Four Lakes SCUBA Club

A big thank you to Jim and Tinamarie from Diveheart for driving all the way up from Chicago to present at the November meeting. Jim is excited about plans to build a deep warm water pool and other future plans. They both were disappointed to have to cancel trips and pool sessions during the pandemic lock down. But were able to use the time very productively. They updated the website, training materials and media kit. And did a lot of reorganizing.

We haven’t seen our friends at Diveheart in a few years. During that time, they have grown. There are more people on the team and more teams around the country.

Jim and Tinamarie showed a couple of inspirational videos showcasing adaptive divers.

They send their thanks to everyone who donated gear. Thank you also to Diversions for helping to coordinate some of the collection.

Are you interested in learning more, making a donation, getting certified as an adaptive dive buddy, or referring an adaptive diver to their program?

Call 630-964-1983

Email info@diveheart.org

US mail 900 OGDEN AVE. #274, DOWNERS GROVE, IL 60515

Website https://www.diveheart.org/

YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/DiveheartFoundation/videos

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/diveheart/

This month we welcome back Jim Elliot and Tinamarie Hernandez from Diveheart. Since 2001 Diveheart has been servicing children, veterans and others with disabilities through adaptive scuba and scuba therapy. Jim & Tinamarie will help fast forward Diveheart activities to 2023 including current scuba therapy research with university medical centers, international adaptive scuba training and trips, current pool programs and the planned deep warm water therapy pool and aquatic facility planned in the Chicagoland area.

Be sure to check out their Facebook page and YouTube channel for updates and inspirational stories.

The traditional annual anchor-boil continued another year in 2023. This year’s Phoenix Party was a great success! The rain subsided shortly earlier in the afternoon and we stayed dry. We had about a dozen attendees and enjoyed some delicious steak sizzlers, mushrooms, and pie.

There were plenty of anchors that got cooked and doused in cold water. To our surprise, one of the anchor’s stems disappeared in the fire. Danny found it the next morning as a blob of aluminum in the ashes.

Special thanks to Danny and Betsy for inviting us over to their wonderful garden and hosting the event another year!

WUAA is having an exciting symposium in Manitowoc on October 21. Click HERE for more information.

Join us on October 11th at 7pm at Benvenuto’s Fitchburg for our next meeting and speaker:

Our speaker, Ed Bieber, was featured in our local paper and has agreed to come talk to our club. “I scuba dive, clean up our waterways from trash, find treasures along the way, meet a bunch of cool people, inspire other and make videos for my social media channels. I’m a spur of the moment kind of guy.” Come welcome Ed and hear about his interesting finds.

Join us Sunday, September 17th for the Four Lakes Scuba Club Lake Wazee dive. We will meet at 9:00 AM at The Wall which is dive site #2 on the map. The first dive will be at the wall, we will have a surface interval and then move to another site for our second dive.

Fees: There is a $5.00 per person dive fee and a $5.00 per car fee, payable at the lake. Bring exact change because it’s usually self registration.

Bring: Dive gear, C-Card, snacks or lunch, water, dive flag (required)

Any questions email president@fourlakesscubaclub.org

Join us on September 13th at 7pm at Benvenuto’s Fitchburg for our next meeting and speaker:

Our speaker this month is local celebrity Rick Krueger, as seen in the August issue of Madison Magazine. Better known as Radio Rick. “I’m a lifelong resident of the city of Madison who grew up on our chain of lakes. After getting certified in 1991 I bought a boat and outfitted it with the “latest, greatest” sonar available at the time (in my budget of course). When side scan sonar was made available by Humminbird in 2005 they sent me a demo unit to see how it would work for locating drowning victims. I quickly released the potential of this new technology and have updated my equipment whenever new systems are available. Since I retired over 12.5 years ago I shoot for being on the water at least 100 times a year, scanning the bottom looking for lost “treasures”. To date I’ve located over 70 sunken boats in the Madison chain as well as literally tons of other objects. We’ll be looking at some of the more interesting finds. Tami Thomsen has dove on and photographed a lot of the boats that you’ll be seeing tonight. While I still dive most of my time is spent searching and using my Aqua-Vu camera to identify what I can.”

We got a sneak peek about this shipwreck at our July meeting with Brendon Baillod. The Trinidad sank in 1881 in 270 feet of water off of Algoma. It is intact including the wheelhouse, crew’s possessions, anchors, ship’s wheel, and other items. Read more here.

There is a 3d model to explore at Sketchfab

We had another perfect day for DEF. Thank you to our host, Randy!
THE DIVE: There was good viz for a few feet and then again below 30 feet. It was very warm above the thermocline. In the 40’s below it. The granite walls are always cool to look at with the sun coming up over them. Divers found a little trash, a wallet with ID and credit cards, cell phone, Apple watch, ring, $6.15, a shirt worth keeping, and a grill top. John and Ellen replenished their supply of “Quarry Glasses”. They use them on vacation. It’s nice not to have to worry about losing glasses on a dive boat.

THE EATS: Grilling outside with friends is a treat. There were many tasty dishes to sample including garden fresh vegetables, pasta salad, deviled eggs, cookies and Caprese skewers.

THE FLOAT: Gayle appears to have taken over as the person to puncture her flotation. She made it down the Mecan with the air left in the pillow part of her float. We saw a few other floaters and kayakers, but otherwise it was a peaceful trip.

EAT SOME MORE: Some of us sat awhile longer enjoying the conversation and more food.
What a fun filled day. Join us next year.