February 2011 FCDA Surface Interval.

FAIRFIELD COUNTY DIVING ASSOCIATION
February 2011
Volume 18 Issue 2
Inside this Issue
Presidents’ Corner
page 1
New Members
page 2
FCDA Donors I
page 2
Secretary’s desk
page 3
FCDA Donors II
page 3
DAN Virtual Medic page 4
FCDA Donors III
Events of Interest
page 4
page 5
FCDA Member Ads page 5
Diving Historical
Wrecks
page 6
Next FCDA Meeting
page 8
M2 — The Presidents’ Corner
“Oh the weather outside is frightful…..we’ve got no place to
go…..Let it Snow, let it Snow….”
I bet you want to strangle the
guy that wrote that song by now.
We all have places to go and it
has not been easy to do that this
winter. Hopefully those of you
who have had travel plans made
it out and home without much
delay and safely.
Tomorrow will mark the third
consecutive full day of school for
Connor. You may wonder why I
am making a point of this; well it
is February 8 when I am writing
this and this will be the longest
stretch of full days he has had at
school since they returned from
the Christmas break. Unbelievable, and the school has already
taken away the February break
and it looks like they will also be
making days up in the summer.
Normally I love the winter; we hit
the slopes on weekends and even
get in some winter dives with good
vis and no crowds. Maybe it has
been the timing of storms this year
but I haven’t been able to enjoy it
as much. It is a time like this that
I look at the dive mags a little differently, especially the travel deals
sections. It is very tempting to
pick up the phone and book a trip
out of here for a warmer climate
and get some diving in. So if you
don’t see me at the next meeting I
just may be off enjoying myself on
a dive boat somewhere.
This month we are fortunate to
have Captain Hank of the Garloo
for our speaker, so come on down.
Also if you haven’t paid your dues
now is the time since there will not
be a March meeting because of
Beneath The Sea and Sea Rovers.
We come back in full-swing with
our Easter Egg Hunt/Beach CleanUp on April 17.
Have fun, enjoy the rest of the
winter and most important dive
safely. Ciao.
Page 2
FCDA Donors
New FCDA
Members
Welcome aboard to th e
following in dividuals w ho ha ve
r e ce nt ly b e co me n e w
members o f t he Fairfield
County Diving Association:
The b usiness l isted o n t his page h as donated
dive gear and dive services to help support the
Fairfield County Diving Association.
New England's Tech Diving Center!
John & Toni Morgan
14 Scott Pl
Stamford, CT 06902
H: 327-1498
jtmorgan203@cs.com
New England Dive Center
476 North Colony Street
Wallingford, CT 06492
Dealer for
OMS,
UWATEC, O ceanic,
M ares, D a
c or ,
C r e ssi -S u b ,
P o s e i d o n ,
Scubapro, B
are,
O'Neill
and
Henderson.
P.O. Box 3005,
Fairfield, CT 06824
Internet mail: fcda@aol.com
http://www.fcda.us
2011 Board
Presidents
VicePresident
Secretary G
Treasurer
Matt Rownin &
Mike Cassetta
Mark Shannon
eorge Sharrard
Paul J. Gacek
203-284-1880
Fax 203-284-1355
The region's foremost
source fo r sc uba a nd
technical d iving g ear,
training
and
everything f or the
r ecr ea tio n al o
r
serious tech diver.
Draeger
Atlantis I
Rebreather
training,
certification
and rental.
New E ngland D ive C enter o ffers complete t raining for all le vels o f
diving, f rom O pen Water t hrough t he m ost a dvanced t echnical
courses. O ur in struction p rovides c ertification t hrough SSI, P DIC,
TDI and IANTD.
Visit us on the Web: http://www.nedive.com
Page 3
From the Secretary’s desk
No new snow for almost a week!
Tells me it is time to think about
local diving. Here are some useful
links if you’re tired of the fire
truck:
Block Island Sound
Bill Palmer - Thunderfish
www.thunderfishcharters.com/
Gery Chellis - Atlantis
www.atlantis.nu/index.htm
Long Island Sound
Noel Voroba - Orbit Diver
www.orbitmarine.com/
Long Island
Hank Garvin - RV Garloo
www.garlooent.com/
John - Lockness
www.locknessdiveboat.net/
Shark Dives
Charlie Donilon - Snappa
www.snappacharters.com/
index.html
FCDA Donors
The b usiness l isted o n t his page h as donated
dive gear and dive services to help support the
Fairfield County Diving Association.
Page 4
DAN Will Have Medic –
Virtual or Live – at
Every Show It Attends
Have you ever wanted to talk to a
DAN medic as you wandered
through the DAN booth at a dive
show? Now you can, and you’ll
have the opportunity to do so at
every show DAN attends in 2011.
FCDA Donors
The b usiness l isted o n t his page h as donated
dive gear and dive services to help support the
Fairfield County Diving Association.
There will be a live medic in the
booth to answer questions at select shows this year; at the others,
DAN is offering the chance to
speak to a “virtual medic.”
The “virtual” refers only to the fact
that technology is used to connect
you to the medic; using a computer kiosk in the booth, anyone
with a question can be connected
to a live, on-call medic to receive
an answer or assistance.
“DAN is constantly looking for
ways to expand the service we
provide our members,” said Nicholas Bird, DAN CEO and chief medical officer.
“Our medics noted they receive
questions at every show and event
they attend and wondered how we
could provide the same service
even when a medic wasn’t there in
person. So we worked with our
show coordinators and devised this
solution.”
DAN launched the function at the
DC Dive Show this past weekend.
Several divers took advantage of
the opportunity to talk to a live
medic while their question was
fresh on their mind.
Rex Dive Center
Offers Technical Diving Classes
Interested in taking your training to the next level?
TDI Instructor George Sharrard (# 10270) will be
offering:
Intro to Tech
Advanced Nitrox
Decompression Procedures
Starting in May 2011
Join us in March 2011 for an open house at Rex Dive Center’s Norwalk store to talk about schedules, class requirements and gear.
Page 5
Events of Interest to
FCDA Members
February 26, 2011 - The Boston Scuba Show - 9:00 AM 3:00 PM - Holiday Inn and Resort,
Junction of Rtes 495 and 20, Marlboro, Ma. Tickets at $25 each will
be available at the door on the day
of the show, or in advance by writing to: Cecile Christensen, 2 Ocean
Ave (1-H), Gloucester , MA 01930 .
Checks payable to Cecile Christensen. For more information: http://
www.easy-diver.com/
BostonScubaShow2011.htm
March 4-6, 2011 - Boston Sea
Rovers 2011 Clinic - Crowne
Plaza Boston North Shore Hotel in
Danvers MA. Over 40 Saturday and
Sunday Daytime Seminars, featuring slide and video shows from
around the underwater world! For
more information: http://
www.bostonsearovers.com
March 25-27, 2011 - Beneath
the Sea 2011 - Meadowlands Exposition Center, Secaucus, NJ.
Workshops and Seminars. For
more information: http://
www.beneaththesea.org
April 2, 2011 8:30 am to
11:30 am Diving Medicine
Conference Danbury Hospital
Nicholas Bird, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Divers Alert Network
Charles A. Mckay Jr. MD
Vice Chairman Connecticut
Poison Control Center
Hartford Hospital
David Charash, DO
Department of Emergency
Medicine
Wound Care Hyperbaric
Medicine
Danbury Hospital
view of marine envenomation.
ACCREDITATION
3.5 Hrs. Category 1 CME
REGISTRATION
David.Charash@danhosp.org
Susan.Iovino@danhosp.org
Advance Registration
by March 31, 2011
May 21-22—DUI DOG Rally &
Demo Tour Dutch Springs, Bethlehem, PA nota bene: this is the
only DUI Demo Days event in out
area this year. There is no event
scheduled at Brownstone Water
Park. If you want to ‘try dive’ a
DUI dry suit—this is your event.
Dr Bird will review diving Hospital physics and review common
diving emergencies
Dr Charash will review assessment of diving medical fitness
Dr Mckay will present an over-
FCDA Member Ads
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Get your business card size ad in the FCDA monthly newsletter “Surface I nterval” for only $50.00 for one
year. Give y our bus iness a bo ost a nd he lp s upport the pr oduction o f o ur monthly ne wsletters. F or m ore
information, write to FCDA, P.O. Box 3005, Fairfield, CT 06824 or email to fcda@aol.com.
Page 6
Clearing Up Misconceptions
About Diving Historical
Wrecks.
by: SpiralBound
In the world of archeology there
are no digs more difficult than
those lying beneath watery depths.
Digging underwater has in fact,
proven so difficult that most archaeologists find more reasons to
avoid these sites than to dig them.
When an underwater site is taken
on the team will sometimes resort
to extremely complex and costly
ends to make it a dry site. They
may, for instance, attempt to divert or drain the water from a
shallow site, effectively making it a
dry land dig, avoiding the challenges involved with a submerged
site. Techniques like these are not
cheap, and require massive
amounts of time and planning so
the fact that they are done in the
first place tells us that if at all possible any archaeological project is
best dug on on dry land. This gives
us a hint as to how complex and
challenging an underwater dig
must be.
Why is it so difficult? Shouldn’t a
team just be able to put on some
scuba gear and head on down to
the site? After all, the bottom of
the ocean is silty and soft; shouldn’t that make it even easier to dig?
In almost all cases, projects that
involve digging in shallow water
(15-50 feet) are the simplest. They
render only slight physiological
complexities and divers are usually
able to stay down much longer
than on deeper dives. This is, however, not to say that they aren’t
without their challenges. How for
instance, does an archeologist remove the silt covering the artifacts
without causing the water around
him to become so clouded with
sediment that he can’t even see?
One might think that you could
just brush the silt aside and the
water would carry it away but it
doesn’t. Once the visibility has
been ruined it can take several
hours for it to settle again. Underwater archaeologists have had
to invent techniques and tools
that literally suck up silt, leaving
behind the covered artifacts.
Of course if the site is at the bottom of a river or in an area of the
ocean where there is a current, the
silt is simply washed away by the
moving water, but how does the
team keep themselves and the artifacts from being washed away as
well? I can say from my own experience that fighting against a
strong current gets to be exhaustContinued on page 7
Page 7
Continued from page 6
ing and frustrating after only a few
minuets. Archaeologists have gone
so far as to build structures around
a shallow site that divert the current. This technique does not actually emerge the site, but rather
acts as a shield against the current
much as a car’s windshield diverts
the strong wind from the driver’s
face.
So where does an archaeologists
begin to take on a project of this
magnitude? Well, as it would logically follow, the first challenge is
actually finding the wreck. Needless to say, not every archeologist
has access to a research vessel
and cutting edge Navy sonar and
submarine technology, so clearly
this type of research is left to
those with the highest budgets.
Since we can’t have a shipwreck
to explore without a wrecked
ship, and since the action of a
ship wrecking tends to kill people, archaeologists, have to be
sensitive to the idea that in most
cases these sites should be
treated as graveyards. Some archaeologists take great care not
to disturb the wrecks he finds. He
refuses to bring any artifacts at
all to the surface and focuses instead on mapping and charting
the sites. This “take only pictures,
leave only bubbles” mentality
shows great respect for those
who have perished and their
families. The archeologist is still
able to discover and learn key
facts about the history of the ship
or the way it went down but the
wreck is left intact.
If our base of knowledge is to continue to grow with respect to maritime history and ship construction,
it is absolutely essential that archaeologists are allowed to continue exploring both the very shallow and the very deep wrecks
alike. For this to happen, universities and research institutions must
be willing to finance these projects, and there must be some
world wide provisions put in place
to eliminate the trend of treasure
hunting so that countries will be
able to trust this delicate research
to those most qualified.
Page 8
Next FCDA Meeting
Friday - February 25, 2011 - 8:00 PM
Coast Guard Cottage - South Benson Marina - Fairfield, CT
Northeast Wreck Diving
a presentation by
Captain Hank Garvin
Captain Hank Garvin will speak about decompression diving, the RV Garloo, the San Diego and the
Oregon. Hank has been diving since 1962 and has been a divemaster since 1976. He has written articles for several different dive magazines. Hank has mated on two different boats and currently owns
and operates the RV Garloo after diving on her since 1982. He has been on a several major dive expeditions (the USS Monitor, the Black Sunday wrecks (off Cape Cod) and the Andrea Doria. The RV Garloo is one of the true live aboard dive boats in the Northeast.
Fairfield County Diving Association
P.O. Box 3005
Fairfield, CT 06824
Address Service Requested
Don't Forget To Pay Your Dues 2011