2019 Paddle Board race

    Saturday the dive team answered a call for some help from station 75 (Point Pleasant Boro Fire Dept) for our boat (rescue 34) and some rescue divers. The chief diver and Ali and Evan were able to answer that call.

   The call was to help cover their 2019 Paddle Board Race held at River Front Park. It was a pretty big course starting at the park going around Treasure Island and heading up the Manasquan River pass the route 70 bridge and so far up the river you couldn’t see the route 70 Bridge. The big race was over 7.5 miles.  Station 75 boats, Manasqaun Fire Boat and Rescue 34 were the main rescue boats with rescue      swimmers and EMT’s onboard, there were a few private boats there also but without rescue personal.

     There was a pretty big turnout for the race, with many paddle boards, some kayaks and even a racing scull. What a great job they did fighting the tide and the wind up to where Rescue 34 was stationed at the farthest turn marker. First by ones and twos then groups came paddling up the river up. We cheered them up letting them know the current would be with them now.

    At last the final paddler came in to view and made the turn we followed him all the way back to the finish. At times we thought he would give up but he never did. Everyone made it back safe and it was a great day for the race

Dive team assist Cub Scout Troop

Today the Dive Team was invited to assist some of our younger citizens in their community service project.  Cub Scout Troop #6 made plans to perform a shoreline cleanup of Silver Lake and requested our assistance along the water's edge.

Scouts and some of their family members first met with Mayor Stephen Reid and Councilman Tom Vogel, who thanked everyone for helping to clean up this part of the community.  Just scanning across the lake, it was obvious that plastic debris in particular was an issue.  However, everyone brought gloves and garbage bags ready for the job.

Before we began the cleanup, Dive Team members Joe, Chris, and Sue gave the troop a short tour of our Dive Rescue truck and showed everyone some of the basic dive gear we always travel with.  (A few of the kids discovered that an air tank and weight belt weigh more than they do!)  We didn’t need to do any diving at this site today, though, but we were in exposure suits to help with the wettest part of today’s job.

The scouts broke into three teams to tackle different sections of the shoreline, with one diver accompanying each group.  While the scouts picked up all manner of garbage around the lawns and in the shore reeds, divers helped from the water side to add to the garbage bags.  Plastic debris was indeed the most common garbage – bags, bottles, straws, wrappers of all sorts.  Other items included cans, glass bottles, rusty rebar, a house shutter, diaper, silk flower wreath, skate wheel, hackeysack, and even one of the town’s traffic barrels.  And EVERYONE recovered golf balls.  It was a messy job, but someone had to do it.

By the end of the morning, teams had collected dozens of garbage bags for proper disposal.  A big ‘thank you’ goes to all the volunteers who worked so hard today on this project.  We’re looking forward to working with them again in service to the community.

Ocean Fire Companys Fishing flea market

Sunday was the end of the year for collecting sinkers for the team and this was a great year! We had many dives with totals over one hundred pounds and with Mother Nature’s help we found many good spots. Shark River Inlet both north and south sides or Manasquan Inlet even the Highlands bridge no matter where we went we came back with sinkers.

   So with the help of the Ocean Fire Company who gives the dive team a few tables at their fishing Flea market every year, we set out to sell the sinkers and anything else we find underwater. Sinkers, lures, fishing poles, old bottles and anything we find. One year we found a concrete owl and we even sold that! It all goes to help support the team.

    This is the big fund raiser for the team. Our truck, air compressor, dive gear, dry suits are not cheap! We do get some funding from the first aid squad but their job comes first and their equipment is not cheap either. So the team tries to help out by raising all we can.

     This year the team recovered 5420.2 pounds of sinkers, this is the best we ever did. So we loaded up the dive truck and headed over to the flea market and got set up. With the whole dive team showing up it was a fast load in. That was a good thing, as it was raining!

    Sue. Ali and Big Joe got busy setting up the tables and Joe (OJ) and Rich got the lure display set up while the rest of us Chris, Tommy Lee, Evan, Greg, young Jim and Eric got everything in the building in just a few trips.

   The doors opened at 0830 and by 0831 we were selling sinkers! I guy took 230 pounds at one shot! A few pounds here and a few pounds there, 25 pounds, 50 pounds the Team was just selling! Even Flo showed up and was selling. By the end of the day we sold just about everything we had!

     So with a big THANK YOU to Ocean Fire Company and all the team members who worked so hard this year getting cleaning and sorting 5420.2 pounds and lures. Now we get to start again!

Elk's 2019 POLAR BEAR PLUNGE

The dive team and first aid squad was on hand for the 2019 Elk’s Polar Bear Plunge held on the beach in front of Martells. This is a yearly event held by the Elk’s as a fund raiser and with a great breakfast and a lunch after the plunge it’s a great way to help the Elks with all the work they do.

    Saturday was the day for the plunge and if you looked out a window it looked pretty good. Until you stepped outside. With an air temperature 28 degrees and the wind was blowing over 20 miles per hour that made the wind chill just 16 degrees and these brave people are going to go into 38 degree water!

   So the squad had their 4x4 ambulance and our 4x4 drive first responder truck and the dive teams 4x4 on the beach ready for anything that happens. The dive team had three fully suited divers ready to go in the water if needed and the other divers were  suited ready with surface rescue gear.

    But like in years past everything went well and everybody had a great time. A quick run into the water and then back up the beach into a warm towel. There are a few who run back in and out a few times and there is always one guy who shows up late and we hang around to make sure everybody is out.

 

    The first aiders keep an eye on everybody coming out of the water and making sure they’re fine. Then it’s time for all the people with camera, many group pictures with the squad and the divers and a few of the plungers.

    Our thanks to the Elks for letting us be part of their fun event and to the brave people who jumped into the water and to all the divers and first aiders who came out and gave up their Saturday morning for this event.

First Dive 2019

The dive team welcomed 2019 the way it has since the team was formed many years ago with our first dive of the year. We have never missed a first dive yet and we hope to keep that record going!

   This year’s dive was at Manasquan Inlet and let’s just say it we could have had better conditions. Topside the conditions weren’t all that bad. We had an air temperature of 63 which for the first of January isn’t that bad, it was a little windy and we could have used a little more sun. The water wasn’t that bad at 47 degrees, but the visibility was where we needed the help. It was pretty bad! 0-2 feet at best! At times it was so dark it became a daytime night dive. It didn’t stop us just slowed us down.

   Sue, Ali, both Joes, Rich, Jim Sr, Jim Jr, Perry ,Evan and Chris all hit the water and let the current drift us down the inlet, with the bad visibility and a 3-4 swell coming in the inlet we were lucky to get the few sinkers and lures that we did recover. All together the team pulled up 40.4 pounds.

    This is good training for the team, but it’s also a fun time for everybody. We had a person come up to see if we needed any help and He (Robert, I didn’t get a last name) became our photographer for the day. He posed us here and there trying to get just the right shot and he even got in a group shot. He was a good sport.

Here is a short video of the first dive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0FaU0iB5Ls