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| ROWDIES |
Reef Rowdies
Rowdies have been traveling all summer as I imagine most of you have. I have been just DROOLING over Lynn Willis’s pictures from diving in Indonesia this past September!!! WOW, the vibrant colors and unusual fish and critters just hit you in the eye! What a diving experience for Lynn, Jeanne and Mixer! Hey guys, we have a slide-show if anyone wants to use it for a club meeting. She has a trip to the Philippines 3/27/09 with much the same underwater life as they found in Indonesia – and at a reasonable rate. Give her a call: 727-560-5450 or coolchickdiver@yahoo.com.
Now the fish, whale shark and coral Bobbie Jo and I saw in Maldives last April was outstanding. This was my first whale shark and I was impressed. Actually it was the first for me to see the manta rays, scorpion and lion fish also. I love live-aboard boat diving and the crew couldn’t have been better. My souvenir bruise (you can guess where) I could have done without - I slipped and fell down 2 steps. (Gotta give thanks for no broken bones, though.) Lots of time was spent in airports as well as flying though.
A group of Rowdies flew into Mexico’s Playa del Carman for some beautiful diving in July. I was IMPRESSED over the concern and management of the tourists swimming with their whale sharks. They only let 3 people swim with each whale shark at a time and actually each dive shop boat TOOK TURNS in order for everyone to have a chance and not stress out the shark too much. This site had more shark than we saw in Maldives and they pretty much ignored the divers, staying up to eat instead of diving down away from the pesky people.
My trip, though, was fraught (how do you like that word J) with problems:
- I started with an extra charge for checking my luggage,
- The plane’s delay made me lose a dive,
- I lost my prescription mask the first day (shame on me for not bringing a backup!),
- My trusty old BC was no longer trusty and developed a big hole (did someone pull it up by the inflater hose?),
- I lost my log book with alllllll that information,
- My underwater camera went into a blank viewer screen I couldn’t fix leaving me to point, shoot & hope,
- I was hit by Tulum’s “Revenge” and also apparently I pinched a nerve making fingers in my hand numb for awhile,
- We almost were late getting to the airport to come home – in the rain -
- Double charges for my checked in overweight 5# luggage (I don’t mess with repacking when I think I’m late for the plane)
- A souvenir I carefully hand carried all the way broke as I was getting out in TPA –
- I got out with a toothache of all toothaches!
Extra expenses: the luggage charges, a new mask with prescription lenses, a new BC, and a root canal. They did find my log book and sent it to me (yea!) and my camera started working again (still don’t know why.) On this trip we all were like pack horses carting out gear around – I’d never say I’m not getting younger! If you don’t laugh – you end up crying!
Cheers for Pat Fredette finding a mastodon tooth on the shark tooth boat trip out of Venice this September!! Lisa Boing of the Bunnies joined us and came up with several nice horse teeth. No one found that big 6 inch Megalodon tooth though. The Rowdies do like to get down and sandy looking for shark teeth. And “sandy” was the word for our beach dive off Venice in May. The surge just forces sand in every crevice possible. You end up dumping sand out for months/years later!! Of course Lori Smith found a big bag full of various sized teeth and I was right beside her finding ~12 – she is sharp! Gulf diving was good for finding the Goliath grouper too. Don’t forget your Florida diving!!
Did some of you slip over to Ft. Lauderdale’s Ocean Fest this past May? Ken and I loaded up and trucked (well – “car”ed) over to put the great Ocean Pals posters up for view. I can’t believe the good weather we had this year. We have just printed and mailed ~ 2000 of the new contest rules this month. The 2008-2009 theme is: “Coral Reefs: Nature’s Underwater City.” I have extra flyers here if your student is interested and their teacher hasn’t promoted the contest. A parent can sign for them if the school doesn’t hold the contest. For more information – go to:
www.BeneathTheSea.Org/opals. This is FSDA’s outreach to students to become aware of and share their concerns for the marine environment through poster art.
The Rowdies have a program every business meeting the 2nd Tuesday of every month except December. We are in the process of updating the website but I haven’t gotten a soft ware program working yet – any suggestions? We would love to have you come to the meetings, call Lynn or myself –
Get Wet,
Sonia Smith, president
727-522-8276
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Sea Bunnie Competition 2008
Updated 10/01/08
Fish / Lobster
Fish Category
Weight in pounds
Sheepshead / Triggerfish/ Flounder
Lisa Tatro (Sheepshead) 3.0
Lynn Jones (Triggerfish) 3.2
Mary Taylor (Triggerfish) 5.4
Amberjack / Barracuda / Cobia
Lynn Jones 10.7
Snapper
Lisa Tatro 1.8
Lynn Jones 4.6
Mary Taylor 8.1
Hogfish
Eileen Morris 3.0
Patti Bacun 3.1
Lynn Jones 4.2
Lisa Tatro 3.4
Mary Taylor 16.4
Grouper
Lynn Jones 5.4
Eileen Morris 6.0
Lisa Tatro 7.9
Mary Taylor 17.8
Lobster Weight in pounds
Cindy Whitaker 1.75 lb ( 1 lb 12 oz )
Mary Taylor 3.6
SAVE-OUR-SEAS Points
Lynn Jones: Aluminum can 1
Total Points = 1
Patti Bacun: A rod butt 1
Total Points = 1
Rita F. : Plastic bag 1
Fishing line 1
Dive Knife 1
Total Points = 3
Debbie Holtz: Encrusted Bottle 1
Some plastic junk ( 6 pk plastic rings perhaps ) 1
Total Points = 2
Lisa Tatro: 2 tin cans 2
Beer bottle 1
Steel line 5 ft. Long 1
Carpet 3 ft. 3
Total Points = 7
Mary Taylor : Rusty bent spear shaft 1
Homeade concrete/PVC bouy weight (5 lb) w/ 1 ft rope 2
Aged spear shaft (broken at trigger end) 1
Large black plastic trash bag 1
1 balloon, half deflated 1
Fishing line with swivel 1
Cardboard bait container 1
Half of a plastic cup 1
An empty motor oil container 1
Candy wrapper (Reeses ) 1
Measuring spoon ( 1 tsp) 1
7 ft. X 4 ft. Rubber Boat 2
Broken speargun band 1
Plastic bottel 1
Another spear shaft , this one was a keeper
like new, & fits my gun 1
Empty Fritos Bag 1
Total Points = 19
