 Divers
in Florida probably wonder why anyone would need a dive club. After all,
it’s easy to drive over to the Keys, drop-in at any one of hundreds of
dive charters, pay your money and have a great dive. Divers in areas
where diving is not so accessible are more inclined to form or join a
dive club to meet fellow divers and have enough people to organize group
charters and trips to dive resorts. But here in Florida you might think
it wouldn’t be necessary or desirable.
Over the years Gary and I have always belonged to a dive club.
Shortly after he got his diving certification in 1964, we moved to
England. After finding a place to live, the next order of business was
to figure out how to get diving in a new environment. We lived in
Yorkshire, a beautiful, hilly and slightly chilly area located about 60
miles from both the east and west coast. The shorelines of northern
England are rugged and rocky so you really need to gain some local
knowledge before plunging into the 40-50 degree water. We were happy to
discover the Leeds branch of the British Sub Aqua Club (BSAC) and
although we were the only Americans to ever approach them for
membership, they invited us to join. The BSAC concentrated on continuing
education for divers. Gaining a certification required lots of diving
activity. But don’t get the idea that it was all cut and dried – they
also loved to party. Our branch had a clubhouse, complete with a full
bar and every member was required to take a turn at bartending at the
frequent gatherings. They loved to challenge us with requests for things
that we had never heard of and thoroughly enjoyed watching us wallow in
confusion trying to do it right.
The club quickly became an important part of our lives and despite
our ignorance in the finer aspects of English culture, the members
adopted our family and included us in their many adventures. They took
us camping in caravans (basically travel trailer parks where you can
rent a trailer for a week) to Oban, Scotland. Oban is considered a Mecca
for British divers with dives ranging from shallow shore dives, drift
dives or exploring WWII shipwrecks. Lobstering was also very popular and
our then 4-year old daughter was proud to tell everyone that we went
camping and had a piece of tail. The group included us in family picnics
and dinners. They even recruited us to set up the first ever BBQ booth
at a regional gathering and made posters declaring Gary “The American
BBQ King”.
Eventually, it was time to return home to the U.S. We arrived in
Maryland in late fall and by the time we settled in, we had located a
local dive club. The Atlantis Rangers were based out of College Park and
over the years we were members they became the largest dive club in the
North East with over 500 members. By this time we were beginning to
understand that dive clubs love to dive but they also love to eat and
party. Our membership entitled us to join the weekend dive trips that
took us to the wrecks of New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. They had an
active dive training program so most of our Sundays over the winter were
spent in the pool with students who were working on their certification.
It was a family affair - instructors and helpers worked with students;
others lugged equipment and even the kids showed up to swim or just
watch the activity. After the pool sessions, we all headed to our
favorite breakfast spot or sometimes just ended up at someone’s house
where we enjoyed a late breakfast, early lunch or afternoon BBQ (yes, we
even did this in the middle of winter). We watched the Redskins on TV
and cheered for the University of Maryland basketball team. In the
spring, when it was time for all of the students to complete their
checkout dives, we all headed to a nice quarry in Myerstown,
Pennsylvania that had spacious campgrounds. It was a fun place to
continue our quest of sharing the best food, the finest beer & wine that
our little budget could afford and to tell tall tales of our latest
diving exploits.
Somewhere around 1977, Gary’s co-worker mentioned a job that was
opening up in Guam. We weren’t exactly sure where Guam was but we knew
it was in the Pacific and that the water was warm and clear. Within 6
weeks we sold our motor home, 2 motorcycles, and our 7-year old American
Motors Hornet. We yanked the two kids out of school, drove to
California, shipped our newly acquired Dodge Ramcharger to Guam and
never once questioned our sanity. First thing on arrival we looked for a
dive club and to our dismay, there wasn’t a club – no one could see the
need since you could drive to any beach, walk out to the reef and have a
fantastic dive almost any day. We still thought it would be nice to have
someone else to play with so we got together with some of our new diver
friends and started a dive club – why not? And big surprise, we
chartered local boats, met on Friday nights for island dinners, hiked
down the cliffs to a remote beach and camped overnight. We organized
trips to Truk Lagoon and filled the charter boats with our buddies and
friends. It was a sad day when we decided to give up the island life and
return to Maryland but the good news was that our Atlantis Ranger
buddies were still going strong and we just jumped in as though we had
never been gone.
By 1980, the quest for adventure had us on a plane headed toward
Taiwan. We knew that we would be flying over the Pacific so it seemed
logical to take a slight detour to Truk Lagoon. Adrienne, our 16-year
old daughter had learned to dive on Guam and 13-year old Scott had just
completed his checkout dive at the quarry in Pennsylvania. Our Trukese
friends were happy to see us and even gave guided underwater tours of
the wrecks to the kids so Gary and I could take some photos.
We arrived in Taiwan in late October, moved into a house, signed up
for Chinese language lessons and found the local ex-patriot dive club,
the China Sea Dragons. The club had been around for a while but after
the normalization of Taiwan and departure of the U.S. government, had
dwindled down to just a few loyal members. We joined them in December,
just in time for their annual Christmas party but had to miss the
January meeting. In February, we arrived at the meeting to discover that
Gary had been elected President in our absence! Gary was the only
English speaking NAUI instructor on Taiwan so demands on his time for
classes were overwhelming. Club members quickly jumped in to help with
pool sessions and checkout dives on the coast. Our little group grew and
over the 5 years we lived there we enjoyed several group jaunts to dive
in the Philippines, up and down the coast of Taiwan including the
tropical reefs of Oluanpi in the southernmost part of the country and as
always made lasting friends who are still part of our lives today.
After our return to the U.S., it seemed that there was a long, dry
spell. Actually, Gary was still diving with the Atlantis Rangers but I
was finding it hard to convince myself that dry suits were going to be
part of my life. By the time we arrived in Japan, I had been out of the
water for quite a while but we found a dive club and immediately began
the process of planning excursions, parties and vacations to places such
as Palau & Truk. Living in a non-English speaking country provides
challenges so having a regular group of buddies to go diving with is a
definite benefit. At least we could all be clueless together and we did
know how to enjoy picnics on the beach after our dives.
Eventually we made our way to Florida and in the first week we
arrived, we discovered the Caloosa Dive Club. We attended a meeting and
were amazed to discover that they met almost every week. We couldn’t
imagine that anyone would actually get together for a meeting once a
week but here we are years later and we get to most meetings. Of course,
they aren’t all business – we have to suffer through Chili Cook-offs,
Cinco de Mayo celebrations, ham dinners, spaghetti dinners and then
there is the annual banquet where the girls get all gussied up and some
of the guys even wear socks. We have a yearly Spearfishing and
Photography competition and we have been triumphant in the Cape Coral
Cardboard Boat Regatta several years in a row.
Do we dive? You bet we do. We have a dynamic diving calendar. When we
schedule dives in the Florida Keys or the East Coast areas such as
Pompano, we charter the whole boat. That way we get to set the number of
divers that will be comfortable on a boat as well as where we will be
diving. In addition to the regular dive schedule, members have put
groups together for dive vacations in Bonaire, Curacao, Honduras, Truk
Lagoon, Cozumel and just recently Costa Rica. We’ve made friends who are
now our family and even with all of our scheduled activities; we still
get together for non dive club occasions just because we like each
other.
So, if you ever wondered why any Florida diver would want to join a
dive club, this article may help. We consider it an important lifeline. |
