Battlefords Scuba Community

WINTER 2013 Newsletter #13

The Prez Sez — Winter Message

By: Dennis McCullough

Another summer and fall gone, and still not enough diving done – and we’re rapidly working our way through the winter (not rapidly enough in my book). But a lot has happened in the club’s world, but unfortunately we keep hearing the same old story. I’m not sure how we change that story, but I think it will take the efforts of all of us. The story is “I didn’t know you were here” or “I didn’t know I could learn to dive here” or things to that effect. We’ve had numerous articles in the newspapers (colour photos and all); we’ve had interviews on the radio; we’ve been at every BridgeFest; we’ve put posters up in twenty-three locations over the past five years nu-

merous times each year; we’ve got a website and a newsletter; we e-mail lots of information.. And still we hear people who want to learn to dive giv-ing us one of the above lines. I think we all have to take responsibility for getting the word out there – talking to out friends, referring people to the club or some other shop or bringing them along to a “happening”. We have brochures and posters that any member can have to put up some-where. Battlefords Scuba Community is our club and it is up to each of us to fos-ter it and encourage the growth and the development. Everybody is busy and it’s tough to find the time for something else or new. If you have an idea that might help, let’s talk about it – the Executive members

Battlefords Scuba Community

Upcoming Events

January 5

Social (free to Associate Members and to Guests)

January 12

Discover Scuba

February 2

Social (free to Associate Members and to Guests)

Watch for a Rescue Diver course to start later in January and for an Open Water Scuba Diver course in March

Putting a water line

into Turtle Lake in

November !!

Way too chilly!!

Dennis & Len got

the job done!

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are always open to ideas. The executive meetings are the second Thursday of each month at 7:30 pm, usually at 1 – 1

st Avenue West in Battleford and the meetings

are open to the membership. Let’s try to increase the awareness of skin and scuba diving in the northwestern area of Saskatchewan – let’s talk it up! __________________________________________________________________________________________________

Your 2013 – 14 Executive

At the Annual General Meeting held back in October, four Director were elected to the board, three of them returning to the board and one new. They take their places beside the three that have another year to serve in their term – Wendy Florence, Cheryl Mitchell and Angie Laughlin. The newly elected director is Len La-Freniere and the returning directors are Adele Perrett, Barb Blyth and Dennis McCullough. After the Annual Meeting, the Director met to work out a new Executive for the year. Dennis McCullough was elected President for another year and Adele Perrett was returned as Secretary, a position she has held since the club was formed some five years ago. Wendy Florence carries on as Vice-President, Cheryl Mitchell is Activities Chairman. Len LaFreniere has the thankless job of Treasurer while Barb Blyth is a Director at Large. Len and Dennis will form a Training Committee. Here is a list of the Direc-tors, their phone numbers and their e-mail addresses. BLYTH, Barb 445-4145 [email protected] FLORENCE, Wendy 445-5739 [email protected] LAFRENIERE, Leonard 445-5940 [email protected] LAUGHLIN, Angie 445-8168 [email protected] MCCULLOUGH, Dennis 937-7195 [email protected] MITCHELL, Cheryl 937-2122

Battlefords Scuba Community Winter Newsletter # 13

BSC NEWS!!

[email protected] PERRETT, Adele 937-7195 [email protected] Committee Chairpersons will be calling upon members to help with some of the club’s undertakings – things like the Underwater Gymkhana and Weekly Dive Nights. It takes a lot of work to keep things fresh for a club that has sixty members, some of whom have been around since it started and need to see some different ideas. We’ll profile some of the Executive members so that members are a little more familiar with them and feel they can approach them. Adele Perrett, our Secretary, is our non-diving volun-

teer without whose help the club would wither. As Dennis’ partner in life, Adele volunteered when the first meetings were being held to explore forming a club to keep notes and help out. She’s not as young as she used to be and her ducking reflex is slower, so she’s still taking minutes (more formal now), and edits the newsletter and keeps the website alive. Adele retired from the Town of High River in southern Alberta in 2007 and moved to the Battlefords in part because of the lakes and the golf courses. She loves to glide around the quiet waters of the lakes in her kayak while the others are diving. She’s the intrepid

mailto:[email protected]







shore supervisor and photographer. Photography is her real passion and no one is safe when she’s around with her camera. For the past couple of years Adele has fo-cused her attention on the Battlefords Co-op Aquatic Centre where her municipal and agency administrative experience was put to work developing the position of Customer Service Representative. She’s developed pro-cedures and manual, trained bodies, implemented sys-tems and generally made the front end of that facility work smoothly. She’s now eyeballing a second retire-ment planning to spend more time on the gold course.

THE LITTLE CLUB THAT COULD How often do we hear the question “Where do you dive in Saskatchewan?” and with it the inference that the only place to dive is in the ocean (or maybe the tropics)? Af-ter we finish telling people about all the lakes that sur-round us, people may be a little less doubting, but they still look at us as if we were a little strange. There must be a lot of us “strange” people around, however, when we look at the numbers generated in the five year history of the club. Our biggest membership year was 2012 – 13 when we could boast 66 members. But we’ve never been below 35 members. That’s a pretty good track record if you ask me! But our training numbers are impressive, if I do say so myself. Here’s the list of courses and numbers since we began back in 2008.

Discover Scuba Diving 95

Open Water Scuba Diver 110

OW Scuba Diver Completion Dives 12

Emergency First Response 2

Equipment Specialist 6

Dry Suit Divers 3

Underwater Navigation Divers 2

Advanced Open Water Divers 3

Emergency Oxygen Providers 42

Skin Divers 14

Master Scuba Diver Trainer 1

PADI IDC Staff Instructor 1

Total 291 We couldn’t have done it without a lot of help:

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BSC NEWS continued


High School Discover Scuba

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DISCOVER SCUBA DIVING FOR LOCAL HIGH SCHOOLS

Sixty students from the local high schools got to take part in a scuba diving experience at the Battlefords Co-op Aquatic Centre thanks to the Battlefords Scuba Commu-nity and a grant the club received from the BATC (Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs) Community Develop-ment Corporation. Over the past six months the stu-dents, most accompanied by a teacher or two, got to spend a little time in the classroom and then hop in the pool to try the gear and get a whole new experience. BATC made a grant of approximately $14,000 to the BSC for this program and three others, those directed at the staff of the Aquatic Centre On May 1 sixteen students and two teachers from North Battleford Comprehensive High School took part in the first of the DSD’s operated under the grant. The sober group that filed into the Multi-Purpose Room at the Aquatics Centre at 9:30 left the building at 1:30 with big grins chattering about their experiences. I’m not sure if they were scared beforehand or if they had been threat-ened with dire consequences if they stepped out of line, but it was the quietest group I’ve dealt with in this vein. The students were comfortable in the water and picked up the skills surprisingly quickly. No one got a regulator in their mouth upside down doing the recovery or the al-ternate air. Everybody cleared their masks. Equalization took a bit longer for a few of them, but everyone got to the bottom and had a swim and played – the torpedoes were a big hit. One young lady kept motioned to go up while indicating that she was okay. She swam slowly and sedately to the surface. Once on the surface, I asked if there was a prob-lem – her huge grin seemed to rule it out, but…. She informed me that she was fine, everything was fine, it was awesome and she just had to get to the top so she could talk about it. She popped her regulator back in and down she went to re-join the group. Another young lady, when we were finished, informed me she had made a career choice – she had wanted to be-come a welder but now she wanted to be an underwater welder – did I know anyone who was an underwater welder?

Five of them indicated they were interested in doing a scuba course in the near future. Ken Stewart assisted in the water and Janalee Rumpf manned the deck to keep things moving smoothly. Thanks to both for all the help – could not have done it without them! On June 4, it was the time for the Sakewew students to give scuba a try. Thirteen of them, and one already certi-fied teacher, took to the pool for a session. Some of these students were a little wary as they did not have the background in swimming that the Comp students had – but they overcame their trepidation and were soon swim-ming about in the deep end of the pool wearing big smiles. This group was a little more sober in their reactions – a little more life experience perhaps. However, when they surfaced, they chattered about breathing underwater and the sensation of being weightless. I think the teacher was more excited that the students as he pointed out the relationship of diving to many of the subjects they had studied in school. A couple of these students indicated they would like to take up diving as a hobby. Ken Stewart and Len LaFreniere helped out in the water while Janalee Rumpf, Angie Laughlin and Wendy Flor-ence kept things moving on the deck. Great team work folks – couldn’t have survived without all the help. Ten John Paul II students spent the evening of Novem-ber 7

th testing the depths of the Battlefords Co-op Aquatic

Centre pool thanks to that grant. The ten spent time in the classroom learning about the equipment and the ba-sic safety precautions before taking to the water where they were familiarized with the equipment and its safe use. They learned to recover and clear a regulator un-derwater, to clear their mask of water underwater and to share air with a buddy who might have run out of air un-derwater, all skills very basic to scuba diving. This done is the shallow water, the group ventured forth into the deep end where they got to swim and play, much to their delight. This experience course involves no certification but can lead a participant on to a lifelong involvement in the sport.

The students from John Paul II demonstrated their com-fort in the water and quickly mastered the skills presented to them by Instructor Dennis McCullough and Divemas-ters Ken Stewart and Len Lafreniere. Lots of assistance from club members and divers Noreen Barclay, Rob and Wendy Florence kept things flowing smoothly and pro-vided reassurance for the students. Once the students got into the deep water, they quickly found themselves at home in near weightless conditions and in the variety of positions that the weightlessness allowed them to get into. The students enjoyed themselves and several ex-pressed interest in pursuing further training in scuba div-ing. With the three high schools done, there were still 19 spaces left in the grant. Those spaces were thrown out to be used before the end of the year on a first come first served basis. It was NBCHS that got there first – seven-teen more students took part in the program on Decem-ber 10 accompanied by two of their teachers. Ken Stew-art and LeFreniere were the Divemasters for this session. The students enjoyed themselves if their smiling faces are to be believed and the teachers are anxious to have more happen in this regard. Once again a big thanks to Ken and Len – it couldn’t happen without them. With the very positive feedback from these experiences, and with the expressed desire of other high schools in the area, the club has put together another grant applica-tion for BATC asking for money to fund three hundred spaces for Discover Scuba. The plan is to invite all the high schools within an hour and a half’s drive of the Bat-tlefords to take part. If the grant is approved, we may be calling for lots of help, a little bit at a time during the com-ing spring months. The Battlefords Scuba Community is most grateful to BATC Community Development Corporation for its assis-tance in this project. And the participants in the pro-grams have certainly appreciated the efforts of the Com-munity and the support of BATC. Club members hope that the exposure will result in greater awareness in the region of the club’s activities and help the club to grow in numbers. A number of training courses, basic and advanced, will be offered throughout the winter and spring at the Aquatic Centre. When spring arrives the activities will move into the many lakes in this area. For more informa-tion on the Club or about scuba diving and training read-


High School Discover Scuba

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ers should check out the club’s website at www.battlefordsscubacommunity.ca or call 306-937-7195.

SCUBA CLUB & AQUATIC CENTRE JOIN FORCES

The Battlefords Scuba Community and the Battlefords Co-op Aquatic Centre joined forces to provide a training opportunity for the staff at the Aquatics Centre. A grant from the BATC (Battleford Agency Tribal Chiefs) CDC provided funds for the training. The staff members were given further and formal training in the use of oxygen for patients in emergency situations. Twenty-six staff members, lifeguards, instructors and supervisors gave up their Saturday morning on May 11 to further their knowledge and expertise in the use of oxy-gen equipment to assist persons in difficulty, whether it be due to fainting, shock, heart attack, near drowning or some other first aid emergency. They learned the theory behind the use of oxygen in these situations, what equip-ment was available and how to use and maintain it. The hands on portion included assembling and dismantling the equipment, using the variety of masks available, and safe handling of the high pressure cylinders. The com-ments of the students indicated that they enjoyed the session and felt more confident using the equipment that has been standard at the pool for many years. Certified staff members had previously provided informal training for staff coming on board, but it has been a long time since a certification course had been run. The instructors for the day stressed that oxygen is used for more than near drowning, and the many situations in which oxygen has been administered at the pool were outlined – dia-betic incidents, shock, fainting, asthma, and the list goes on. It was also pointed out that in any traumatic incident, oxygen may be of assistance. The scuba club members stressed that in the event of a diving incident in the pool or at a lake, oxygen is a vital part of the treatment while a person is transported to medical facilities. BSC President, and one of the instructors for the work-shop, Dennis McCullough stated that it was a benefit to the club and its members to have trained staff available at the pool in the unlikely event of a diving incident. An-gie Laughlin, a Ski Patrol Instructor and Oxygen Therapy

Instructor, reiterated that oxygen is used in many situa-tions, citing examples from her experience at Table Mountain over the past number of years. Knowing the appropriate techniques for oxygen administration seemed to make the staff members feel somewhat more relaxed about that aspect of their jobs. A second course was held October 19 and a final one was held on December 11 in an attempt to get as many of the staff certified as possible. Thirty-six of the avail-able forty spaces were used. Jodi Hargreaves, Aquatic Centre Manager, stated that any training is good for her staff and that this course was an unexpected gift. She was supported in her statement by Bill Samborski, General Manager of Recreation Facili-ties, himself a veteran of many swimming pools. The Battlefords Scuba Community and the staff of the Battle-fords Aquatic Centre expressed sincere appreciation for the generous funding from BATC which made this valu-able training possible. The grant has also funding some further training in skin diving and scuba diving for the staff at the Aquatics Cen-tre which will facilitate an increased offering of aquatic activities in the facility. Thirteen staff members were trained and certified as Skin Divers. The intent here was to teach safe and proper use of the mask, fins and snor-kel to staff members who could then apply that to their use of fins for kick improvement and the clearing of flood-ing masks used for swim lessons. It also was an oppor-tunity to expose strong swimmers to a new form of water sport that might interest them and being them to the club. They were introduced to the sport of underwater hockey, although it did not take hold as it did within the Battle-fords Scuba Community. Twenty spots had been avail-able. Seven Aquatic Centre staff members took advantage of a reduced fee to take part in Open Water Scuba Diver Training. The idea here was to get some staff familiar with what was going on d u r i n g instruction so that the l i f e g u a r d s would be better able to r e s p o n d should a div-ing emergency occur, and to bring strong a q u a t i c s personnel into the club to help promote the club and grow the


BSC NEWS continued

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http://www.battlefordsscubacommunity.ca

Battlefords Scuba Community - Winter 2013 Newsletter # 13

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BSC SPECIAL!!

A NEW DIVER’S PERSPECTIVE

By

Penny Griffith

I am a new resident of The Battlefords and went to look at the pool and the facilities. I was

introduced to Dennis McCullough and had a conversation about activities offered when the

subject turned to Scuba diving. I have been interested in this course for the past couple of

years and found out the particulars on joining the Battlefords club and course information. I

came to a potluck/swim time with the club one Sunday and met many great people from the

club. I paid for the course and joined the club immediately. I set up a meeting with Dennis to

receive my reading materials/package and went home to begin reading.

Jumping in a pool with a tank and snorkel... meet a few people... go diving in the Caribbean....

that went out the window shortly. There were many important things I needed to know to and

there was math! It took a lot of time to do the reading and quizzes but found it all interesting,

however it did take about 16 hours - then I watched the video and found it to be a great review.

By the time Friday rolled around and the course was to begin I was a little panicked - dive tables

seemed out of reach. Friday began in the classroom which went very well - then we moved to

the pool where the thought of breathing under water started to become a reality - the class was

small and Dennis had a couple of Master Divers with him to help us figure it all out. By the end

of Friday evening I was feeling comfortable and confident. Saturday and Sunday flew by as we

learned all sorts of trouble shooting skills. Between classroom technical and pool practical - all

skills became clear and concise.

Dive tables troubled many of us and we learned that it is something we will continue to practice,

along with all of the skills we learned.

I am looking forward to taking my skills out of the pool into a lake or an ocean, adventures in

unknown waters, and seeing new places with new people. Thanks to those who take the time

to instruct, receive grants and continue to build the club.

Battlefords Scuba Community - Winter 2013 Newsletter # 13

BSC SPECIAL!!

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DIVING WITH MANTAS

By

Jeff Baldwin

In March we travelled to the Big Island of Hawaii to do some hiking, off road driving and, of

course, diving. The highlight of the diving was a guided night dive to see Manta Rays. The Kona

coast of Hawaii is home to more than 200 resident Mantas. Most of them are well known to the

locals who can easily identify them by their distinctive black and white markings.

We took a boat to a site just off shore from the coast. Platforms of lights have been installed on

the sea bottom at depths of about 30 feet. When they are turned on at night, they attract the

plankton which is the main food of Mantas. These huge and gentle creatures feed on a food

source of almost all microscopic organisms called plankton, so Mantas must work very hard to

get this tiny food. The Manta’s gills help it to feed by operating as a filtration system. Water is

sucked in through the mouth and pumped out through the gill slits while the plankton is

siphoned off to the stomach. Their mouths are so huge it is easy to imagine your whole body

fitting into their mouth.

The wingspan of a near-shore Pacific Manta Ray averages 5-8 feet but can reach well over 16!

They have no real teeth, no stinger, and a harmless disposition. Their only defence is to flee.

The word Manta is Spanish for coat, or blanket. When swimming, the Mantas resembles a

spread-out cape. The Manta’s gills help it to feed by operating as a filtration system.

The Mantas were once attracted to and fed in the plankton that gathered in the shore lights of

the Kona Surf Resort. When the Kona Surf Resort closed in July 2000 they began to feed at a

site offshore from Keahole Airport. The installed dive lights now attract the Mantas to this new

location.

They glide gracefully through the water as their large mouths take in the plankton. Up to 16 feet

in width from wing tip to wing tip, they can grow to a weight of 2 tons. Yet they have nothing that

will bite or sting. They are one of the safest large animals to encounter. All we do is descend to

the bottom, hang on to the rocks and watch the show.

On our night, 31 Mantas were present. They approached us from all directions. They frequently bumped

into each other as they jostled for position to get the maximum plankton intake. The photos in this article

show my dive buddy and me trying in vain to catch all of the Mantas as they glide towards us. I quickly

lost count of the number of times the brushed my hair with their undersides.

I eagerly look forward to another dive experience with the Mantas. It is in my top 3 of most exhilarating

dive experiences. We used Big Island Divers who were professional and arranged for a photographer

who took still and video photography.

Battlefords Scuba Community - Spring 2013 Newsletter # 12

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BSC SPECIAL!!


BSC SAFETY

Page 10

DIVE SAFETY ARTICLE #3

In the past couple of issues we have looked at safety in diving and some of the issues that affect if. In the first we summarized the statistics and some of the implications for us as divers. In the next one we looked at staying (keeping) fir to dive, a reflection of the increasing numbers of diver fatalities that occur as a result of heart attacks. In this one, I’d like us to consider equipment as a factor in diving safety. I repeat my earlier statement that scuba diving is a safe sport considered in the overall scheme of things. However, if you talk to your life insurance company, chances are they do not see it that way and will want you to pay a extra premium and perhaps to sign an exclusion clause. The last company I tried to deal with would provide coverage if I signed an exclusion clause that stated I would not dive deeper than thirty feet (and pay a healthy surcharge for that privilege) but they would only say that, if my body were recovered at a depth greater than thirty feet, there would be no coverage. When I asked about the circumstance of my having a heart attack at the surface and sinking (this was before the advent of the BCD) to a depth of 35 feet, they would only answer that there would be no coverage. I think they saw diving as a high risk activity. Over the past fifty years there have been great strides made in developing equipment solely to improve the safety of the divers – the BCS, the pony bottle, the safety sausage, and the like. But that equipment only increases the safety margin if it is in working order and if it is used properly. That is the focus of the item. We all get acquainted with some basic equipment during our initial training and get to expand our familiarity with it during the open water completion dives in a real life situation. If we continue to dive with rental equipment, even some of the time, we get to try some different equipment and become a little familiar with it. How familiar with the safety and other features of that gear do we really become? In an emergency would we really know how to react to get the maximum benefit from that equipment? It is to our own advantage to know all the features of the equipment we use, how to activate those features and to know how to get the most out of those features. Studies show that in an emergency we respond to about sixty per cent of our normal capacity. If we are not sure of our response under normal circumstances, we could be in a real pickle we an emergency arises.


BSC SAFETY

Page 11

This suggests that we try different pieces of the same equipment until we find one that suits our build, our ability, and our needs and then practice with it until the use becomes an unconscious habit that needs no conscious planning. We want to think about each of the problems we might encounter and develop a reper-toire of responses to deal with the problem depending upon how it evolves. And then we want to practice those responses using the equipment we will have to ensure that the responses work and then to make them second nature. This can be done for problems like low on air situations, out of air situations, run away ascents and descents, free flowing regulators, for cramps in your legs, for cramps in your buddy’s leg, for a buddy who is tired. Oh yeah, we did those in the course and some of them in the open water completion dives, didn’t we. But have we done them since. The more we practice with the equipment we will be diving with the safer we will find ourselves to be. If we do this with each piece of equipment, we will become more competent and safer di-vers, both in respect to ourselves and to those we dive with. When we are buying the equipment we want for our dive kit, we must be sure it is suitable for our diving. Wet suits should protect us against the cold we experience here. Regulators cannot freeze up in the cold; they must be environmentally sealed. BCD’s need to provide the buoyancy necessary to support a diver wearing up to almost eighty pounds of gear and weight. Weight belts have to be long enough to carry the weights and still reach around the diver’s waist and the quick release buckle must secure the belt firmly but release it when activated. Fin straps and mask straps must be sound to hold the equipment in place. Electronic equip-ment such as dive computers must have fresh batteries that will last through the dive day. Even the best of equipment needs to be serviced on a regular basis. Is the O-ring in the seat of the tank valve before each dive? The tiny and delicate seats, springs, O-rings in the regulator and the BCD are dam-aged by normal wear and this is exacerbated by chlorine, sand and silt and salt. It is cheap insurance to have these pieces of equipment serviced annually by a factory authorized technician. These little bits can make a very big difference to our safety and our enjoyment. It’s rarely a big event that is the primary cause of an incident. Rather it’s usually the escalating series of inci-dents that result from a small problem that leads to a major event. For example, a worn fin strap breaks and the fin is lost. The diver has to work hard to catch up to the others in the group who got a little ahead while that diver fought with his fin. He is out of shape and begins to suck air hard through his trusty regulator that

May you all enjoy a

very happy and safe

diving NEW YEAR!!

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Battlefords Scuba Community