Laurel Divers, Monthly Newsletter, December 2000

Laurel Divers
Monthly Newsletter

December 2, 2000

President:	Donna Bender	(814) 472-9796
Vice Pres:	Lance Marks	(814) 479-2000
Secretary:	Lois Keegan	(814) 472-0774
Treasurer:	Barb Wyland	(814) 344-8081

December 2, 2000, Penn Gables, Ebensburg, Christmas Party
Approximately 40 members present, and guests.

Next regular meeting: Thursday, January 4, 2001, Penn Gables, 7:30p.m.
Next board meeting: Thursday, January 11, 2001, Maurer Dive Shop, 7:30p.m.

President, Donna Bender, called the meeting to order.
Donna welcomed all to the annual Laurel Divers’ Christmas Party and offered a summary of the past years’ dives. Please remember to get your dive trip dates to the January meeting so they can be included in next year’s calendar.

A big Thank-You Bob & Rose for all their help during the year. A gift certificate was presented to everyone’s favorite buddy team for their untiring assistance throughout the year.

Certifications recognized:
Thanks again to Brad McVicker for his time and talent in giving the CPR classes. Brad presented certification cards to Barb Wyland, Denny & Sandy Beecher, Everett Newkirk, Tom & Hayley Faight, John Augustine, Chuck Zupon, Dave Knepper and Lois Keegan.

Many thanks to Sue Morra & Shelley Kirkpatrick for offering the Dan O2 provider course. Laurel Divers attending the course were: Lance Marks, John Castle, Sylvia Mackinnon, Denise Horne, Dan & Diane Turcovsky, Denny & Sandy Beecher, David Lee, Lois Keegan, John Augustine, and Ron Peterson.

Kudos again to Sue & Shelly for the DAN Hazardous Marine Life Class. Donna reported that there’s nothing like taking a marine life course from a professor of biology! Thanks from your students: Dan Turcovsky, Greg Turcovsky, Donna Bender & John Betting

Welcome to Laurel Divers - New Members
Nick Weakland & Autumn Smith - certified October 2000, Maurer Dive Shop

Upcoming events
New Year’s Day Dive 1:00p.m. at the quarry
Christmas party - next year on Dec 1, 2001

Board member election results.
New Board Members are: Bert Sharbaugh, Dan Turcovsky, Denny Beecher and Joe Gordon. Many thanks go out to our esteemed President for keeping the ballot clear and easy to read. The ballots were tallied by our voting commission and reported on without the need for lawyers or a recount. Again, Laurel Divers RULE!

Door prize winners:
$50 gift certificate - Dan Turcovsky, Bert Sharbaugh
$25 gift certificate - Paul Brawley, Brad McVicker
Odor be gone - Everett Newkirk
Equipment wash - Jim Hostetler
wet suit cleaner - Ron Peterson
DAN 02 mask - Lance Marks, Rick Paige
Ornament - John Fry, Matt McVicker, Barb Wyland, Dan Zimmerman, Mel Rumbaugh, Nelda Donnelly, Donna Bender, Rob Glasgow, Sherry Skebeck, Rose Maurer

guest door prizes
wal mart gift certificate - Sharon Hostetler, Norm Cox, Kelly Steinbring
Tropical snow globe - Tom Butler, Vickie Buda

50-50 winner - $150 – Julie Paige

Donna then turned the party over to our Dashing Diving DJ’s, and we all ate, drank and danced the night away. Thanks again McVicker Men. What other dive club out there has their own DJ’s? None, I think. And what other dive club has their own CPR instructors and DAN O2 instructors? We are truly a blessed club. Blessed with much time and talent from our members. Many, many thanks to all for sharing your time and expertise. Happy Holidays to all!

I Don’t Know Nothing!
I finally do know something!
Ron Peterson, Adam Weber and Damin Mazoff completed their requirements for Dive Control Specialist (DiveCon) in November.
And there’s a new lifeguard in our midst: Matt McVicker recently completed the rigors necessary to become a lifeguard.
Our waterways feel safer already guys! Congratulations!
Please let me know of any events or diving milestones you have made. Birthdays, anniversaries, 100th dive? Call me, we’ll talk. Lois@TechniqueSystems.com or 814 472-0774.

Dear Sherwood:
I went to dive class to learn to dive. I found the instructor person very “hot!” What do I do? Make eyes at him or just pretend to be out of air a lot? Buddy breathing is my favorite! Or, I could just be really stupid and do a 98’ dive on my second dive. The instructor paid close attention to me after that and made me hang on the dive line with him for a VERY long time… sigh. Signed, In lust with my divey instructor.

Dear In Lust:
If this dive instructor is making you feel like you’re out of air, quit messing around with the buddy breathing. Occasionally, dive instructors are a little narced and need a more direct approach. I would recommend going straight to resuscitation techniques. (See “Recent Events” on LaurelDivers.com, John & Donna practice resuscitation techniques) I think he’ll get the message after a few breaths.

Dear Laurel Divers: For those of you who held back on your Thanksgiving invitations because of rumored “bear droppings” on your carpet, I say poo on you! I am a civilized bear! I will be traveling to Vegas with Boston Jim in mid-December and am planning to spend New Year’s with the Nittany Divers in the Keys. Do you think an uncivilized bear would get invited to these events? DO YOU? Get past the rumors guys. I am a beary civilized bear. And in keeping with my civility and the season, I would like to wish you and yours a Beary Merry Christmas and a Happy and Blessed New Year. Your beary best dive buddy, Sherwood

Students Go Under the Sea
Hugh Conrad, “Here and There”
Tribune Democrat, November 27, 2000

The early November snow has left many high school students mesmerized with the outdoors, dreaming about a jaunt down one of the challenging slopes at one of the area ski resorts. But some Cambria Heights High School students are preparing to do some scuba diving in late November.
The students are members of an unusual high school class that affords them the opportunity to earn college credit while taking a marine biology and oceanography class.
The students become certified in scuba diving during the class and venture into the waters of the ocean to see firsthand the wonders contained within.
“This is a highly technical class,” said high school principal Tim Laurito, who teaches the class along with Rick Bishop. “We are probably the only (school) in Western Pennsylvania that has a marine biology class in high school.”
“The kids get a chance to experience different things. We are trying to train kids, hopefully, to do the research. It has worked out to be very unique. We are almost doubling the number of kids who want to get into the class next year.”
The class is being taught in conjunction with St. Francis College in Loretto, and the students earn four college credits upon completion. The school also has a long distance agreement with the University of Miami and is working on an affiliation with Edinboro University, Laurito said. It affords the students, who were required to meet a rigid number of prerequisites to gain entrance to the program, some great opportunities.
“It is different because it is not just classroom work,” senior Ryan Bishop said. “We do outside work, like scuba diving. I always wanted to go scuba diving. You never know what you are going to run into.
“We went to Blue Hole, (a quarry in) Williamsburg. We swam through an old school bus that was torn out on the inside. There was a lot of neat stuff down there.”
Laurito is a certified scuba diver and instructor. He teaches that part of the course, along with all of the underwater aspects of the study while Rick Bishop instructs the students in the biology and oceanography aspects of the course in the classroom.
So far, the students have liked the class.
“The neat part from a teaching perspective is that they can see firsthand what you are teaching in the classroom. That hands-on (experience) helps them because after we talk about it in class, they can go out on scuba trips and see what I am talking about,” Bishop said.
The students also completed certification in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Laurito credits a Carrolltown man, Bob Maurer, with providing the expertise and the equipment that permit the students to be certified in scuba diving for the course. That process is extensive and must be done in conjunction with a national agency.
I am a master instructor, like (Laurito) is, and we go under Scuba Schools International, SSI,” said Maurer, who owns and operates a dive shop south of Carrolltown. “It is a certifying agency. They set minimum requirements for open water divers.
Everyone has to follow those guidelines. We have actually made these guidelines more stringent than the ones for SSI.”
Maurer provides the scuba gear and the tanks and other requisite equipment that is essential to the divers. Each outfit costs between $1000 and $1,200.
But in a class where one aspect does depend on weather, some disappointments have occurred. Two trips had to be postponed.
“We were going to go to Fenwick Island (north of Ocean City, MD),” Laurito said. “But there were 6-foot waves and we had to be safety-minded. We then rescheduled it, but they had 6-foot waves again. We canceled, due again to Mother Nature.”
The marine biology and oceanography course not only opens up the advanced learning opportunities for the students, but it also enlightens them about the environmental issues confronting the world’s oceans.
“We have learned all about the animal structures and how certain animals have drastic effect on our oceans,” senior Dave Shanfield of Hastings said. “Lake Erie has (a problem with) gobys. They were just introduced through bilge water that ships were dumping. The water makes it into Lake Erie and the gobys have changed the whole ecosystem. The zebra mussels were inhabiting the bottom of the lake, but the gobys feed on the zebra mussels.”
The students will venture south on February 9 to the National Aquarium in Baltimore.
“We will be able to go behind the scenes and see how they mix the water and make their saline solutions,” Bishop said. “We will also see how they do their feeding of everything. Then on April 1, 2 and 3, we are going to Wallops Island, Va., to the marine research facility. The students are going to be doing marine research on boats and seeing the three days the kind of technology that they use there.
“They will really get a lot of hands-on experience. They will put it all together, everything that we are covering in the oceanography, the marine biology class.”
The students will also have an opportunity to go scuba diving the Chesapeake Bay, where scientists are planting and harvesting grasses at depth of 5 to 10 feet, Bishop said.