Another weekend and another great chance to get wet in a local way, at Dutch Springs, of course!  It was another checkout weekend and Dueling Drysuits Demo day at the local quaribbean, and it started off as one fine looking weekend for sure!

Saturday we had about 35 IVS divers in the camp, and Sunday found the total for the weekend up over 50!  How cool is it to have so many of our diving family stop by, get a dive or two in with old friends, make new ones, grab a burger, and plan the next dive trip!  And we made even more new friends as the popularity of the Dueling Drysuits demo program continues to grow!

Saturday’s weather was perfect, and with grille-mistress Donna Raleigh in charge, no one went hungry or unsatisfied around the food table.  On Sunday we have Jerry Melissen take over the grille meister duties, and again, the bellies were filled, the smiles were wide, and the IAHD-Americas contribution jar was nicely filled!!  Thank you everyone for supporting our cause. 

Sunday morning the rain came down…and down…and down…….what a torrential storm we experienced.  Lord knows how much rain we got, but we sure got it in a hurry!  But what comes after the rain - you guessed it, a beautiful sunny afternoon to cap a great weekend of diving!

Congratulations to Meghan Grant, Mike Weiderhold, Wyatt & Chuck Brumm, and Paul Haverfield, on completing their National Geographic Open Water certifications! And Rich Seier, who completed his Advanced Open Water & Drysuit Specialty certifications! Wow!

This weekend, for the first time in the twelve year history of the Lehigh Valley Sportsfest, participants had the opportunity to discover the magic of scuba diving.  This event, held each year in the Allentown area since 1997, has steadily grown in size and scope, with nearly 10,000 competitors and 100,000 spectators gathering this year at the festival.

This annual festival of sports and games, started with 16 events as the Allentown Sportsfest, and has grown now to over 100 different events, changing it’s name to the Lehigh Valley Sportsfest to more accurately reflect the regional involvmenet.  Indian Valley Scuba, and the International Association for Handicapped Divers, was asked by the Sportsfest founders to bring a Discover Scuba program to this years event.  We set up the IVS rolling DSD show at Cedar Beach Park, a massive pool/park/nature area, right near the center of the city of Allentown. 

On Saturday, they were lined up and waiting as we pulled the truck & trailer into the pool area.  By the end of the afternoon, over 45 divers had been briefed, geared up, and taken on tours, culminating in some basic skills training, paving the way for our next wave of certified divers!  Channel 69 News was there sharing the event with their viewers, and IVS-staffers Mike Gusenko, Ray Graff, Brad Creveling,  Barb White and Dave Valaika had their hands full, running non-stop without a break until finally closing the pool down at 7:00.  After that it was back to the shop, filling tanks, and getting ready for tomorrow!

Sunday was as beautiful a day as Saturday, with even larger crowds, more fun and another 55 divers getting wet and blowing bubbles for the very first time.  Lin Gusenko, Leslie & Carlie Adams, Butch Loggins, and Katie Chin joined the crew today, making it an even more fun event - what a great bunch of folks we had on both sides of the Discover Scuba program today.  By the end of the weekend we had taken over 110 divers in, went through nearly 90 tanks of air, and planted more than our fair share of smiles across the Lehigh Valley.

Look for us to be back next year! 

Indian Valley Scuba’s St. Louis dive center is getting ready for a Memorial Day Grand Opening! 

Charles St. Amant spent the last week in Harleysville working with the staff and getting his final training completed before he and his wife Cherie open their doors at IVS-St. Louis later this month.  Charles worked with Indian Valley Scuba’s IT-guru Csaba Lorinczy putting the final touches on his POS system, completed the design and pre-build of his gas filling & blending system with Bob Stitzinger, and worked through the last details of retail and training inventory with Bev Loggins.  An amazingly busy week, but super productive!

This weekend we find Rich Peterson, Ray Graff, Bob Stitzinger and myself headed west for our 14 hour, 900 mile drive to the Kennerly Street store location.  Our mission: to complete the final build-out and fit-out of the store with Charles & Cherie.  Packed in the trucks with us were the gas compressor, cascade bottles, fill system, retail displays, service tools and retail inventory that in just a few short days will transform an empty storefront into a fully operating dive center, ready to serve the needs of the St. Louis market.

Charles has already secured exclusive contracts with three area YMCA’s and class registrations are coming in daily.  The first open water classes will start in early June, and run monthly after that.  Of course each class will have the opportunity to join IVS in Key Largo for their checkouts, or head out for a weekend at Mermet Springs, just a short ride east from the shop.  

So after a thirteen hour ride, we arrive in St. Louis all fired up and ready to go!  Charles opens up and we begin unloading, tanks, compressor, fixtures, furniture and everything else needed to turn an empty space into a dive center!  Rich, Bob, Ray & Dave put in a solid 14 hour day, knocking off just in time to secure some local quality cigars and wines, and gather around the pool for a thorough debriefing!  Meanwhile while the crew relaxed, Keri Stinchcomb spent a few hours in the shop working to restore the luster to the floors and tiles, and her work was shining bright by the end of the night.

Tuesday morning dawns bright & blue for the crew, and after a well-deserved nights rest, we head over to the jobsite early!  Well most of the crew, that is, with slowpoke Rich nursing the post-wine affect from the evening before!  Today IVS-St. Louis Divemaster Mike Landers joined the crew and we kicked butt all day, finishing the compressor installation & gas filling system, building cabinets, desktops, counters, workbenches, storage racks -you name it, it got built today!  By the end of another long day the store was ready to be filled with product, and Charles & Cherie will spend the next week putting the finishing touches on the set up and inventory.  The Harleysville gang packed up their tools and trucks, and made the long journey back east.

We’re all excited about bringing the IVS magic to the St. Louis area, and watching Team IVS grow in the midwest.  The official opening is scheduled for Memorial Day weekend, and from there it should be nothing but upward and onward for this latest addition to the IVS family.  

Who says winters need to be long and cold in the northeast?  They certainly don’t need to be when you have Indian Valley Scuba in your neighborhood!   We love to dive and we love to travel, so it goes hand in hand that we love to travel to dive!  

This weekend saw 29 IVS divers head south to sunny Key Largo, where we enjoyed 14 dives on the reefs - yes that’s right, 14 dives in three days!  Lots of great reefs, shallow wrecks, deep & exciting wrecks such as the Duane and Spiegel Grove, and two night dives!  What an exciting way to avoid the big snow storm that  headed east this weekend.

With instructors Butch Loggins, Bill Zyskowski, Csaba Lorinczy and IVS-South Instructor & Spiegel Grove tour guide extradinaire Dave Hartman, plus Assistant Instructor Felix Gryn, and DM’s Rich Peterson and John Glodowski, our team heralded 8 new divers into the Indian Valley Scuba family - Lyn, DJ & Jessica Swartley, Cindy Eisenhauer, Cynthia Spitalny, Alex & Wendy Lepore, and Stephanie Rees all earned their PADI National Geographic Open Water Diver certifications, along with Peak Performance Buoyancy, Coral Reef Conservation, and Boat Diver specialty certifications.   Congratulations to each of them!

Additionally, we had Keith & Nate Beaver, along with Jim Swartley, completing their Nitrox cert’s.  Rounding out Team IVS for the weekend was Sylvia & Niki Lorinczy, Jim Dahlberg, Brian Montague, Tim Brown, Rob Lunny, and DAN Auction Winner Sharon Gill from Connecticut.  Sharon was the successful bidder on one of the Key Largo trips that IVS donated to Divers Alert Network as part of their annual fundraising auction.  Welcome to the family, Sharon!

The weekend found us with three great days of weather sandwiched in between two lousy weeks of Florida winter weather, so once again the scuba gods were smiling on us!   And a very special congratulations to Ms Niki Lorinczy, who single-handedly took home the coveted “A.D.D.” award!  That’s ” All Dives with Dave!”  Three days, 14 dives, almost twelve hours of bottom time.   Way to go girl!

The only sad news from this weekend was with Dave still nursing his cracked vertebrae & broken ribs (see the Boot Show blog entry!) there was no break-dancing allowed!  Don’t worry, he’ll be back…with a vengeance!

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????  Wetsuit, drysuit…..I’m sure there was a difference there!

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!

Another day, another batch of new scuba enthusiasts!  Today we visited the New Life School in Schwenksville, PA for our third annual Discover Scuba Diving program.  This alternative school for youths age 12-19 is one of our favorite stops on the DSD tour, where we get to help turn a lot of energy in a positive direction.  Director Dan Novak tells us this is one of the most looked-forward to events of the summer season for the young men enrolled in the schools’s program.  Team IVS included Csaba Lorinczy, Steve Clem, Ray Graff, Maureen Gribb, Chris Rich & Tom Brennan, bringing a lot of collective experience into the mix to provide a great experience for the young men.

Phase one is a classroom session, with the students viewing the PADI Discover Scuba Diving video, followed with a detailed gear discussion and Q&A session.  Then, it’s off to the pool, for gear fitting and a snorkeling session to get everyone comfortable.  Finally, the scuba units are put on, and the class gets a great session of diving, learning some basic scuba skills, and most importantly, having FUN!

Want to join in our our DSD activities? Call Bev at the shop and see where the IVS Scuba Tour Bus is scheduled to travel to next!  Be part of the team and share what we  love so much with others.

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 …………………..

Hatfield, PA’s Boy Scout Troop 141 Discovered Scuba Diving tonight at the North Penn YMCA with Indian Valley Scuba!  Richie Kessler led a star-studded cast of IVS luminairies as we introduced the magic and wonder of scuba diving to yet another group of young persons from the area - this time the young men and adult leaders of Troop 141, located in Hatfield, PA.

Another great event, and as usual all sorts of training activities taking place in the pool, with Dry Suit classes, Open Water classes, and some Advanced Open Water work taking place simultaneously!  Team IVS sure knows how to choreograph pool time!

Let us know when your group wants to try diving, and we’ll be glad to bring our show to you!

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.

There is nothing quite like the adventure and excitement of taking that first breath underwater, and there is no better place to enjoy it than with the FREE Discover Scuba Diving programs offered by Indian Valley Scuba!  Our DSD crew was busy this weekend, starting off with Boy Scout Troop #214 from Telford, PA.  Twelve scouts spent almost two hours underwater with the IVS gang, and there was nothing but smiles and empty tanks at the end!  Troop leader Cindy Buckingham exclaimed “What a great time!  The scouts loved every minute of it!”. The event was held at the North Penn YMCA in Lansdale. 

If that was enough, we headed right back out to the Hatfield Aquatic Club again, for our third DSD in as many weeks.  Forty eight participants had a chance to get wet and deep with us during the program.  Once again we were mobbed by the crowd as they lined up to try the magic of scuba diving in this premier pool setting. Coach KB really sets her club apart from the others by offering innovative and exciting programs for the members, and Indian Valley Scuba is proud to be part of the HAC team!

Big thanks to the iVS team - Bev & Butch Loggins, Rich Kessler, Felix Gryn, Tom Brennan, Cassandra Rich, Bill Zyskowski, Jenna Murray & Chris Rich for making these wonderful events possible and for providing a night to remember for the participants!