But Indian Valley Scuba still has three more weekends to spend there before we put the virtual cover on the pool for the winter.  And this weekend was a great one to enjoy at the local pond, with 55 degree air in the morning, warming up to nearly 80 each day.  The water is still great, at 75 degrees down to about 40 feet, so the diving is as good as it can get there. 

Both Saturday and Sunday saw some huge IVS crowds there, enjoying the return of Bev to the grill, cooking up some beer-steamed chicken, fresh Amberjack from North Carolina, and the usual menu of dogs, burgers and salads.  Team IVS does eat well, that is for sure!

Congratulations to Jarod Rodgers, John Zyskowski, Brenden Malloy, Brad Creveling, & Rob Lunny, on completing their Advanced Open Water certifications this weekend. 

John Glodowski, lead designer on the IAHD back-mounted scooter, was on site both days tweaking the development of our third generation scooter, designed specifically to allow handicapped divers with little or no use of their legs to be able to motor through the water alongside the rest of us.   This is a phenomenal product that opens up the sport of scuba diving to so many of our less-than-able-bodied friends.  Make sure you stop by the shop and check out the IAHD scooter.

It’s that time again, time to visit our favorite local water-filled hole, Dutch Springs!  And we did it this weekend, in spite of hurricane/tropical storm Hannah raining on our parade!  We were hammered by the weather today with up to 6 inches of rain falling in the area, but did that slow us down?  Not one bit!

The IVS crew sailed into the eye of the storm, without a moment’s hesitation, cause we heard the call of the quarry (and also cause we didn’t hear the call of Key Largo or some other palm-tree filled place this weekend!).  Our team headed in early on Friday to set up the road show tent and secure our space for the weekend, and we are glad they did, cause it was hopping there!!  Amazing with the weather how busy it was at Dutch this weekend.  Our gang showed up bright and early, with the typical myriad of classes to complete, fun dives to take, great barbecue to enjoy, and friends to meet.  All good!

Our own Ray Graff and Richie Kessler manned the grill this weekend, and although the’re not Beverly, it sure beats cold cereal for lunch!  Realistically, both Ray & Richie are great on the grill, and no one walked away hungry.

As usual there were lots of revelations this weekend, but perhaps the most telling was Julia Tate, remarking when our own Aussie staffer Rob Tenille slipped off his drysuit  - “wow, you are completely dry!’.  Hmmmm, did we miss something here in our open water class, Ms. Julia???? 

We want to welcome Tom & Crystal Colleran, Rob, Don & Janet Filson, Ian Matthews, and the lovely Ms. Julia as our newest PADI National Geographic Open Water Divers!  Way to go team!   And as always, not only did our divers complete their open water certifications, they also earned the PADI Peak Performance Buoyancy and Coral Reef Conservation specialties.

We also want to congratulate Art Poontang & Steve Holak as our newest PADI Advanced Open Water divers.  Nice job guys!

Overall we had 32 members of the IVS dive family out with us over the weekend, and it just keeps getting better, with several new faces joining us from North Jersey and New York, and more of our local divers making the switch to the IVS brand of Kool-Aid.  We’re all about diving, training & having a great, safe time while doing it, and it shows in every one of gatherings!  We’ll be back in two weeks to dip our toes into the near-balmy waters here again - hope to see you there!

What a perfect weekend for the IVS gang to enjoy at Dutch Springs!  Beautiful sunny weather, humidity just right, and the conditions at our favorite local watery hole were excellent!  Head Instructor Butch Loggins, assisted by Instructor Ray Graff, treated our newest divers to another great seven dive checkout weekend - yes, that’s 7, and yes that’s about double what everyone else does.  Would you expect anything different from IVS?

This weekend, in addition to all the regularly scheduled fun, we also brought along our Aeris Compumasks for everyone to demo.  This is a great product, allowing divers to operate thier instrumentation in a truly hands-free mode, with the in-mask lighted display showing depth, time, tank pressure, and more - essentially all the data that you would see on the Atmos AI dive computer, without the heed to pick the device up to see it.  Absolutely perfect for photographers and night divers, it reduces the task loading by bringing all the key information you need and want right up to your eyes.  And, it’s fully Nitrox programmable, and downloadable to your desktop computer via a cable.  Interested in trying one?  We have demo units in stock at the shop - just ask and we’ll hook you up! 

And from a gastronomical point of view, we welcomed Bev Loggins back on the grill, bringing her special flare for making a simple BBQ weekend all that much more for our group.  The grill was ‘a-smoking, as the burgers, dogs, sausages and steaks were prepared to everyne’s delight.  Plus the spread of munchies, snacks, fixin’s, salads and desserts are an IVS trademark at Dutch Springs.  

We want to welcome our newest PADI National Geographic Open Water divers, Rebecca Moore, Linda Malloy, Jamie Winchester, and Brad Creveling into the Indian Valley Scuba family. They completed their Open Water certification, Peak Performance Buoyancy Specialty, and the National Geographic Specialty programs this weekend.  Way to go guys!

Rounding out Team IVS this weekend were DM’s Frank Gabriel, Bill Zyskowski, Csaba Lorinzcy, and DM candidate Chris Rich, along with …………………..

This weekend found us back at Dutch Springs for a rare back-to-back engagement with our friends from Halcyon Manufacturing.  The mission for this weekend was Halcyon Days Product Demo, and demo the product we did.  Backplate systems, wings of all shapes & sizes, new canister lights, and the rest of the entire line of fine Halcyon products were out and available for test-diving in the getting warmer-by-the-minute waters of Dutch Springs.  We enjoyed the company of the great Halcyon team, with renowned underwater explorer and founder of Halcyon and Global Underwater Explorers, Jarrod Jablonski on hand to answer questions, talk product, and provide a great Saturday evening presentation of some of the projects he and his team have recently been involved with.  Jarrod was supported by Ken Charleston and Sonya Tittle.  We were proud to be a part of the demo and honored to be one of the select delaers chosen to represent the Halcyon line.

And while all that demo’ing was going on, we were diving too!  This weekend found us graduating a new flock of PADI / National Geographic Open Water IVS divers, with Philip ‘Batman’ Nelson, Alberto & Chris Zeledon, John Zyskowski and Mike Gelatej joining the IVS family.  And we saw Lauren Halvorsen and Joe Bates working on Advanced Open Water, and Paul Stanton and Holly Germana completing thier Dry Suit Specialty course.  IVS Instructor Ray Graff was our guest chef this weekend as we gave Bev a couple of days off, and he he did a fine job representing the ‘B’ Team in the kitchen!  He even managed reached deep into his tofu recipe book to grill up some vegen burgers for our guests, Jarrod and Sonya! The great news is that Bev will be back in two weeks, so come back out and compare!  

Lead instructor Butch Loggins was assisted this fine weekend by Ray, DM’s Frank Gabriel & Bill Zyskowski, DM candidates Donna Raleigh, Jenna Murray, and Chris Rich, and the usual cast of supporting characters.  This is one of the most beautiful aspects of how the Indian Valley Scuba crew dives, as a ‘village’, with so much support and guidiance for everyone.  No egos, no BS, no conflicts - truly no one dives alone with IVS!

As usual we were joined by a bevy of friends and fellow diversand their families, and the laughter and fun continued all weekend long!  Be sure to mark your calendar to join us again the weekend of July 25-26 when we’ll be demo’ing the Aeris Compumask HUD display!  See you then!

It’s America’s birthday, and what better way to spend it than by enjoying the freedom to dive all weekend! So that’s exactly what we did, spending all three days at Dutch Springs!

Friday morning found us enjoying some summer showers as we arrived on site and set up the IVS camp.  Big tent, big grill, big banners - the way we like things here!!  The morning was a very quiet one at Dutch as it seemed most were home enjoying the holiday with family and not diving.  As a result, the viz was 50 plus feet right from the docks, and we took advantage of that all day long, enjoying five dives and completing a lot of Advanced Open Water requirements for Megumi Woltermann & Rob Lunny.  We were joined by Csaba Lorinzcy, Damian Chojnowski, ………..(name others)

Saturday morning dawned and the IVS crowd descended upon Dutch!  We had 13 Open Water Divers completing their checkouts, half a dozen Advanced Open Water, a DSD or two, and some specialty work also.  Lots and lots of organized chaos all day long, highlighted of course with the lovely Beverly’s fine cooking, which included some special wild boar and venison steaks today!  Another five dives on a lovely summer day, and every tank in the truck and trailer went back to the shop empty!  As the day came to an end, the gang helped pitch the cozy little love shack of Bev & Butch, who were spending their first night camping under the stars at Dutch Springs.  Truly worthy of an episode on World’s Funniest Home Videos, the team disregarded all written directions and had the tent assembled in only, oh, four or five tries!   

Sunday brought more of the same hectic activity and even more fun diving than Saturday, and we want to congratulate our newest PADI / National Geographic divers, Scott & Tom McClennen, Ria Lanning, Lauren Halvorsen, Alex, Brian & George Lauderback, Amy Stewart, Angela & Alyssa Tate, Chris Hebdon, and Kellen Thomas.   Also congrat’s to our newest Advanced Open Water Divers, Randee, Joseph & Kerri Bates.  One productive weekend for sure!  We’ll be back next weekend as we demo our line of Halcyon dive gear - look for us on the peninsula side.

This weekend was our first Scuba Dawg Demo days at Dutch Springs, and all we can say is - “WHAT A GREAT IDEA!”  Wow was the enthusiasm fantastic and the eight scooters we took to demo did not get a rest all day either day!  In the water, out of the water, change batteries, back in the water - all day long!!  It is thrilling to see such diver enthusiasm and to be part of divers trying something brand new, and even better, offering them this chance at no cost.

And quite a few divers took advantage of our training special - with a $50 donation to the International Association for Handicapped Divers, they could complete their PADI Diver Propulsion Vehicle specialty for FREE!  There is always a deal to be found at IVS!

It was pretty interesting to note how many other divers came over secretively and asked if we would be there later or on Sunday, because they couldn’t let their current shop see them enjoying our demo.  What an amazingly unbusiness-like attitude so many of the other dive shops have, so possessive of their customers and so unsure of themselves that they are afraid that if the customer talks to another shop - poof! they are gone.  Does the term “if you love something set it free, it it loves you it will come back” mean anything to these dive shops?  Customer loyalty is something you build, not something you create by baffling and BS’ing your customer.  If you are straight up with your customer, truly believe in their best interests, and provide good value with your shop’s product selection and pricing, why would they leave?   That’s what so many other shops miss - they believe they can just keep the customers blinded by denying that other brands or other methods or other shops are out there.  Hey the Soviet Union tried this method with communism, and look what happened when the internet let the people see what the outside world was really like! It’s inevitable that the same thing will occur to a customer the moment they find out they have been treated right or properly informed - they are gone! 

OK, off my soapbox now. 

This weekend Indian Valley Scuba hosted the second annual Whites Drysuit Demo Days at Dutch Springs.  A more beautiful weekend could not have been asked for, with clear blue skies and 90 degree sunshine all weekend long.  An enthusiastic crowd greeted the demo day crew as soon as the gates opened each morning.  All day long we had divers suiting up and testing the latest drysuits from Whites.  The event was headed up by Eric Connery and John Stella from Whites, two experts in the field of drysuit technology and evolution.  Plenty of great information and technical knowledge was shared by the two of them with a very receptive crowd. 

Indian valley Scuba is the #1 Whites dealer in the area, and it showed with the support we brought to this years event.  There were fifteen IVS instructors, AI’s and DM’s all working the booth, helping get divers into their Whites drysuits and into the water to try them out.  The major hit of the event, hands down, was the exciting new Fusion suit by Whites.  This suit truly represents cutting edge technology in shell suit design, with an ultra-flexible inner liner and a protective outer wrap providing unprecedented mobility and range of motion for divers of all shapes and sizes.  No other drysuit manufacturer offers a similar product, but you can be sure their spies were among us, checking out the suit, its features and how everyone who tried one raved about it! 

Look for us to be back with more Whites Fusion drysuits all summer long as Indian Valley offers FREE Demo Days at Dutch throughout the 2008 season!

What a great time we enjoyed in Bethlehem as Indian Valley Scuba hosted the DUI Drysuit Demo Days this weekend. Over 250 divers tried one or more of the great DUI drysuits in the less-than-balmy 43 degree Quarribean waters.  The Indian Valley Scuba crew was on site and underwater helping ensure a great and safe time was had by each of the DUI Test Divers.  The weather was perfect after a terrible day of rain on Friday. 

Beverly had our spankin’ new grill fired up and running, and the results were nothing less than expected - great food, great fun, and good friends gathered around the IVS site.  Twenty-seven IVS diving family members participated in this weekend’s events, and it was great to see so many of our friends in and around the water.  

Look for us back on site at Dutch in three weeks when we once again host another dry suit demo weekend, this time bringing out the Whites products for all to try and enjoy! 

Saturday & Sunday saw us braving the icy cool waters of Dutch Springs in Bethlehem, PA, as we celebrated our annual IVS Ice Breaker Weekend at the quarry.  On board for checkout dives were Brad Landis and Jenna Murray, brave souls that they be!  Brad geared up for the day in a double layer of 7 mm neoprene, while Jenna chose the new Fusion Drysuit from Whites.  One guess who was shivering less!!  We also had Felix Gryn assisting, along with Bill Friedman and Donna Raleigh (also in a Fusion).  Richie Kessler and Dan Macy also joined us for the morning’s dives.

The Saturday checkouts went well, with three nice extended dives including skills and underwater exploration.  Our newest divers performed great, inspite of the 46 degree chill in the water and the breezy overcast day! 

Richie and Dan were preparing for a trip to Olympus Diving in North Carolina this weekend, and Richie was running his new Bonica High Definition Underwater Video System through it’s first test dives.  He got some awesome footage with the system, and we hope to have some posted to the site shortly.  The viz was probably 40 feet this weekend.  All in all, a good Saturday of safe, fun, uneventful diving!

Sunday’s diving started out on a different sort of note.  As our group prepped on the platform on the peninsula side, the morning quiet was interrupted by calls for help from across the pond.  Sure enough, there was a diver there waving frantically and calling for assistance.  The Dutch Springs staff jumped right into action, heading across in an inflatable to assist.  However, because they had to row the inflatable, it took about seven minutes to get across, and the diver was very difficult to get into the boat due to his size and the fact that there was only one staff member aboard.  It was close to 12 minutes before they were able to get the diver into the boat and begin rescue breaths.  That’s a very long time for a non-breathing victim to have to wait.  A motorized watercraft of any sort would certainly have expedited the rescue and allowed a second staff member to be on board to render assistance.  Perhaps Dutch might consider this?? 

The victim was brought to shore looking very, very blue, but local EMS personnel were there to take over and whisk him off to St. Luke’s Medical Center.  Our understanding from the local news reports later that evening is that he recovered - great news for all involved!!!  Also a great reason to think about how valuable your own Rescue Diver and First Aid skills can be when you have to wait for assistance.

After that unsettling start, everyone regrouped, and we made three good dives, completing all our open water skills, fine tuning our bouyancy, navigating like pro’s, and completing our National Geographic Fish ID projects.  Congrats to Brad and Jenna!  

While we were enjoying our surface interval between dives 2 & 3, we watched another instructor working with a student on reel use and wreck penetration.  The student did a great job running line from fence post to fence post - not sure how well this directly applies to the underwater environment, but better than nothing I suppose.  As we geared up for dive #3 we were joined on the platform by the two of them, so we ended up following them to see how it all worked underwater.  Well, as you might suspect from reading this, it was quite the educational experience for our two newest divers to witness the macrame project that took place at 60 feet, as the student managed to wrap himself completely in his own line, then, while struggling with that, turned and knocked his own mask off with his stage bottle, then struggled for the surface - what a mess!  The good news is that the instructor finally responded, got him calmed down, got his mask back, untied him, and went on.  Very good example of why things might be better learned in little steps to build confidence.   

After that the rest of our dive was thankfully anti-climatic, and we wrapped the day up enjoying the late afternoon sunshine while completing our log books.  We’ll be back at Dutch the weekend of May 17-18 diving, barbecuing, and running the DUI Drysuit Demo days, so we hope to see lots of familiar smiling faces there!