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It’s been a dry winter for many of us. By that I don’t mean the dry
season but the fact that we haven’t been in the water as often as we
like. Don’t get the idea that Caloosa Dive Club Members are
sitting around in their bathrobes and watching HBO all winter. Some 2008
winter activities included a Chili Cook-off, a special Valentine’s Day
dinner, a Crab Claw Festival and a delicious Ham dinner. There are still
more to come including a spaghetti dinner and Fish Fry & Silent Auction.
We have enjoyed guest speakers who provided interesting information and
also some who shared their photographs of underwater life. A
representative from Homeland Security helped us sort through the
confusion of leaving and returning to the U.S. (particularly boat
owners). Brent Argabright from Dean’s Dive Center gave us some insight
into the world of dive computers and some of our own club members are
planning a Sign Language session to help us improve our underwater
communications. We are hoping for a Cape Coral Police Dive Team in
April.
A trip to Sea World and a swim with the Manatees ended up being good
ways to beat the winter doldrums, and the divers who ventured out for
the “Lemon Shark Dive” actually saw a shark.
The Hyperbaric Chamber staff in Fort Myers gave us a tour of the
facility and provided valuable information that should part of every
diver’s continuining education. This has been a very popular tour in the
past and we plan to repeat as often as people are interested.
In April we are having a Charity Softball game that was a huge success
last year. This is a fun game. Anyone gets to play or cheer from the
bleachers and then enjoy a BBQ with all the fixings.
Club members are involved in community support activities such as
Operation Open Arms (www.operationopenarms.com)
which provides free benefits to soldiers on R&R from Iraq, Afghanistan
and other war zone areas. The Heights Foundation (www.heightsfoundation.org)
is the work of another member of the Club. The Heights Foundation is a
grass-roots, hands on organization that provides educational and
life-changing opportunities for families in the Harlem Heights
community. The proceeds from our upcoming Charity Softball Game will go
to the Heights Foundation.
Some of our club members participated in the recent Cape Coral Canal
Clean-up which involved boating around the local canals and looking for
trash. They pulled up small floating items as well as bigger things like
plastic lawn chairs and an old, rusty crab trap.
The Cardboard Boat Races in May are always fun. We usually have 3
or 4 entries in the race. For the past several years, the women of the
dive club have built and raced a boat and each year the boat seems to be
bigger (holding 6 or 8 or 10 paddlers). We have also cheered along one
of our brave members who squeezes himself into the smallest boat in the
race. One year it was a shoe and most recently a pumpkin. We aren’t sure
what is in store for this year’s race.
Many club members have already been diving this year. Gary and I are
hoping the weather will be good for the first weekend in April so we can
get wet (and probably cold) in the Gulf. We’re keeping our fingers
crossed. We’re also scheduled for a Key’s trip at the end of April so I
guess for us “The Pool is Open”.
Now all we have to do is head out to the garage and locate all of the
gear that has been resting for the past few months. We did take the
opportunity to have our equipment checked and overhauled so it’s just a
matter of packing up our dive bags and making sure no critters have
taken residence in any of the wetsuit boots or snorkels.
The Caloosa Dive Club dive schedule is busy for the upcoming season.
There are 2 trips to the Dry Tortugas as well as several dives on the
East Coast and in the Keys. Club trips are limited to club members only
and usually fill up quickly. There are some members-sponsored trips such
as an upcoming trip to Cozumel and a later trip to Little Cayman that
often include non-club divers (or bubble watchers and shoppers). One of
our trips last year took us to Curacao with a big group of members and
some divers from as far as Virginia and Hoboken, NJ.
Our organized dive schedule runs into November with a few interruptions
such as a raucous Halloween Party, our Annual Awards Banquet (where
photographers and spearfishers find out if their entries were good
enough to win) and the 3rd annual Underwater Pumpkin Carving Contest. We
wind down the year with a Christmas Party and in January start all over
again.
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