Introductions Please

sparky · Post by **sparky** » Fri May 19, 2006 10:06 pm

Doug is being a little on the shy side as well for all the dives he has he is one of the best dive budies you could have

any one ever get the chance to dive with doug youll see what I mean .

welcome doug now you cant hide in the Shadows no more

Sparky

Tangfish · Post by **Tangfish** » Fri May 19, 2006 10:49 pm

Thanks for the background info Doug, and I hope to dive with you soon too $\:D/$

Actually, just this past week I started analyzing the traffic stats of this site and I was astounded at the number of folks who have been visiting us, reading only and not registering or writing. It's cool in one sense, that our site is getting a good deal of visits, but I'd like to figure out what would make it more inviting to others, so that we can grow the club and help to link up more divers. :rr:

BASSMAN · Post by **BASSMAN** » Sat May 20, 2006 6:20 am

Welcome to the Club Doug!
Have you ever dove Clear Lake, down there?

Diver Doug · Post by **Diver Doug** » Sat May 20, 2006 1:23 pm

No I have not yet. I still dive wet so I'm not sure if 42 degrees would be fun.

Doug

sparky · Post by **sparky** » Sat May 20, 2006 3:14 pm

doug 42 in a wet suit is not bad at all I have a few dives at that temp.

I do know a guy that has dove clear lake and I have invited him to join but I have not seen Roy white loge on here yet.

Sparky

Sheri · Post by **Sheri** » Mon May 22, 2006 8:49 pm

Greetings, All.

First off, please ignore the snorkel in the avatar... the pic was from my certifcation dive!

My name is Sheri, I'm 37, and I got certified through UWS in Seattle back in March, so I'm still considered a newbee. So far I've spent most of my time at Alki coves 1&2, but have time in at Mukilteo T-docks, a couple of cool dives off of hood canal, Edmonds, and last weekend the junkyard off the other side of Alki. All well and good (almost to #20), but I want more! Any time in the water is good, so if you'd be willing to put up with someone still learning, I'd sure be grateful.

Out of the water I'm a night-shift RN up at Swedish, so my schedule is a little wonky. But I do manage every other weekend off and mid-weeks every other week, so hopefully I'll be able to hook up on a wednesday at cove 2. I have yet to meet the octopus at the honeybear.

Thanks again for the welcome, and I look forward to getting wet with y'all.

Take care.
- Sheri

DiverDown · Post by **DiverDown** » Mon May 22, 2006 9:02 pm

Welcome to the board Sheri, im sure youll be diving with us soon. We are also planning a BBQ weekend in hood canal you should join us!!

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Mon May 22, 2006 9:05 pm

Hey, Sheri, glad you made it! Sheri and I completed our AOW together last weekend, and she's good people. Sheri, these are a bunch of cool folks here, and they've been kind enough to let me tag along on some dives lately- you should try to hook up with us for one soon!

sparky · Post by **sparky** » Mon May 22, 2006 9:39 pm

Sheri:

Welcome to our POD ( Pool Of Divebudies)

I guess if you like Nailer you cant be all bad.

you would be more then welcome to join us at the BBQ metioned before
most of us have not yet had the pleasure of meeting each other this is the hole idea of the BBQ weekend

and any chance to meet ney friends and dive not to metion food Im in how about you?

Sparky

BASSMAN · Post by **BASSMAN** » Tue May 23, 2006 6:40 am

Hello and welcome sheri!
Looking fwd to meeting you some day, at some dive!

maybe at the BBQ @ Hood Canal. $\:D/$

"Wow, to a non diver that would sound like we all meet at some bad bar."

"I like Hanging out at Dives"

Later,
Bassman (Keith)

Tangfish · Post by **Tangfish** » Tue May 23, 2006 11:42 am

Hola Sheri!

From the sounds of it, you're hooked on diving (20 dives since March!). You're more than welcome to meet up with us tomorrow evening at Cove 2. The official time is around 6:30, of course we have some laggards but that leaves us with some chit chat time $\:D/$

Other than that, I'm probably doing to be diving on both days this weekend (but divemastering for a rescue class on Sunday = playing the victim). You should hop on over to the Dive Plans page to see when folks are putting things together. There are always plenty of buddies available around here. :rr:

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Tue May 23, 2006 7:28 pm

Welcome Sheri,
I am going to have to take a refresher course myself, it has been over a week since I have been in the water!!!!!

Anyway, there are plenty of folks here to dive with and I look forward to seeing you in the water!!!!!

Tangfish · Post by **Tangfish** » Tue May 23, 2006 9:42 pm

Dave wrote:Welcome Sheri,
I am going to have to take a refresher course myself, it has been over a week since I have been in the water!!!!!

Very soon, I'll be qualified to do that refresher course for ya Dave $\:D/$

Sheri · Post by **Sheri** » Wed May 24, 2006 10:35 am

Yay! I'll be sure to check out the weekend for the BBQ.

One question before tonight's cove 2 thing.. One tank or two? I'm still renting wetsuit, wts and tanks for each dive (I'm hoping to be fully outfitted by the end of the summer - at least my wallet hopes I will be!)

C ya tonight around 6:30 at cove 2.

- Sheri

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Wed May 24, 2006 10:57 am

Hey, there she is! Glad you're joining us tonight! If you can, bring 2 tanks- we may do a second dive at dusk, or not- it depends on how everyone feels after the first dive.

-Josh

Sheri · Post by **Sheri** » Wed May 24, 2006 11:13 am

Cool. Two tanks it is. Nailer, even if it means just puttering around the shallows working on better bouyancy, I'm up for a dusk dive with ya. $\:D/$

See ya tonight!
- Sheri

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Wed May 24, 2006 1:07 pm

That'd be cool- I want to take the training wheels of my BC one of these days!

Tangfish · Post by **Tangfish** » Wed May 24, 2006 3:44 pm

See you tonight too Sheri. Nailer will be in a large green van that looks like the perfect dive machine. You can see my ugly mug right here on my avatar so I shouldn't be hard to find. I'll be parked curbside at the north end of Cove 2 just before the railing at around 6:30, in a silver bmw x5.

Maverick · Post by **Maverick** » Wed May 24, 2006 4:33 pm

Sheri I have heard about you and glad to meet you tonight. I know my girlfriend will be happy to meet you, because she always says we need chick divers,( well she says girl divers ) but all in all good to have you with us.

Sheri · Post by **Sheri** » Fri May 26, 2006 10:49 am

Although a day late, I just wanted to give a hearty thanks to all of you for making me feel so welcome Wednesday night at cove2.

Now I KNOW things, like 500psi left in a high pressure tank is not necessarily an emergency... that free descents are easier when performed more like a skydiver... that organic chemistry was a REALLY fun class at WSU, and that the Hamburgler still lives around Seattle somewhere...(robble robble) ????

Hope to be hooking up again soon. I'm on next Wednesday night, but there will be other times, I'm sure. Thanks again for letting me hang around!

- Sheri

Grateful Diver · Post by **Grateful Diver** » Fri May 26, 2006 11:37 am

Hello … my name is Bob and I’m a dive junkie.

Back around the turn of the millennium I used to hang out at the local YMCA … playing pickup basketball every chance I got as a way to keep in shape and control my burgeoning waistline. But … being an old, fat dude … I kept hurting myself trying to keep up with the younger, slimmer, more physically fit guys who tended to show up for those games. Then one day after limping back home with a particularly nasty ankle injury, my wife laid down the law and told me to find something safer to do … something that wouldn’t keep sending me home with casts and bandages wrapped around various body parts. So I chose scuba diving. I signed up with a class that was being taught through the YMCA’s YScuba program.

I started my first OW class on my 49th birthday … February 6th, 2001 … and became OW certified about five weeks later. By then I knew I had become terminally addicted to excessive levels of nitrogen … I just couldn’t get enough. I purchased a bunch of gear, joined a dive club, and started organizing my social life around scuba activities.

My wife quickly came to realize that if she wanted to see me on the week-ends, she was going to have to do something drastic … and so she enrolled in a scuba class and got certified three months later. Ironically, although our marriage didn’t survive the ensuing years we still dive together frequently.

Over the past five years, I’ve managed to rack up nearly 1,500 dives. I’ve also become a NAUI instructor … currently teaching at Fifth Dimension in Issaquah. I am one of those people who loves taking classes and expanding the limits of my scuba experience … I currently have certifications of one level or another from six different training agencies. But, not surprisingly, I’ve learned more outside the classroom than I ever did through classes … being lucky enough to dive with some very experienced divers such as Randy Williams, John Rawlings, and Ron Sallee (aka “Uncle Pug” on ScubaBoard). These three, in particular, have been very influential on my diving, and I do my best to “pay it forward” by mentoring newer divers every chance I get.

I can be found at Cove 2 … a place I affectionately refer to as “The Office” … two or three nights a week on average. Week-ends, I’ll dive wherever the current takes me. Besides the Puget Sound/Hood Canal/Juan de Fuca area, I’ve dived in several Vancouver Island locales, California, Belize, Bonaire, Roatan, and Bali. Places I haven’t dived yet, but look forward to getting to in the coming years include the Galapagos, Papua/New Guinea, and Alaska.

Looking forward to hooking up with as many of you as possible over the coming months.

… Bob (Grateful Diver)

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Fri May 26, 2006 12:01 pm

Hey, Glad you made it out, Sheri- I told you this was a good bunch, didn't I? (except for Mavrick, that is

)

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Fri May 26, 2006 12:04 pm

And hey, there, Bob- nice to "meet" you again! I'm hoping to meet you in person on the 5th for that "newer divers" dive at cove 2 you posted on Scubaboard.

Tangfish · Post by **Tangfish** » Fri May 26, 2006 12:12 pm

@Sheri, it was great to meet you and I'm glad to hear that you found a bit of knowledge diving with us (even though I didn't get to dive with you). I look forward to seeing you in the water again soon!

$\:D/$

@Bob, what a fantastic intro and story. It's always neat to hear about how folks fall into diving. I, for one, was sent on assignment as a joke of sorts by the managing editor of a travel magazine I contributed to. The folks there knew I wasn't too keen on the ocean or water sports, so they sent me to conquer my fear of water by getting my OW in Thailand. Well, after dive 1 I knew I was hooked. I was planning dive trip after dive trip and my friends were saying that I was crazy, having only 4 dives under my belt and learning about gear and buying plane tickets. Well, now it's about 3 1/2 years later and I had the good fortune of diving some of the most beautiful reefs around the world while working for the Mag. Now, I'm stuck in Seattle (not a bad place to be stuck, mind you) and so I'm getting really into playing around with gear that was prohibitive due to the weight/size restrictions of travel.

BTW, any time you want to play some hoops with another out of shape diver, let me know.

As far as your instructing and mentoring goes, your reputation precedes you and I'd love to do a specialty cert with you (maybe Advanced Nitrox, or DAN 02 if you teach either). I'm just at the tail end of my Divemaster cert, with the mapping project as the last thing I have to do. I'm not terribly good with directions on the surface, so we'll see

I'll have to arrange to visit you at The Office, or maybe you can jump in on one of the weekend dive plans we have going. I think we're going to dive Three Tree this weekend, it looks like a huge exchange but slack is at around 12:30 which is a great time for me (I'm infamous for not wanting to wake up early on the weekends, I guess I have to say that it's a reputation that's well-deserved).

Anyways, I better end it here before I write an entire novel. Great to have you aboard Bob and Sheri and I can't wait to go diving with you guys

John Rawlings · Post by **John Rawlings** » Fri May 26, 2006 3:26 pm

Wow.....Bob.....I am extraordinarily flattered to be mentioned as someone that has influenced your diving. In my opinion the influence has gone both ways and I consider myself enormously fortunate to number you among my friends.

Best regards.....as always!

- John

Northwest Dive Club

Introductions Please

Saying Hi.

One or two?