Author: acharai

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The Scuba Sports Club’s Spring 2016 Newsletter is here !

I would like to invite YOU… now and forever… to tell us about all your dive adventures,  Past and Present and Future!  Please send those my way, along with your photos if you have them. I am compiling a huge database of our dive Club photos as our historic repository.

If you want to share your story but don’t want to bother with writing it up, NO PROBLEM, that is why I am here !  I can handle the transcription if you sit with me over some pasta and wine , and together, you and I, face to face, we’ll make it happen on my writing pad.

(…Bottle of red, bottle of white, it all depends on your appetite ! )  (…or a beer as the case may be… )

In our Spring 2016 issue:

President Tom Butcher reviews our wonderful 40^th year in 2015, and previews plans for our most-exciting 41^st year

• The Directors and Officers of TSSC heartily congratulate BTS on 40 years of excellence, dive education, adventure, provisioning, environmental activism, artistry and service to the dive community
• We enjoy a smorgasbord of articles on TSSC’s 40^th Anniversary trip to The Philippines !  So great to get a variety of perspectives on this most excellent dive adventure with memories to last a lifetime, from so many of our Club members participating and contributing their articles….and a GUEST CONTRIBUTOR (Parag!) with his engaging story-telling and narrative
• We have a Preview of our exciting and inspiring 2016 Dive and Club Events. Many great dives all lined up for the year ahead by our Dive Planning Director Jack Ricotta
• We dive the Exumas with Blackbeard and our Club Membership Director Nick Lappano
• We inaugurate a new column, the TEK2TEK GEAR and SHOP TALK column, with our kickoff by Steve Reichenbach who reports on his extensive positive experiences with rebreather technology
• Our Program Director Allan Rios reviews our Monthly Presentation Program with a heartfelt invitation to one and all to join our Club to get in on the action of these fantastic dive education/marine adventure presentations
• Our own venerable Dive Legend Vreni Roduner offers her heartfelt congratulations to Zig and JoAnn and to the whole BTS team on the occasion of 40 years
• We attend the November 2015 Sea Stories at the Explorers Club in Manhattan and then sojourn to Long Island to the annual conclave of the Long Island Dive Association, read all about these great events which are Club traditions
• Next we visit and spend time with our Diver, Skydiver, Historian, Marine Biologist, Archeologist, Adventurer, Legend and our FRIEND Lada Simek who take us on many fascinating journeys all over the world and under the surface too
• Let’s get together now with Bill Pfeiffer and learn about a day in the life of Bill. We’ll get to know Bill better – and will soon discover what fascinating projects he has led and has underway and what a terrific, multi-faceted friend we have in Bill –with a warm heart of gold too
• And finally, we have another new column, My Turn… and our own Editor Emeritus and President Emeritus Ruth Emblin will be our Kick Off contributor to that column with an inspiring message of marine environment advocacy

With all that said, Enjoy the newsletter !!   Be inspired for dive education and safety in the off season ; get your gear serviced checked out ; take your refresher course if warranted ; and soon together when we finish off this winter and welcome the spring– with summer soon to follow, we will DIVE DIVE DIVE !     Dive Safely  and with great JOY !

Gary

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Come along to see Mongolia… from the central steppe and Karakorum, the ancient capital of Mongolia dating back to Genghis Khan in the 1200’s..up to the pristine wilderness of Lake Hovskol at the Siberian border, and into the Gobi Desert… and thru the bustling modern capital city of Ulaanbaatar. Maybe not what you expect … but an amazing adventure. Watching this video you will see the engaging warmth, industry, creativity and hospitality of the wonderful people of Mongolia !  My wife and I combined  a trip to Seoul Korea with the Mongolia Vista tour of Nomadic Expeditions for our 25th wedding anniversary.  These were unforgettable places to visit and experience!  I hope you enjoy these photographs and musical arrangement including traditional (but admittedly alien sounding!)Mongolian throat-singing.

 

Bhutan continues its emergence from centuries of isolation, sequestered until the 1960’s by the high Himalayas to the west and north, and bounded by deserts to the south – and wilderness to the east… Come along and visit the dzongs (administrative and religious strongholds) which govern the country in both the urban and rural areas.  Marvel at the majestic landscapes and the Tibetan-style Buddhist temples.  Then join ny wife and I on our trek up to Takt Shan – Tiger’s Nest- achieved only after a spirited and steep hike from 7,000′ to 10,000′.  It was an unforgettable experience.  Our journey started with a few days in Kathmandu in Nepal, and after returning from Bhutan we spent a few more days in Kathmandu and visit the Everest Mountaineering Shrine of the Garuda Hotel, where we witnessed posters signed by great Everest mountaineering legends – including too many who have perished in the mountains… O-Man-ey-Pad-Mey-Huuuum…” may there be an end to suffering for all sentient beings…”

I visited Uganda and Rwanda in 2009. Highlights of the trip including meeting the people in the small villages; seeing Entebbe and touring Kampala, the capital of Uganda; the stunning landscapes; the grim genocide sites and the Kigali Memorial Center in the capital of Rwanda; and of course viewing some of the mountain gorilla families in the wild. The families we visited were habituated to humans, and we were only allowed sixty minutes in their presence. We were required to maintain distance of seven meters to prevent transmission of disease from humans to gorillas; they have no resistance to human disease or even the common cold.  (However no one told the gorillas that they were required to stay seven meters away from us, and one brushed past me – when his shoulder impacted mine it felt like an oak tree as he moved silently through the rainforest. Our tour operator was Volcanoe Safaris.

The people of Uganda and Rwanda are so warm and engaging. We were welcomed at every turn. The intractable problem of providing sustenance for the dense human population through small farms, and the protection of the 700+ mountain gorillas in the national parks in the region is staggeringly complex. An additional complexity is ongoing exploration for subterranean oil reserves right in the heart of the mountain gorillas’ final remaining sanctuaries in The Congo. Let us just hope that new farming techniques, new ways of attracting ecotourism and new progressive political forces emerge to guide the region towards health, education, and well-being of the people, and at the same time ensure also the survival of this last remaining population of mountain gorillas (this species does NOT survive in captivity unfortunately; lowland gorillas survive in captivity, such as those in the gorilla habitat at the Bronx Zoo)…

The most moving experience with the mountain gorillas was when I was photographing a mother nursing her infant. The baby started fidgeting when my camera was click-click-clicking, and turned its head around to look at me. The Mom gave me a look which I distinctly recognized – “Will you stop already, don’t you see we’re busy here ?! ”  I stopped taking pictures, happy for the ones which I DID get (which you can see in the video below). I also did not wish to alarm the alpha male. That would not be a healthy state of affairs for me, and it just might stop my photography rather permanently.

PS: photography of the mountain gorillas is quite challenging! The mountainside is slippery with moss and wet leaves and very steep, the branches are filled with nettles which easily pierce skin; you have to hang on for dear life while trying to photograph the animals which are sometimes moving around. Often the light is very dim owing to dense rainforest canopy. Another huge problem is that the animals conceal themselves behind underbrush and it can be challenging locking on to get an in-focus photograph.  A special technique is required to get the shot and ‘trick’ the camera to focus on the central aiming reticle (instead of the standard “auto” focus which will focus on the underbrush instead of the animal hiding behind it). But I anticipated this condition and carefully practiced the technique prior to the trip, and got appreciable good results with which I am satisfied. I was shooting a full-frame Nikon D700 which performed superlatively, with various lenses used for these photos. I had a backup Nikon D90.

At one point I slipped on the moss and tumbled around 25′ down the slick mountainside, landing in a thicket of underbrush with nettles; Francois the lead guide came bounding down to retrieve me. He was seriously worried judging by the look on his face, but I was just laughing about it, totally embarrassed! (Francois was none other than Diane Fossey’s lead guide. And, I had just missed George Schaller who had been at Virunga Gorilla Preserve only two weeks earlier.  Schaller studied gorillas there in the late 1950’s, and inspired Louis Leakey and Dian Fossey).

 

These are the swimmers, volunteers, families, shore staff, supporters, beneficiaries and the leadership team for these Swim Across America events.  Please come aboard and meet them and Godspeed for their collective efforts to conquer this disease for once and for all… I was privileged to take most of the photos in this journal.

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Sandy Hook Elementary Memorial Dive at Dutch Springs, PA.  1/19/13

Marty Folan, Nick Lappano and I from The Scuba Sports Club attended the Memorial Dive for Sandy Hook Elementary School at Dutch Springs in Bethlehem, PA on January 19th. The Candlelight Vigil Dive was organized by Connecticut’s Newtown Underwater Search and Rescue (NUSAR). While NUSAR itself was not dispatched to the site of the atrocity, many of NUSAR’s staff are also firemen and ambulance corps EMTs, and they were at the school that day because NUSAR’s building is virtually adjacent to the Sandy Hook Elementary School. All of the proceeds of the Memorial Dive were donated to the Sandy Hook Support Fund to benefit the families of the children and teachers murdered at Sandy Hook elementary School on 12-14-2012. Dutch Springs’ owner most honorably offered up the whole facility to NUSAR for the event; and many local food vendors and local and national dive gear manufacturers and service providers contributed products and services for a raffle. NUSAR, as well as everyone who partici-pated in the day’s Memorial Dive, was really grateful for this outpouring of support from all of the event sponsors. After a horror like this, knowing that your peers in the dive community at large have your back, and are your ‘virtual buddies’ providing support and solidarity is greatly comforting. Comfort and solace has been in terribly great demand by too many people – including the first responders. Event Coordinator and NUSAR diver Jeremy Stein began the Memorial Dive with an invocation and then led those assembled in a moment of silent reflection and prayer. While the event had many laughs and good times (and some great pizza and BBQ courtesy of some local restaurants!) the underlying reason for the Memorial Dive was never far from the surface – honoring the memory of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School (SHES) shooting, and raising funds for the Sandy Hook School Support Fund in support of the victims’ families and first responders.

Earlier in the morning, before the 11AM Candlelight Vigil Dive kickoff, NUSAR Team Captain Brian Solt and NUSAR team members Hans Williams and George Robinson headed into the water to install a memorial plaque on the bus submerged in Dutch Springs. The plaque reads “In memory of the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary School. Our hearts are broken but our hope is unbreakable”. The state of Connecticut is the Sandy Hook Memorial Dive background for the graphic, including a heart symbol at the geographic location of Newtown, CT. The plaque was designed by Jeremy Stein and John Almstead (also of NUSAR), and their design is forever powerful, direct and compelling. Concepts and Design of Connecticut made the plaque itself.

The Candlelight Vigil Dive profile for the day was simple and Meaningful – a processional of 26 divers (representing the 26 victims of the school shooting), each stopping to review the plaque, their green and white glowsticks serving as candles and representing the colors of SHES. The divers included public safety divers, civilian divers, and Search and Rescue personnel from a wide area from Connecticut to Virginia. Northeast Search and Rescue provided surface support for divers entering and exiting the water. For everyone who will dive on the bus in the future, please take a moment while you are down there to remember the children and teachers and their families – and also remember the first responders who were at that horrific scene and the first responders’ team mates, as well.

Why was Dutch Spring selected for the Memorial Dive? Jeremy Stein explains: “We wanted to create a permanent memorial to honor the victims and the first responders involved on that tragic day. This is our way of supporting the town that has done so much to support us.” Stein added that Dutch Springs provided an ideal place to create a permanent memorial with access for millions of people. A combination of the central location, the size of the facility and the clarity of the water, not to mention the school bus that seemed like a perfect medium, made Dutch Springs the perfect place. Dutch Springs is near and dear to all Northeast divers’ hearts; and many of us earned our open water certification diving there. The water is clear and ‘cool’ (in a literal sense at times… on Saturday the surface Temperature was approximately 50F and closer to 45F at the bus).

NUSAR also selected Dutch Springs because of the bond we all have with the site, and the bond that all divers share. In turn, all emergency services team members share a bond; maybe it is similar to the ‘band of brothers’ combat infantry or submariners’ bond. All search and rescue teams who train at Dutch Springs from this point forward will see the plaque, and will remember not only the victims and their shattered families, but will also remember and honor the Emergency Services first responders who have come before them to this spot.

NOTHING could POSSIBLY have prepared even the most experienced and hardened veterans for the atrocity at Sandy Hook. And the agony of the day affected NOT ONLY the first responders who were on site at the school – but also their fire department, ambulance corps and NUSAR team mates – some of whom heard the horror unfolding in real time over the extended radio network, and heard the parents’ screams. The abject devastation of not being able to help or change the outcome at all was for many of the team the most shattering experience of all.

Perhaps this dive and the memorial itself was a way for NUSAR and other first responders to “do something” and to feel a little less helpless if only for the day. Stein explained that this memorial dive was a way to come together as a community to create something beautiful and moving. Having met some of them, it is certain that all of these first responders would have laid down their lives to save these children and teachers, but they were powerless to do so in this situation. Every generation has members who are ‘the greatest generation’. These men and women were at Dutch Springs this day. And it is good that future first responders and SAR teams will see that plaque on that bus during their training, and they will know that the diving community came together as a family, to support one another and to honor the victims and the first responders of the SHES shooting.

NUSAR team captain Brian Solt comments “…The day was a step in the long process toward healing and recovery for the town, and we certainly could not have made it a successful day without the tremendous support from Dutch Springs, the many public safety drivers and companies in attendance, as well as the many vendors and volunteers who donated their time or food and dive equipment to the cause…” May Providence provide some peace and solace for the families of the murdered children and teachers, and for the emergency workers/EMTs who were there – and their team mates, too.

 

Gary Lehman

January 2013

 

I attended the 60th Anniversary Commemoration ceremonies at Normandy on June 6th 2004.  The valor of the troops who strugged through the surf and on the beach under murderous defensive fire, and the intrepidity of those who preceded them jumping into the blackness of night to an uncertain fare with their C47’s aflame from anti-aircraft fire, and the courage of the tin can destroyer sailors who came under point blank fire to deliver shore bombardment support to the struggling troops was palpable.  I had the special privilege of being in the very same bunker atop the bluffs at Pointe Du Hoc with Rangers who sixty years before had scaled the 100′ cliffs to take that very same bunker.   Words are inadequate to the task – so I hope that these photos will tell a thousand words. In that hope, I have attached this YouTube which I arranged to remember their sacrifices.

I started photographing for Swim Across America / Making Waves to Fight Cancer in 2004.  Inspired by the fire in the eyes of the swimmers upon exiting the water after their open water one-mile swim, I resolved to see if I too, could complete the one-mile open water course.  (After all, I had completed the one-mile swim in the Boy Scouts when I was sixteen!) I did in fact swim the open water one-mile course for several years, but it became difficult to maintain the pool training schedule which was for me required to keep at that level of swimming proficiency. I have therefore concentrated on the photographic mission; I have covered virtually every event at Sound to Cove in Glen Cove NY and East Hampton, NY and it has been a great honor for me to do so.

I have arranged many YouTubes on behalf of those in the fight, the survivors, the swimmers, shore-based and marine-based volunteers, the families, and the children who swim and come and cheer. While it has been greatly rewarding for me, more importantly the Moms, Dads, teens, kids and all the families really like seeing the pictures of their loved ones at this events. People train hard for these open water swims. Believe me, it is non-trivial to venture into open water and swim against the tide. SAA always provides excellent security and safety of course, so anyone who gets into trouble gets immediate assistance.

I dedicate each YouTube in honor of my older sister Judy, who succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2009 at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx after a valiant fight. Let us hope that the leadership efforts of Swim Across America and all of the many other cancer-fighting initiatives in place will soon conquer this dreaded disease. But until then, let us all keep swimming, biking, hiking, mountain climbing, walking in gyms, climbing, DONATING time and money and doing whatever it takes to destroy cancer once and for all.

(I have included also below our Pike’s Peak YouTube. It is somewhat amusing to note that owing to the 7,000′ elevation, I was at my target heart rate exactly 45 SECONDS into the climb. However, things simmered down and nine hours and twelve miles later we were  at the summit at 14,000+’. And what a grand adventure it was !)