss of military aircraft and weaponry. In particular, he talked about the expedition he organized and led to locate and recover Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom’s Liberty Bell 7 Mercury spacecraft. He succeeded in finding the tiny capsule on May 1, 1999 and recovering the space-age artifact from waters 16,043 feet deep later that year. He also led an expedition to the Philippine Sea during a search for the Heavy Cruiser USS Indianapolis (covered by Discovery Channel in 2001).

Rangers on TV A recent History Channel episode of "Digging the Truth" included Atlantis Ranger Mark Ragan and his K250 submarine. The show explored potential reasons for the sinking of the CSS Hunley - the famous Civil War submarine. Mark's latest book included his theoryabout how that boat sank after their successful attack. The star of the show spent some time underwater in Mark's sub (aee photo) to get a sense of what it would have been like underwater at night in a small submarine. Ranger Brian Hughes was the safety diver and did all the underwater camera work with the K-250. Watch your local listing for rebroadcasts.

The Secret Life of Lobsters

Author Trevor Corson was featured at our September meeting to give a presentation on his books “THE SECRET LIFE OF LOBSTERS: How Fishermen and Scientists are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean” and “THE ZEN OF FISH: The Story of Sushi, from Samurai to Supermarket”. Trevor’s presentation focused mostly on all the interesting aspects of the life of the American Lobster - the "bug" we chase off NJ, DE and MD. The presentation included great underwater video footage and discussion on the lives of lobsters, lobstermen, lobster industry, lobster scientists, etc. As a “spin” on the scuba/underwater theme, Trevor also gave a quick synopsis of his new book on sushi that also includes profiles of a number of interesting sea creatures. The meeting was well attended by current and prospective members.

Click here for a sample.

Riding the Tsumani

At our June 8 meeting, new Ranger member Dwayne Meadows gave a riveting account of his 1 mile ride from the Indian Ocean tsunami. After a 3-day vacation dive trip, he stayed the night in Khao Lak, Thailand - the worst hit part of that country. When the tsunami hit, he was in a bungalow 50 feet from the ocean. After the tsunami he returned twice to Thailand to advise and assist in 3 projects throughout the country.

Auction Success Thanks to generous donations from Rangers and active bidding, the club raised over $1000 for Divers Alert Network and continues to be one of just a handfull of DAN "Silver Donor" dive clubs. Special thanks to auctioneer Rob Anderson and to Robin Sparer for keeping track of bidders and sales.

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