Adventure writer, newbie diver

amandacastleman · Post by **amandacastleman** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 5:11 pm

Hello all,
I'm a Seattle-based journalist, specializing in travel and adventure. I'm an advanced open-water diver, but may never have the paperwork to prove that second tier (the instructor in Cartagena, Colombia, just did NOT have his paperwork ducks in a row). Ah well.

I've only hit Puget Sound twice so far, but love what I've seen. As soon as I scrounge some gear, I hope to dive more. A lot more.

Examples of my work are here, including scuba stories about Roatan, Honduras, and the Hood Canal: http://www.amandacastleman.com.

I'm always grateful for article suggestions: bring 'em on.

Thanks for the warm welcome to the club. Cheers, Amanda

Cera · Post by **Cera** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 5:53 pm

Welcome to the club. I enjoyed the HC article; Its great that you bring awareness to crisis of the waters!

Tom Nic · Post by **Tom Nic** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 6:39 pm

Welcome Amanda! Loved your recent article in the PI!

You'll love it here! Don't let the fact that the PI will only print one or two articles a year about scuba keep you from diving!

Hope to see you in the water sometime!

-Tom

jeff98208 · Post by **jeff98208** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:20 pm

welcome to our cornor, i mean our hole in the wall. you'll beable to dive alot more than you claim here. later!

good day!
jeff

jackieg · Post by **jackieg** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 6:49 am

Welcome, Amanda! Great to see you here. I'm looking forward to diving together, Hood Canal was a blast.

Please let me know if I can help you with any gear issues. My garage somehow keeps sprouting extra gear the longer I am into diving. You know..the "why have one when you can have two" theory of redundant scuba gear.

Jackie

Aquanautchuck · Post by **Aquanautchuck** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 10:08 pm

Welcome to our great little "Nut and Fruit Bowl" Sounds like you will fit right in.

:wav: :wav:

Charles

Tangfish · Post by **Tangfish** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 12:03 am

Hey Amanda, thanks for making it official and introducing yourself

I'm sure we can scrounge together enough gear to get you in the water, between all the divers here. Just let us know when you want to splash!

Sergeant Pepper · Post by **Sergeant Pepper** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 9:32 am

Nice articles Amanda, and welcome to the club.

sparky · Post by **sparky** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 8:42 pm

Amanda

welcome to our POD you aill find this is the place to be if you want to meet grate dive buds

I had the chance to read through you artical on the Hood Canal
grate story I realy emjoyed it I am looing foward to the chance to read some more

you know now john Rallins will have a dive budy to talk shop with he is a wrighter for Advanced Diver Magazine you two will have a lot in comom
both love to dive the north west and then wright about it

I think Im in the wrong line fo work

Sparky

Sasquatch · Post by **Sasquatch** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:31 pm

Amanda,

Better late than never. Welcome to NWDC. I look forward to meeting you sometime.

Dave (Sasquatch)

amandacastleman · Post by **amandacastleman** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 8:10 pm

I was in Europe on assignment and completely missed this thread last spring. Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome. Better late than never indeed – and it cheered up my grey October.

With the help of Jackie de Haven and Underwater Sports (Federal Way), I was out covering Dive for the Cure the other weekend.

"Why are you in a wetsuit?" everyone kept asking.

First I was really honest and said, "hey, borrowed gear, crap freelance income."

But from here on out, the official line is: "cause I'm harder than you!"

Amanda

Joshua Smith · Post by **Joshua Smith** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 10:01 pm

amandacastleman wrote:I was in Europe on assignment and completely missed this thread last spring. Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome. Better late than never – and it cheered up my grey October.

With the help of Jackie de Haven and Underwater Sports (Federal Way), I was out covering Dive for the Cure the other weekend.

"Why are you in a wetsuit?" everyone kept asking.

First I was really honest and said, "hey, borrowed gear, crap freelance income."

But from here on out, the official line is: "cause I'm harder than you!"

Amanda

Ha! Welcome back, neighbor. Looking forward to having an Aquavit with you and Jackie at the Copper Gate one of these days.

Post by **Sea of Green** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:17 am

Welcome! Adventure writer eh? Has the Warren car been written about enough? Personally I think it's one of the more interesting NW dive stories.

John Rawlings · Post by **John Rawlings** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 5:04 am

Sea of Green wrote:Welcome! Adventure writer eh? Has the Warren car been written about enough? Personally I think it's one of the more interesting NW dive stories.

Frankly, the discovery team and the family would actually prefer it to NOT be written about any longer. The more people read about it the more it is looted. It has been declared an official gravesite, yet some bastards have decided that they need souvenirs!

- John

Grateful Diver · Post by **Grateful Diver** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 5:25 am

Ah, the perils of fame ... unfortunately, it was inevitable once word got out and the "public" was allowed. Even more unfortunate, the only way to prevent it is to make it inaccessible to everyone.

Besides, 170 ffw is awfully deep to dive in a wetsuit ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

jackieg · Post by **jackieg** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 2:44 pm

Amanda! Check the threads girlfriend! The awesome stuff happens right here...NOT in Europe....uh....I think?

Jackie

Post by **Sea of Green** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 10:04 pm

John Rawlings wrote:
Sea of Green wrote:Welcome! Adventure writer eh? Has the Warren car been written about enough? Personally I think it's one of the more interesting NW dive stories.
Frankly, the discovery team and the family would actually prefer it to NOT be written about any longer. The more people read about it the more it is looted. It has been declared an official gravesite, yet some bastards have decided that they need souvenirs!

- John

Sorry I mentioned it. I'll shut up about it then.

amandacastleman · Post by **amandacastleman** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 3:50 am

Nailer99: Coppergate it is, unless we decide to introduce Jackie to the 36oz SuperSlooper...

Bob: you're right about 170ft in a wetsuit. Even three feet is too far, really.

Jackie: Europe's not my fault. It's those pesky editors who MAKE me go there ... and Central America and, um, Palau...

But NOTHING beats the Auburn Supermall. Swear.

Sea of Green: Hacks always walk a fine line between preservation and publication. I have a lot of favorite places that don't see print, because I'm a selfish cow – sounds like the Warren car is a good candidate for that list.

John: Can I be you when I grow up?

Post by **Sea of Green** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 9:06 am

amandacastleman wrote: Sea of Green: Hacks always walk a fine line between preservation and publication. I have a lot of favorite places that don't see print, because I'm a selfish cow – sounds like the Warren car is a good candidate for that list.

Address that to John, not me. I have never been to/can't get to the Warren car and had no part in it's discovery.

John Rawlings · Post by **John Rawlings** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 9:31 am

Hee Hee Hee......I understand where Amanda is coming from, Sea of Green, and I agree with her. Every now and then as a writer you run into something that is SO cool that you can't wait to write about it.....but you realize that if you do there could be negative consequences for the site or subject you want to write about. It's then "decision-making time" and you need to balance things out regarding the possible consequences.

I doubt if anyone has written more about the Warren case than I have, (although when our team leader Dan Pontbriand's book comes out he'll definitely be in first place!), but when I look back at it I often wonder about if I hadn't publicized it so much would it have been less vandalized? I'll never know the answer to that question, but it haunts me a wee bit from time to time.....

- John

CaptnJack · Post by **CaptnJack** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 9:48 am

Does the Warren car have any historic significance? Emotional significance to the relatives and all certainly yes. But the car isn't novel or unique right (I don't know what type/model it is)? I.e. if it were derelict in a field it wouldn't have any special meaning or deserve museum status? Does the Park service consider the car archeologically significant, or just a grave?

John Rawlings · Post by **John Rawlings** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 10:48 am

CaptnJack wrote:Does the Warren car have any historic significance? Emotional significance to the relatives and all certainly yes. But the car isn't novel or unique right (I don't know what type/model it is)? I.e. if it were derelict in a field it wouldn't have any special meaning or deserve museum status? Does the Park service consider the car archeologically significant, or just a grave?

Depends on the "eye of the beholder", I guess.....

Yes, the Warren car does have historic significance on a local level over and above emotional significance. Here in the PNW in the late 1920s and early 1930s it was a famous disappearance/missing person's case that filled the newspapers at the time.

It is a 1927 Chevrolet, and similar vehicles that still exist are in fact on display and are worth tens of thousands of dollars to museums, antique car collectors and enthusiasts, but that fact alone doesn't make it historic. It was the means and manner of its disappearance and discovery that have done so. In fact, in the view of many historians, the fact that this particular car can be proven to have been part of a specific, documented news-worthy event AND can be proven to be affiliated with specific and known individuals adds to both its overall worth and its historic significance.

Consider the aircraft wrecks in Lake Washington - after the end of the war, many aircraft of these types were literally almost "a dime a dozen" to a government and military that was winding down and good only for the scrapyard. It was the manner of their loss and their discovery decades later by divers that have made them historically significant, just as with the Warren vehicle.

And yes, the NPS does, in fact, consider the Warren car to be archaeologically significant and not "just a grave". In fact, removing, defacing or otherwise disturbing ANY artifacts within a National Park is a crime.

How about if we simply all do our best to protect ALL wrecks? Protecting one such wreck surely cannot detract from the need to protect others, can it?

- John

CaptnJack · Post by **CaptnJack** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 11:18 am

Does the office of Archeology provide the car with protected status? Is it considered on "state lands" Or just protected by the NPS?

I'm just asking, I'm not trying to say the car/site has no value. Although since its been vandalized it clearly has some sort of value. The perpetrators either stole part of it for parts, historic "treasure" reasons, or just trashed it because the destruction of something worthwhile gives certain people a thrill.

John Rawlings · Post by **John Rawlings** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 12:04 pm

CaptnJack wrote:Does the office of Archeology provide the car with protected status? Is it considered on "state lands" Or just protected by the NPS?

No, I don't believe that the Washington Department of Archaeology would be involved at all as it isn't on State land - it's on Federal land and is federally protected. The State of Washington has no jurisdiction. It is the same with all National Parks.

But let's get back to the purpose of this thread.....WELCOME BACK, AMANDA!

- John

amandacastleman · Post by **amandacastleman** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 1:59 pm

Thanks, John. I'm really enjoying the discussion though. Don't stop on my account, especially since this a great distraction from my deadlines here...

Northwest Dive Club

Adventure writer, newbie diver

Adventure writer, newbie diver

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