Northwest Dive Club

I was just realizing how many exciting critters you've shared with us and wanted to give you a little shout-out.

Are you based out of Monterey or are you just visiting there?

Welcome to the family. This is the best dive forum in the country (at least, from what many of us have seen... and that's our story so we're sticking to it!) and we're always glad to find new actively diving members.

Have you considered REEF certifications? You should really get into submitting your data on what you find. Being a critter counter is fun (there are several of us lurking around here) and it makes a great excuse to go diving... "uh, sweetie... I'm not going diving for fun, I have to go count the marine wildlife and report my findings and data to the national database."

We're a family of divers: me, my wife Kathy, and daughter Malinda, known to this board and Northwest Diver as Chenari. We actually live in Boise; my wife is a Travel Nurse, which means she takes short-term assignments - usually 13 weeks - in various places. I normally travel with her, since I'm not actually gainfully employed (she calls me her wife). The daughter is a genuine genius who skipped 10th thru 12th grades and went straight to college at 15, so she also has the flexibility to travel with us. Simply put, we go places where we can dive ourselves silly. We have two older daughters who live back in Boise; we're working on getting them certified, as well.

Much of the time, I pass along ID's that Malinda has made. She has such a knack for this stuff that she's decided to continue her college education with a double major: she's been majoring in theater, studying to be an actress, but she is going to add marine biology as a second major. We get some good pictures, though what I post is really a fraction of the pictures we take. We have two cameras, a Pentax Optio S5i that I usually carry, and a Canon A630 that the two girls usually fight over (all in fun, of course).

We were in Monterey for a little more than 3 days for a mini-vacation. Most of my family lives in central California, and my brother and his wife had a 50th anniversary celebration in Stockton, so we went down for that and while in the area went over to Monterey to dive the bejeebers out of the place. We had been there a couple of times before about a year and a half ago, but we were fresh from our Advanced Open Water course, only had about 20 dives apiece, and really didn't have a clue what we were doing. Since we got to the Puget Sound area back in May, we've logged more than 80 dives and learned a heckuva lot, so we were able to put all that to good use in Monterey

We dive 7mm Henderson hyperstretch wetsuits, none of us is dry suit certified or has even tried one. We recently added 1mm skins under our wetsuits, but basically we just dive wet and for the most part don't get cold. Internal furnaces working overtime, I guess. the really funny part is, we haven't been in warm water yet. The closest we've been was when we did our original Open Water course at Blue Lake down on the Nevada-Utah border, and even then we had to use wetsuits. I can't help wondering what tropical water feels like

In any case, thanks for the kind comments, but I'm just one of the team. The photos come from all 3 of us, and most of the ID's come from the kid. She's pretty amazing. They both are, really. Getting to do this as a family is a privilege that I don't take lightly.

I only recently discovered this board; we've been posting our critters for a long time on the Northwest Diver board. Feel free to check them out *shameless plug* And there's lots more at my photobucket site, which is in my sig.

TMI????????

Oh yeah, we do the REEF thing. We took Janna's course several months ago up in Port Angeles. Needless to say, she's very good

dwashbur wrote:Oh yeah, we do the REEF thing. We took Janna's course several months ago up in Port Angeles. Needless to say, she's very good

Excellent! Yes, Janna's course is a lot of fun.

dwashbur wrote:we haven't been in warm water yet. The closest we've been was when we did our original Open Water course at Blue Lake down on the Nevada-Utah border, and even then we had to use wetsuits.

Hey! I certified in Blue Lake too! Ahh the memories... February OW dives in a hole in the middle of the Bonneville salt flats...Followed by a 16oz steak at the Red Garter Casino... Those are some good memories. I did it with my Dad when I was 14. Did it a second time for AOW (with Dad) while Mom & Sis did OW. Sights included bluegills, smallmouth bass, a sheep skeleton sitting in a sunken row-boat (holding a fishing pole), and a "No trespassing - Airforce Property" signpost jutting out of the bottom at around 70ft. What a weird place.

WELCOME, DAVE!

-Ben

I am actually doing my IDCS next month with Dive Magic and we will be heading to Blue Lake for 2 days of diving. I will be in my drysuit, because surface temps will be around 20 degrees, yet 75-80 degrees at 40 feet. Should be interesting.