Meetings:
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Meeting Location |
The regular meetings of Patowmack Divers are at
Traditions Restaurant at the Holiday Inn, 625 First Street,
Alexandria on the first Wednesday of the month. |
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Click here to get an excellent map
of the meeting location
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Upcoming Presentations |
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Wednesday, May 05, 2010 |
David Alberg – NOAA Monitor Sanctuary & Diving Laws Dave serves as NOAA's Monitor National Marine Sanctuary superintendent and contact at the Mariner's Museum in Newport News, VA. He joined this program in the fall of 2005. He has been involved with the conservation of thousands of artifacts recovered from the wreck of the USS Monitor, and also with the cultural resource management and exhibit development for this high-profile shipwreck. For his program, Dave will discuss the possible expansion of the Monitor Sanctuary, and also discuss some of the maritime laws that cover shipwrecks and the implications this might have for divers who explore these wrecks. |
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Wednesday, June 02, 2010 |
Dr. Esat Atikkan – “Diving Freshwater in West & SW U.S !” |
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Selected Recent Meetings |
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April 2010 |
Maritime historian Dave Howe spoke to the dive club about some of
the projects he is working on with the Institute of Maritime History (IMH). The
main goal of the IMH is to explore the coastal waterways of the mid-eastern
seaboard to look for and identify submerged shipwrecks and other submerged
cultural resources.
Dave asked for volunteer divers to help him locate, investigate, and identify some of the various submerged "targets" he will be investigating this up-coming season. For more information on IMH, visit their web site http://www.maritimehistory.org |
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February 2010 |
Larry Gordon: Top 10 Photos From Top 10 Dive Sites. Patowmack Divers Larry Gordon will show pictures from some of his favorite dive sites: St. Vincent, Cozumel, Puerto Rico, Saipan, Palau, Gallapagos, Chuk, Bonaire, and more. |
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August 2009 |
Dr. John Ware: "Reefs in the Greenhouse" |
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April 2008 |
Dr. Zaid Fadul will be the guest speaker at April’s dive club meeting. Dr. Zaid has travelled around the world (Caribbean Islands, Red Sea countries, etc.) to practice medicine. While he was at many of those islands and countries, he had the opportunity to sneak some diving into his free time activities. He took some pictures, and he is also developing a Reef Fish & Creature ID system called SCUBA.dic to help divers identify fish and other creatures. |
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February 2008 |
Esat Atikkan and Zeki Findikoglu: Esat and Zeki will show pictures and discuss underwater ecology. Esat is also teaching a course of Coral Reef Ecology for Divers at Montomgery College in the Spring 2008 semester. Learn marine ecological principles and elements currently impacting the marine environment. Examples will be drawn from coral reefs, coastal ecosystems, and the open sea. The impact of development, fisheries, and other anthropogenic factors on those systems will be discussed. Tuition waiver applies; seniors pay fee only. Additional Information: This is a non-credit class designed for those interested in the marine environment, particularly coral reefs. Material is presented to make the topic ‘practical’ for hobbyists, scuba divers, snorkellers and all those interested in the marine environment. It concentrates on the reefs of the Caribbean and Florida, their formation, development, and unfortunate decline, the various relationships, interactions and behaviors among reef residents, reef builders and reef visitors, including humans. The approach is a systems one, where the relationships across the various zones of the reef are discussed in an attempt to bring out the unity. Part of the time will be devoted to the identification of common species of invertebrates and fishes, as well as to techniques of improving ability to approach and observe the reef. Lecture 1: The coral reef, coral reefs of the Caribbean and
Florida, Reef zones, physical factors and biological factors that
define reef zones Lecture 2: Adaptations, relationships:
symbiosis, predator-prey, For more information: http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/ or http://www.naui.com/events_more.php?ID=246 |
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November 2007 |
Curt Newport: Deep Sea Salvage and Exploration |
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August 2007 |
Trevor Corson -- Author of The Secret Life of
Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists are Unraveling the
Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean and also The Zen of
Fish: The Story of Sushi, from Samurai to Supermarket, will
discuss two of his most recent book. Since, as divers, we come in
direct contact with lobsters, Trevor’s presentation will
focus mostly on all the interesting aspects of the life of the
American Lobster. The presentation will include great underwater
video footage and discussion on the lives of lobsters, lobstermen,
lobster industry, lobster scientists, etc. As a spin on the
scuba/underwater theme, Trevor will also include a discussion
about his new book on sushi, which includes a mini-tour of a
number of interesting sea creatures, as well. |
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July 2007 |
Mark K. Ragan, author of the books Hunley: Submarines, Sacrifice, and Success in the Civil War and Submarine Warfare in the Civil War, will visit the Patowmack Divers to discuss his research and work on these subjects. Mark spent years combing factory records, archives, and log books to help raise and restore the civil-war era experimental submarine CSS Hunley, which sank the USS Housatonic during a daring nighttime operation. Mark also owns his own 2-person model #K-250 dry submarine, which he offers lessons in how-to-use and operate in the area of Annapolis, MD (Chesapeake Submarine Services, Inc). |
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June 2007 |
Dr. Dwayne Meadows: "Riding the World's Biggest
Wave: Stories of the Survival and Recovery of People and the
Marine Environment from the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami" This
is the story of how Dr. Meadows, a marine ecologist for the
National Marine Fisheries Service, ended up getting a 1 mile ride
from the Indian Ocean tsunami. After a three day scuba diving
vacation trip, he stayed the night in Khao Lak, Thailand; the
worst hit part of Thailand where 80% of the 10,000 deaths in that
country occurred. At the time of the tsunami he was in a bungalow
50 feet from the ocean. His group of 1,000 survivors was cut off
from assistance for over one day. This presentation is the story
of the survival and recovery of many people during those horrible
days. Dr. Meadows' will also discuss how he used his experience in
marine debris removal and coral reef ecosystem restoration to aid
the recovery of the marine environment. Since the tsunami he has
returned twice to Thailand to advise and assist in three projects
throughout the country. |
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April 2007 |
Gloria Freund: Patowmack Diver and Photographer Gloria will show her photographs from Lembeh and Gangga,
Indonesia. Expect lots of little critters and stories about muck
diving. |
Dive Trips:
We are currently planning
dive trips to other destinations including: West Palm Beach,
California, Florida, Caribbean, Lake Rawlings, Hatteras, Virginia
Beach, and a possible live-aboard. Keep an eye on this site for
updates or come to the next meeting and tell us where you want to go
to get further details.
Recent Trips:
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February 2010: South Pacific |
A group of divers are going to the South Pacific for two weeks of diving |
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February 2009: St. Vincent and the Grenadines. |
A group of divers went to St. Vincent for a week of critter diving. There's not a lot of big stuff in St. Vincent, but with Bill Tewes and Dive St. Vincent we saw tons of small fish and other critters such as seahorses. |
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January 2007: La Parguera, Puerto Rico |
For some us, this was our third dive trip to Puerto Rico in three years. La Parguera is on the southwest coast of Puerto Rico about as far from San Juan as you can get. The reefs are in beautiful condition and La Parguera Divers runs a great boat. We stayed at Posada Por La Mar, which is about 10 feet from the dive dock. |
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November 4-11 2006: Cozumel |
Diving "Dive Paradise", where the dive master goes down with us (for safety and to point out interesting things). The week of November 4-11 includes Veterans Day holiday. I stayed in this Villa in December 2004; it is very nice, spacious, comfortable, and relaxing. Each villa has a large kitchen/dining/living area, in addition to the bedrooms. |
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Labor Day Weekend 2006 |
We dove with Olympus Diving in Moorehead City, Wreck Capital of North America. Tropical Storm Ernesto canceled diving in Saturday, but Sunday and Monday were fun. Water temps were in the 80s. The visability was only about 25 feet. We did all our dives on tha Papoose. |
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January 7-14 2006: Mona Island, Puerto Rico |
Club members spent a week on the Nekton Rorqual diving around Mona Island, which some call the Galapogos of the Caribbean. Mona is located between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. |
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August 13-14, 2005: Morehead City, NC |
We made our annual dive trip to "Wreck City" also known as Moread City. Water temperatures were in the low 80s and visibility approaching 80-100 feet! We're planning our return for 2006. |
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March 19, 2005 - Pasta Pig Out |
OK, it was not a dive trip, but it's almost as fun! The 2005 Annual Pasta Pig Out was hosted by the Gordons. |
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January 15-22, 2005 - La Parguera, Puerto Rico |
On our trip to La Parguera, Puerto Rico where we dove with La Parguera Divers. Puerto Rico is an undiscovered dive destination. Diving around Puerto Rico is largely undiscovered. Diving on the north shore around San Juan is not exciting, but the other areas such as the southwest are great. Water temperature was around 80 degrees and the visibility was a little under 100 feet. We saw a variety of critters including the usual suspects such as angels and nurse sharks. There were also sitings of octopus, squid and shrimp. We did 12 dives during the days plus 2 night dives. There was also some excellent snorkling around mangrove islands. |
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April 2003 - Cozumel |
We did 15 dives (1 night dive) while in Cozumel. Our day off was spent in Tulum and Playa del Carmen. El Foco is now the official purveyor of Patowmack Divers. A good time was had by all! |
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June 22, 2003 - Virginia Beach |
Although the seas were a tad rough and the boat ride long, Eric D., Eric S., Guilhem M., Bob B., and Dave O. made it out to the Eureka and had relatively warm waters and decent vis, albeit we were buffeted by a 1-1.5 kt current. Some of us need to get scooters :) ! |
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October 11-12, 2003 - Morehead City, NC |
Unfortunately, due to Hurricane Isabel, this trip was blown out :( . However, we have rescheduled and are headed back to Morehead City on Oct 11-12! We are diving with Olympus and hope to get in at least 2 good days of diving over the Columbus Day weekend. |
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October 4-6, 2003 - California Kelp Forest Dives |
We went diving with Psalty Adventures, an outfitter out of San Pedro, CA. We flew out Friday Oct. 3, 2003, stayed on the boat that night and headed off for a three day cruise in the morning. The boat is a fast six-pack, and we visited some prime dive sites around Catalina Island. October is lobster season in California, so we might partake in that too. I've got a really good lobster recipes. Water temperatures were in the mid-60's. |
Note: You must complete a Liability Release for all club-organized trips. Please submit the completed form to the person coordinating the trip.