Once again Team IVS heads down to sunny Key Largo, but this time with an distinctly eastern European accent for sure! Twenty two divers from as far north as Canada and as far east as Poland, Slovakia and Lithuania made up the group as we once again took over the Amoray Dive Resort and spent the weekend enjoying some fantastic weather, dining & fun in our favorite southern locale. New-comers to our southern journey for this trip included the Polish contingent of Damian Chojnowski, Sebastian Jastrebski, Ratislav Kovalcik, Jaroslaw Wolezszo, Boguslaw Kozilor, Pietrucha Zdzislaw, Szyle Krzysztof, and the Zyskowski brothers, Bill & John. Captain Joe & Divemaster Dan on the boat are still trying to untangle their tongues after the weekend of pronouncing (more often mis-pronouncing) those names. And who’d have thunk that some of these guys were actually coined “siss-kies” for wearing their drysuits in the Keys!
Sisskie-ness aside, these guys know how to eat! Every day the post-dive snacks on the boat definately included kielbasi and fresh bread. Between that and Sam’s chinese snack foods, we had quite the cultural culinary smorgasbord going on. And the steaks they grilled on the barbecue each night were like something out of the Flintstones TV show! Remember, three key things in life - red meat, vodka & women - arrange them in any order, but red meat never gets less than second billing!
So how did it go, you are thinking. Let’s review something new I learned: Two guys walk up to each other and one of them has food in his hand - but who gets to eat it? “How much do you weigh?”, one asks. “270″, I say. “285″, says the other. The answer: he who outweighs the other gets the snack - that’s the way it’s done, my Polish friend Jarek explains, as he promptly eats my pretzels. Hmmm…didn’t see that coming!
This was the last scheduled IVS trip to the Keys for 2008, and as you might imagine, we closed the season in a colorful manner. Thirteen great dives overall, 4 dives and phenomenal conditions on the Duane and Spiegel Grove, non-stop laughter, a great fireworks show as we headed in from our Saturday night dive, Dave doing his break-dancing routine at the Big Chill, crashing a local wedding, cheeseburgers at the Paradise Pub - just a typical weekend with the IVS dive team!
Congratulations to Amy Dunn and Dave Moyer for completing their National Geographic Open Water certifications, including graduation dives on the Spiegel Grove while breathing nitrox! And also to John Zyskowski and Sam Auyeung for completing their Rescue Diver certification (and actually getting Sebastian out of the water and onto the Amoray Diver). Brian Dunn finished his Advanced Open Water, and he and Amy completed their Enriched Air Diver certification. And Doug Berne celebrated his 100th dive this weekend, while completing his Enriched Air Diver cert too!
Felix Gryn, Steve Holak, Roy Scherrer, Tracy & Drew Meyers, Dan Hilt, Bev Moyer, Neil & Terri Derstine, and ‘Wreckmaster’ Dave Hartman rounded out our group as we closed the door and turned the key in the latch for Key Largo until February. See y’all then!