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| FROM THE PRESIDENT |
Note From the Editor:
John Schmidt has worked out a way send e-mail messages to the total FSDA
membership. This has been a problem as the members “Spam Blockers” were
blocking them out. He now regularly sends informative and motivational
messages. Therefore, the message previously found here will be included in
the one which informs them that the latest issue of the Bulletin has been
posted on the internet.
BE SURE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE “SOUTHERN OPEN
STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS” CLICK ON THE “TOURNAMENTS” BUTTON OF THE HOME PAGE FOR
COMPLETE INFORMATION ON BOTH THE PHOTOGRAPHY AND SPEARFISHING EVENTS.
SunCoast Seals
The Seals are looking forward to competing in the WCC
Tournaments, and will be sponsoring the first tournament out of the Pasco Ramp.
We have the good fortune of having “Shooter Dan” Addison as president for the
second year. He puts a lot of effort into getting the members to participate in
all of the events. He also actively promotes (and the members support) the FRA.
The picture below is an example of why he is called “Shooter Dan”. His gang took
first in snapper and he placed 10th in the Spearboard Tournament.
Dave Shelton has spent a lot of time coordinating the State Freedive
Championship. The tournament was held a Bayport after two postponements due to
foul weather. The trophies were large, colorful paintings. He and Tom Morris
competed in the event.
David and Tom have also been busy coordinating the “Southern Open State
Championships” (Spearfishing and Photography) which will be held June . They
want to thank all of the many sponsors who have contributed to a great prize
table. Be sure to patronize them, and to call up the “CALENDAR” on the “HOME
PAGE” for the latest scheduling of these events.
The Seals give a big welcome to new members Jeff Fredrick, and Rodney Penwell.
Summer with the
SeaBunnies!
It’s a new dive season – so let’s get wet!!! The Seabunnies welcome Lisa B as
our new President, and Leslie B as Vice President this year! Pat is returning as
Treasurer and Paula will handle the Secretary duties once again. We say Thanks
to our outgoing President and Vice President: Eileen and Rita.
We have a new website:
http://www.divefsda.com/Sea_Bunnies.htm with many thanks to John Schmidt for
his great efforts! Lisa B and all have been hard at work booking dive trips and
fun events, so check out our website and sign on up! This has been a great
endeavor, and many former Seabunnies have been able to keep up with the club. On
May 18th, our founding member, Betsy Hoaglin hosted a “Reunion” at her lovely
home wherein 15 present members came along with eight former members. It was
great to see: Terry Gustafson, April Hoaglin, Darlen Kalada, Lynette Millus,
Ginny Cardinale, Janet Ward, Heidi Klark, and Barbara DeWald again! There were
lots of juicy stories to tell!
Mike Yagman catered our “Ice Breaker” dive May 7th, but only two Seabunnies –
Eileen and Lisa T – braved the cold waters and choppy seas. But I see from the
Bunny Board that the day was a good catch for Lisa T!
Deb H put together another fabulous east coast dive on May 20-22nd. Deb, Lisa T.
Lisa B, Rita and friends and family dove with Splashdown Divers in Boynton
Beach. Water temp was an even 78 degrees and visibility was fabulous – 50’-60’.
We had turtles, sharks, and dancing dolphins! Yes – dancing dolphins down
underwater with divers! You know you’re lucky to be able to snorkel with
dolphins, but we all know dolphins do not come near divers underwater. We’re
such odd creatures and we make a lot of noise and bubbles! Well this pod had a
young dolphin who was just too curious for his own good. The little one came
within 15 feet of us on the reef, before mom and dad realized he got away! Then
mom and dad caught up and circled around the little one in a protective dance,
then drift away from us all. We were just mesmerized!! Of course, Rita didn’t
have her camera, but Deb saved the moment with her camera! Or so we thought….
Unfortunately, Deb found out after the dive, that the film wasn’t advancing, so
no photos were taken! But still, we’ll always remember these dolphins!
It was an especially eventful weekend for the Boings... While driving over
Saturday morning to Boynton, Lisa’s 1999 Blazer at 75,000 miles blew a rod
bearing in Arcadia and … bottom line ...a new motor was needed! Good news is
Splashdown Divers waited for them as they rented a Grand Prix car! Can you say “Squeeeeeeeze?”
– it was Lisa, Scott, their two boys, and her mother-in-law, and tanks, gear, &
luggage in that little car! They had great diving though. Lots of turtles, eels
and angelfish. Lisa T's and Lisa B switched cameras and housing and they both
learned a lot that weekend. We all look forward to the photos! But Scott did
comment that for the amount of money we spent on a new motor, they could have
dove in Tahiti instead!!
Most divers will agree that Memorial Day weekend was finally scuba weather.
After months of wind and high seas, we are finally back to enjoying calm Gulf
waters. For Mary T, local diving is not producing a lot of big fish at the
moment, however Snapper seem to be larger than usual. The water visibility is
fabulous. Spotted rays, Bottle-nose Dolphins, and sea turtles are gracing the
Gulf.
In mid-May, Mary T went on a live-aboard spearfishing trip in Southern Florida.
The first day she lived through 6 - 7 ft seas, and spent the afternoon in bed
trying not to be sick. Day two was better and she got wet. She stoned the
biggest Grouper of her life... a 50 lb Black (Carbo)!! Wow, she didn't realize
he was that big until she landed him on the boat. The hunt happened in such slow
motion it was surreal. That kind of catch will probably never happen again for
her, but she is happy as she finally got her dream fish!! The picture of her 50
pounder can be seen on the FSDA web site, under the Sea Bunnie Fish'n Pics
section at
http://www.divefsda.com/SeaBunnies/SeaBunnies2.htm
No FSDA bulletin report is complete without an exotic dive report from Rita, so
we’ll oblige. Rita, once again, took off to Fiji for her birthday in March. We
all know that she doesn’t repeat her trips, but with Fiji having 300 islands,
Rita could actually go back 298 more times and never repeat anything! Those
islands are breathtaking, both above and below the water! This time, they stayed
on Denearu Island, off the northwest coast of the big island, and dove the
string of keys going north. The boat rides were longer than last year’s trip on
the southwest part of the big island, but seas were smooth. Water temp was a
constant 85 degrees and Rita was happy!! They dove in between the two “Castaway”
islands – one sandy island was filmed for the beach scenes of Tom Hank’s movie
“Castaway” and the other mountainous island was where they filmed Tom climbing
to the top of the mountain. The water was a beautiful blue so you can see why
the producers chose this area for the movie. And the underwater vis was as far
as you care to see! Rita was experimenting with the digital camera and she did
quite well for the first time out! Digital photography is a whole different
ballgame than print film! But she got lots of photos of clownfish, lion fish,
clown triggers, Moorish idols, puffed puffers, bannerfish, giant clams,
unicorns, a firefly and a mystery fish! See if you can identify the “mystery
fish” below. These parts of Fiji’s islands are mostly large hard corals with
soft corals growing on the underside of ledges. The coral is flawless –
untouched and pristine. The table top coral is a fine lacey coral that grows out
from a mushroom-type base to a flat table top (some as large as a table for
12!!). You know this kind of hard coral is extremely fragile, but there was no
broken coral anywhere! And all the colors of the rainbow can be found underwater
here! Every day was another wonderful adventure. You can be sure that this won’t
be the last Fiji report!!
Hey Seabunnies -- It’s time to get competitive! If you’re not diving – then why
don’t you enter our T-Shirt Design contest! We need a new club t-shirt and need
design ideas! So get your creative juices flowing and email Lisa!
‘Til next time … Happy Diving!
Bunnie Board - 2005
Grouper:
Lisa Tatro 6.1 lbs
Mary Taylor 50 lbs
Hogfish:
Mary Taylor 3.5 lbs
Can you Snapper:
Lisa Tatro 2.5 lbs
Mary Taylor 5.3 lbs
Sheepshead / Triggerfish/ Flounder:
Lisa Tatro (Trigger Fish) 2 lbs
Amberjack / Barracuda / Cobia:
Mary Taylor AJ 18
lbs
Lobster:
Mary Taylor (Slipper Lobster) ¾ lb.
Save Our Seas:
Mary Taylor - Total points = 1
Lisa Tatro -
Total points = 3
Rita Fitzpatrick - Total points = 4
Lisa Boing - Total
points = 5
Identify this mystery fish?? He is tiny, only about five inches and swims very
fast!
The SPUCing news
The big one is coming! The 40th annual SAINT PETE OPEN is just around the
corner, August 19th, 20th and 21st! Don't forget that we're at a new,
much-improved venue, Holiday Inn Sunspree.
The Holiday Inn Sunspree is located at 6800 Sunshine Skyway Lane, use exit 16 on
I-275. Their phone number is 800 227-8045, or 727 867-1151 locally. There's a
huge weigh-in party, so plan on spending the night!
Once again tournament season is upon us, and once again the SPUC's are making
their presence known! At the well-organized and rapidly growing SpearBoard
Open, we represented 15 percent of the top 100 shooters, and 20 percent of
the top ten. Kudos to Rich Taylor who shot the tournament's largest hogfish,
taking 4th place overall, and to Ritchie Zacker for coming in 6th. Additionally,
our own G.R. Tarr made a fine showing as 5th place freediver. Speaking of
freediving, we just had the state championship tournament, and the SPUC's lived
up to their reputation as big fish shooters, taking 4 out of 6 of the big fish
trophies. Here's the who- shot-what: Robbie Zumwalt, biggest grouper; G.R. Tarr,
biggest hog; Rich Taylor, biggest snapper and biggest triggerfish. Congrats to
all
ten of the SPUC shooters who attended the state championship for their efforts.
What are we also known for? Yep, the island party! Once again (May 14th), the
SPUC's were drunk with their boats aground on a sandbar. There was a general
ruckus, things were burned, way too much food was eaten, and a good time was had
by all. Especially to blame were Paul Kerr for his fine food acquisition and
pre-prep, Chris Gardinal as grillmaster, and Issac "The lumberjack" Lathrop for
the boatload of firewood.
That's all for now,
Scott Hooker, SPUCing secretary.
