Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Result of intensive training.....



Even with living in central Virginia and almost 400 miles from the Manasquan Inlet and the Point Pleasant Beach area of central New Jersey, I still get sent e-mails of team functions as well as calls to duty when incidents occur. This just happened a few days ago when Team Captain Chet Nesley sent out the call after it was reported a body was seen floating in the hurricane Irene swells that were running the length of the Manasquan Inlet. Point Pleasant Rescue Dive Team members rolled out and responded to the Inlet that was still taking a pounding from Irene that was still coming up the coast and dropping substantial amounts of rain along with hurricane force winds. Upon arrival team members discovered a body floating near the "Jacks" of the Manasquan Inlet and attempt was made to retrieve the lifeless body but a 7 to 10 foot rolling wave came down the inlet separating Chief Nesley who was 6 to 8 feet from the body that was then washed into the "Jacks"...
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The above photo shows Chief Nesley among the massive concrete jacks searching for the missing body that he was separated from a short time ago. Unfortunately the body could not be located and retrieved that night and was retrieved along with another victim the next day...
Several local news services covered this story and can be found here:
Here and Here.....



While sitting in Virginia and following developments of this incident by way of Internet reports, emails, Facebook postings, and telephone calls, I started work on the initial post for this site with some background research of prior incident response and training sessions at the Manasquan Inlet and the Jacks then being searched. This Rescue Dive\Scuba team is not like many teams that are part of local Fire department or First-Aid teams across the country. This team has been known to be out in and seen training in many diverse conditions practicing and improving their skills. Many of these training missions can be seen here and they have obviously paid off as evident of the posture and actions of this team of dedicated members...



Many years ago while working on my PADI Rescue certification as well as eventual PADI Divemaster certification, it was evident that this training was not of the "basic" variety that I fear many divers have been cheated with by dive shops and Instructors who were more interested in moving students thru the system as fast as possible and greatest profit margin. This I compare with the resort training that I saw while living in the Florida Keys where divers could get their Rescue certification in a weekend and learned many of the skills at the dock with 2 to 4" waves usually created by passing boats. In comparison the training that I was fortunate to receive was over a 5 to 6 week period with many sessions spent in often rough Jersey surf and follow-up debriefing sessions athe the local 7-eleven...
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Above photos show a frequent training session at the inlet and description here....


Above two photos show actual rescue at the Manasquan Inlet back in 2006 and description can be found here....


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Monday, August 29, 2011



POINT PLEASANT BEACH — The bodies of two cousins who told friends they were going out to the beach to see firsthand the arrival of Hurricane Irene in this seaside resort town were recovered from the jetty of the Manasquan Inlet on Monday, closing out a search effort that began Sunday evening after a call about a body spotted there...

Update: Link to new information on autopsies......


Body (2) recovery at Mannasquan Inlet after Hurricane Irene.....


First article of incidnt here...
Team description and additional info to follow......

Friday, August 05, 2011

Wooden Boat Show ~2011~



On Saturday, July 16, 2011, we once again participated in the Wooden Boat Festival at Huddy Park, Toms River. This event features dozens of antique, classic, and restored wooden boats on display, many open for visitors to board. You just had to watch out for the pirates that eternally seem to be running amok, but at least there was an ice cream festival down the street at the same time.

The event organizers were kind enough to spot our exhibit near one of the festival entrances, so we had a steady stream of visitors all day. The first gentleman we talked to, before we were even set-up, was actually a fall victim with a badly dislocated finger. We can't go ANYWHERE without a first aid call!


Joe had never worked one of these all-day events, but he's a quick study and jumped right in after Sue in manning the touch tank. This is still our biggest hit, both for children ("Animals!") and their parents ("Those live around here?"). We also took turns at our artifact table and with SCUBA man. How many photo ops can one dry suit take? We may never know...


The long day was also made fun by a troup of pirates-for-hire wandering, carousing, and generally riling things up. They were responsible for a couple of shootouts, a sword duel, and random cannon fire. One random passerby, who just really wanted to get some funnel cake, got stuck in the middle of their mayhem and was tossed over a bridge into the creek below. That's pirates for you.



By the end of the day, we'd once again met a lot of pleasant people happy to learn a little bit more about the natural Jersey Shore. We returned our specimens to Gull Island where they'd come from. Good luck to them all trying to explain their out-of-water experience to everyone back home!