Minutes
Aqua Tutus Diving Club Meeting
October 3, 2024
Meeting called to order by (debarked) President Jim Driggers at 7:00pm PST. This is a hybrid meeting with 15 members present at Roundtable Pizza in Castro Valley and 10 members attending via Zoom.
Tonight is members night, where ATDC members share some of their favorite underwater photographs and videos.
- Linda showed some macro photos from Dumaguette, Philippines.
- Oliver showed some photos he took during the recent club dive to Wharf 2.
- Jim showed two slideshows; one entitled “Wrecks of Truk Lagoon,” the other entitled “Creatures of Truk Lagoon.
- Dan showed video images taken during a recent trip to Bonaire.
- 5. Dave C. showed a set of macro photos he took in Monterey using available light.
There were no visitors to welcome, but President Driggers noted that it was good to see Fred Wade back at a meeting.
Officer Reports
- Secretary: September meeting minutes have been posted to the website. Jim called for additions or corrections; however, there were none forthcoming, Minutes were approved by acclamation.
- Treasurer: Helga was unable to attend the meeting, so there was no Treasurer’s Report.
- Training: There is no training currently scheduled. Dennis urged anyone interested in any specific training to contact him.
- Membership: Debbie noted that there was no change in membership since last month, there are 69 members: 56 regular members, eight life members, and five associate members.
- Entertainment: David S. reminded us that Natasha Benjamin, originally scheduled to speak in September, will present her talk on the kelp ecosystem crash during next month’s meeting. There is no meeting in December. David also reminded everyone that the club Holiday Party will be on December 14. Cost is $20 per person. Contact Patti Shannon-Hocker to register.
- Newsletter: The Newsletter has been published to the website. (Later in the meeting, Oliver gave a hand’s-on explanation of how to navigate to the newsletter from the email automatically sent to each member announcing the newsletter.) Oliver especially wanted to call attention to the article addressing driving beer and diving.
- Communications: Derek and Oliver are still working on preparing a short tutorial of how to. Upload images to the club website.
Old Business.
Jim reported that now 20 members have responded to the membership interest survey. He plans to present his analysis of the survey responses at a future club meeting.
New Business: .
- Jim called for nominations for 2025 club officers; voting is scheduled for next month’s meeting.
- The sea lions have left; San Carlos Beach is open to the public again. He noted that the 2024 officers are willing to serve again in 2025 (albeit somewhat reluctantly).
- Jim announced the passing (at home) of club member Erik Pede of Santa Rosa.
- Oliver called attention to an article about a diving incident reported in the Tooter—a diver diving to 80 feet and seeing the SPG drop to zero upon each breath only to return to a full reading. This is a classic symptom of the cylinder valve only partially open. Dennis added another possibility for the same symptoms: if the cylinder has a lot of aluminum oxide inside it, the white, somewhat sticky, powder can clog the first stage inlet screen. The points being, if the reexported SPG behavior is not rectified by fully opening the valve, (1) there may be something else going on, and (2) don’t dive the cylinder until and regulator are inspected and cleaned.
Upcoming Activities:
Oct 6 Club dive at Stillwater Cove (near Fort Bragg); Giuseppe C. Is POC. Note that this is Sunday.
Oct 17 Board of Directors meeting (via Zoom); all members are invited.
Nov 7 Membership meeting; Natasha Benjamin is guest speaker.
Nov 9 Club dive at Point Lobos; Christina C. is POC. 17 members have signed up; Christina is main- taining a waiting list,
Nov 21 Board of Directors meeting (via Zoom); all members are invited.
Dec Club dive (date and location to be determined; Derek will be POC.
Dec 14 ATDC Holiday Party
Diving Reports:
- Dennis and Erik Hoagland reported on recent diving in the Cayman Islands.
- Alan T. Reported on the club visit to the sea star lab;. 17 club members attended and enjoyment was reported as high
- Dave C. Discussed the recent Navigation dive. The observation was made (and demonstrated) that small errors in following the designated heading can lead to large location errors..
- Arnie reported on a recent dive, the first since this past May. He reported enjoying his spanking new 5-mil wetsuit.
Bone Award. Erik was nominated for jumping from the boat into the water without his air turned on. Although his dive buddy, Dennis, praised him fro keeping a cool head about the incident; he received 18 votes. David C. nominated Jim for not accurately following his compass bearing; he received 5 votes. David C nominated Jim Driggers for not accurately following his compass bearing. Jim nominated himself and David C. for not agreeing how to navigate back to recover the 100 foot lines they laid at the beginning of the dive; they received 4 votes. Finally, Dennis was nominated for attempting to dive without his weight belt; he received 13 votes. It was close, but Erik won the bone.
Good Buddy Award. Erik nominated Dennis for helping during the entering without air turned on situation and Dave C. was nominated for for also laying out a 100-ft line; they all won by default since JIm forgot to call for a vote.
There being no further business, Jim adjourned the meeting at 8:44pm PST..
Faithfully submitted:
Arnie Warshawsky, Secretary