The Presidents Corner by Matt Rownin

Transcription

1 FAIRFIELD COUNTY DIVING ASSOCIATION February 2013 Volume 20 Issue 2 Inside this Issue The Presidents Corner by Matt Rownin page 1 FCDA Donors I page 2 February Raffle Winners page 3 Events of Interest to FCDA Members page 3 FCDA Member Ads page 3 High Pressure Hose Recall page 4 FCDA Donors II page 4 Surface Interval Items page 5 FCDA Donors III page 5 Memorial Dive for Sandy Hook page FCDA Financial Report page 7 Next FCDA Meeting page 8 The Presidents Corner by Matt Rownin Well we tried everything; embezzled money, released scandalous pictures, didn t plan meetings ahead of time and I even left the state for a vacation on Club time and we were still re-elected. So I guess you are stuck reading our articles for ONE MORE YEAR. Aren t you lucky!!!! Winter is slowly trudging buy, we have had a good mix this year some snow, some cold weather and even some warmer temps to give you an idea of what is around the corner as Spring approaches. With the Winter it comes time to re-new your membership. Don t delay we need to replenish the money that was embezzled J. Wait too long and we will send Paul to your house to collect and trust me you don t want that. Mike and I had the honor of attending the Memorial Dive for Sandy Hook on January 19 at Dutch Springs, which was a great event for a good cause. We were also part of the group of 26 divers who went on the Candle Light Vigil Dive to the School Bus where a memorial plaque was mounted in honor of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School. For a winter day in January the turn-out was tremendous; there must have been at least 200 people there that day and the amount of gear donated by local and national SCUBA vendors was amazing. It was a great feeling to be a part of this and to see the amount of support that spreads way beyond our immediate location. All the credit goes to Jeremy Stein and the Members of Newtown Underwater Search and Rescue (NUSAR) who planned and organized the event. The next time you are down at Dutch take dive to the School Bus and check out the plaque and take a moment to remember those that lost their lives on that horrific day. This year we are going to continue with our Summer premeeting BBQ at the cottage. The festivities will start at 7pm for the meetings in May, June, July and August. It will be BYOF (Bring Your Own Food) and the grill will be lit and beer and soda can be purchased. Anyone that wants to take the plunge prior to the meeting can also brave the 10 depths off the beach as well. Stay tuned..we have a very exciting meeting schedule to be planned this year; you won t want to miss it. Up next is Captain Bill Palmer for our February meeting; he will be doing a presentation on the U-853 the subject of his new book and will also have copies to purchase and sign. See you all real soon. Dive Safe.. Matt

2 Page 2 FCDA Donors The business listed on this page has donated dive gear and dive services to help support the Fairfield County Diving Association. New England's Tech Diving Center! New England Dive Center 476 North Colony Street Wallingford, CT Fax Dealer for OMS, UWATEC, Oceanic, Mares, Dacor, Cressi-Sub, P o s e i d o n, Scubapro, Bare, O'Neill and Henderson. P.O. Box 3005, Fairfield, CT Internet mail: fcda@aol.com Board Presidents Matt Rownin & Mike Cassetta Vice-President Mark Shannon Secretary Charles Blanchette Treasurer Paul J. Gacek The region's foremost source for scuba and technical diving gear, training and everything for the recreational or serious tech diver. Draeger Atlantis I Rebreather training, certification and rental. New England Dive Center offers complete training for all levels of diving, from Open Water through the most advanced technical courses. Our instruction provides certification through SSI, PDIC, TDI and IANTD. Visit us on the Web:

3 Page 3 January Meeting Raffle Winners After a very colorful presentation on Diving the Phillipines by our own Andy Cummings, the club held its regular raffle to support our DAN Platinum sponsorship. The winners were: Micro Net donated by New England Dive Center - Bob Sawcze; OMS Snorkel donated by Orbit Marine Dive Center - Paul Gacek; Key Chain donated by New England Dive Center - Julie Hellburg; Fin Bag donated by New England Dive Center - Amanda Parry; Dive Care Essentials donated by New England Dive Center Dr. Alvin Rosen; B.C. Knife donated by New England Dive Center DenisHabza; Oms Reg Bag donated by Orit Marine Dive Center -Denis Habza; Yoke Light donated by Orbit Marine Dive Center Dr. Alvin Rosen. Thanks to New England Dive Center and Orbit Marine Dive Center for donating tonight s raffle prizes for our DAN raffle. Remember, you can't win if you don't buy tickets and you can't buy tickets if you don't get up and come out to FCDA events and meetings! Events of Interest to FCDA Members February 24,2013 Boston Scuba Show. March 9-10, 2013-Boston Sea Rovers Show. March 22-24, 2013 Beneath the Sea. April 6, 2013 Diving Medicine Conference. FCDA Member Ads Hey - have you got a non retail-diving business that you d like to share with fellow members of FCDA? Get your business card size ad in the FCDA monthly newsletter Surface Interval for only $50.00 for one year. Give your business a boost and help support the production of our monthly newsletters. For more information, write to FCDA, P.O. Box 3005, Fairfield, CT or to fcda@aol.com.

4 Page 4 Phantom High Pressure Hose Recall Combined CPSC High Pressure Hose Recall Document FCDA Donors The business listed on this page has donated dive gear and dive services to help support the Fairfield County Diving Association. To: Scuba Diving Industry From: Innovative Scuba Trident Diving Equipment A-Plus Marine In September each of our companies completed many actions regarding a recall of certain date coded high pressure Braided HP air hoses. We have yet to get all of the affected hoses returned so we are sending out this additional notice. We each have ed our customer base about the recall and we also sent a second round of s and snail mail to customers who specifically purchased affected hoses from us that included a poster or printable pdf poster to affix in their outlets. We reported the recall to the Consumer Products Safety Committee (CPSC) in early August and they have now finished their investigation and have issued a CPSC Recall which includes the Mesh Flex hoses (Trident) and Phantom HP braided hoses (Innovative Scuba and A-Plus Scuba). Information on the recall is available from each of our companies through our websites. AplusMarine.com InnovativeScuba.com TridentDive.com Please assist us in capturing and returning any hoses affected by this recall. Sincerely, A-Plus Marine Innovative Scuba Trident Diving Equipment

5 Page 5 Surface Interval Items CLUB EXPENSES We would like to decrease our printing and postage costs and laborby ing the newsletter to anyone who would like to get it this way. If interested, send your address to Internet FCDA Donors The business listed on this page has donated dive gear and dive services to help support the Fairfield County Diving Association. fcda@aol.com Go 21st Century Today! You also save money, get your newsletter sooner and don t have to rely on the post office! PHOTO of the MONTH Send your favorite diving photo and story to be published in the FCDA newsletter - Surface Interval. digital photos to; Charlie Blanchette at uncas297@att.net. Rex Dive Center Offers Technical Diving Classes Interested in taking your training to the next level? TDI Instructor George Sharrard (# 10270) is offering: Intro to Tech Advanced Nitrox Decompression Procedures Stop by Rex Dive Center to talk about schedules, class requirements and gear. Or, georges00z@aol.com for more information.

6 Memorial Dive for Sandy Hook at Dutch Springs Page 6 On Jan. 19, 2013 a Memorial Dive for Sandy Hook Elementary School was held at Dutch Springs in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The Candlelight Vigil Dive was organized by Connecticut s Newtown Underwater Search and Rescue (NUSAR). While NUSAR itself was not dispatched to the site of the atrocity, many of NUSAR s staff are also firemen and ambulance corps EMTs, and they were at the school that day because NUSAR s building is virtually adjacent to the Sandy Hook Elementary School. All of the proceeds of the Memorial Dive were donated by NUSAR to the Sandy Hook Support Fund, for benefit of the families of the children and teachers murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dutch Springs owner most honorably offered up the whole facility to NUSAR for the Memorial Dive; After a horror like this, knowing that your peers in the dive community at large have your back, and are your virtual buddy providing support and showing solidarity is greatly comforting. Comfort and solace has been in terribly great demand by too many people including the first responders. Mike Cassetta from Sandy Hook dove. Event Coordinator and NUSAR diver Jeremy Stein began the Memorial Dive with an invocation and then led those assembled in a moment of silent reflection and prayer. While the event had many laughs and good times -- never far from the surface was the underlying reason for the Memorial Dive - honoring the memory of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School (SHES) shooting, and raising funds for the Sandy Hook School Support Fund, to support the families of the victims and first responders. Matt Rownin also participated. Earlier in the morning -- and before the 11 a.m. Candlelight Vigil Dive kickoff, NUSAR Team Captain Brian Solt, and NUSAR team members Hans Williams and George Robinson headed into the water to install a memorial plaque on the underwater bus at Dutch Springs. The plaque reads In memory of the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary School. Our hearts are broken but our hope is unbreakable. The state of Connecticut is the background of the graphic, which includes a heart symbol at the geographic location of Newtown, CT. The Candlelight Vigil Dive profile for the day was simple and meaningful - a processional of 26 divers (representing the 26 victims of the school shooting), each stopping to review the plaque, their green and white glow sticks serving as candles and representing the colors of SHES. The divers included public safety divers, civilian divers, and Search and Rescue personnel from a wide area from Connecticut to Virginia. Northeast Search and Rescue provided surface support for divers entering and exiting the water. For everyone reading this who will dive on the bus in the future, please take a moment while you are down there to remember the children and teachers and their families -- and also please remember the first responders who were at that horrific scene and the first responders teammates too. A natural question is why Dutch Spring was selected for the Memorial Dive. Jeremy Stein explained, We wanted to create a permanent memorial to honor the victims and the first responders involved on that tragic day. This is our way of supporting the town that has done so much to support us. Stein further explained that Dutch Springs provided an ideal place to create a permanent memorial that could be viewed by millions of people. A combination of the central location, the size of the facility and the clarity of the water, not to mention the school bus that seemed like a perfect medium, made Dutch Springs the perfect place. Dutch Springs is near and dear to all northeast divers hearts; and many of us earned our open water certification diving there. Excerpts from Dive News Network By Gary Lehman

7 2012 FCDA Financial Report Page 7 Balance as of 12/31/2011 $2, DESCRIPTION INCOME EXPENSE GAIN/(LOSS) Ads $ $ Dues $ $ Speakers $ ($125.00) DAN Raffles $1, $1, DAN Sponsor $1, ($1,000.00) Refreshments $ $ ($59.98) Easter Egg Hunt $43.21 ($43.21) Clambake $ $ ($149.89) Holiday Party $ $ $ Xeroxing $ ($171.97) Office Supplies $42.53 ($42.53) Get Well Basket $59.97 ($59.97) Postage $84.88 ($84.88) Web Page Hosting $ ($118.80) TOTALS $3, $3, $ Balance as of 12/31/2012 $3, Treasurer

8 Page 8 Next FCDA Meeting Friday, February 22, :00 PM Coast Guard Cottage, South Benson Marina, Fairfield, CT "Diving the U-853 with John Chatterton and Richie Kohler" a video presentation by Captain William "Bill" Palmer Dive the wreck of the German submarine U-853 sunk off Block Island with John Chatterton and Richie Kohler of Deep Sea Detectives aboard the Thunderfish. Captain Bill has written and published his book "The Last Battle of the Atlantic - The Sinking of the U-853" and will have copies for sale ($30) and custom autographing at the meeting. Fairfield County Diving Association P.O. Box 3005 Fairfield, CT Address Service Requested