Jetty rescue training 2021

    Sunday the dive team was out on Manasquan Inlet jetty Training to search for a missing person and how to recover or move them from the jacks or rocks.

    The team does this every year to be ready for the upcoming summer season. In the past we have done this with the lifeguards from Jenkinson’s and the fire companies from Point Pleasant Beach. This time it’s just the divers, but in two weeks the fire companies will be out here, because it takes so many people to remove someone from the rocks safely.

    It starts right at the gates to get on the beach. All the squad’s beach vehicles have keys to open the gate and the squad members are trained how to drive on the beach

  Once on the jetty everyone is split into teams and begin the search. Searching the jetty is a very slow process. There are so many kooks and crannies that have to be checked. So its look left and right, up and down then move on. Some holes drop down ten feet down to the water so its move carefully.

   When the victim is found the EMT’s go to work doing their first aid and getting the patient ready to be moved. The searchers job is now how to get the equipment down for the EMT’s and find a way to get the patient out. 

    When the victim is found the EMT’s go to work doing their first aid and getting the patient ready to be moved. The searchers job is now how to get the equipment down for the EMT’s and find a way to get the patient out. 

There is never enough room to do what needs to be done when you’re down in the jetty and that’s why we train to do this. Once the patient is ready to move now it’s time for everyone to work together. The patient has to be moved to an area where we can raise the patient out of the rocks and get them to an ambulance.

    Now the second team gets to search for the victim and the first team gets to remove patient from the rocks. The first team used a stokes basket to remove the patient and the second team will be using a miller man for their patient.

   Chris, Ali and Joe (OJ) will be the team working on getting the patient ready to be removed. This patient was deep in the jetty with little room to work in. Once the patient was ready to move

  Tony and the first team worked getting the patient in an area where he could be lifted out. Then it was lowing the patient down the rocks to the beach.

Dive team Cleaning Manasquan Inlet

 

What started out as a simple question back in December by a local fishermen turned into a mission for the dive team.  While waiting for slack tide at the inlet a local fishermen ask the chief diver of the team about why he was losing all his fishing lures in this one spot.

   The chief went on to explain that there were hang ups on the bottom that the fishermen can get hung up on and that was one of the things the team does trying to clear these up.

   The fishermen said it doesn’t always happen, but at times no matter what his does he loses his gear. The chief told him the sand moves around and what’s there today might be covered tomorrow. But we would check out the area and see what was down there.

   During the dive, team members search of the area in question nothing was found but a flat sand bottom.  The team did kept an eye on this area and around the middle of March the chief diver did find a fairly larger lump of fishing line sticking out of the bottom.

first time we saw the mount

    Since no one is really fishing at this time of year he put a float on it to mark the location. Over the next 4 dives more of the lump was pulled free of the bottom and a plan was made to pull it free and remove it from the water

float on the mount

a float on each end

   On Sunday March 28 2021 the plan was put into action. The dive truck (347) was pulled up as close as we could get it to the spot of the sinker mount and thanks to the Point Pleasant Beach Police department, who closed off the area we needed, we were able to use the heavy duty winch on the front of the truck to help pull the debris free from the bottom and out of the water.

Thanks to the Point Beach Police for blocking off the area

   The team came with a plan because the current in the inlet can be extremely strong. The plan was to get divers in as the tide was still coming in and get a line out to the mount. Ali B. and Rich G had this job. Once the line to the mount was in place they would take down a large grapple hook and set it in the mount. Now the dive trucks winch would start pulling the mount out of the bottom.

Ali and Rich 

setting up the line out to the sinker mount

grapple hook set

    Chris T. and Perry B would bring down lift bags and hook them into the mount and with the truck pulling the lift bags would also provide lift. At the same time Ali, Rich and Chris and Perry would be fanning the bottom to free it and cutting any lines still hung up.

Perry and Chris ready to go

lift bag ready for air

   With assistant Chief diver Joe S on the controls of the winch and keeping a steady pull on the line the mount slowly started pulling free of the bottom. Chief diver, Chet N was swimming around making sure everyone one was safe and shooting video. At last the mount pulled free of the bottom and was pulled over to the wall and pulled from the water.

Assistant Chief diver Joe S. on the winch controls

Chet with a head mounted video camera

The sinker mount out of the water

    The last three divers in were Joe (OJ) S. and the two Jim’s, Sr. and Jr. Their jobs were to clear the area of any debris and cut away any leftover lines. By now the current was getting fairly strong and it was time to retrieve all our lines and floats.

Joe (OJ) getting ready to drop in

Jim Sr & Jr dropping in

   The mount turned out to be over two hundred pounds of fishing line and now that area is clear of any hang ups and we will not be seeing dead fish and crabs entangled in this mess.

  

2021 New Years Day

 

If you went looking for the Point Pleasant First Aid Dive Team on New Year’s Day you would have to have gone to Gull Island Park. Because the team was up holding their 24 year old tradition of diving on New Year’s Day

 Since the team was started 24 years ago they have never missed a New Year’s Day. Regardless of the weather or water conditions. The coldest dive was in 2018 with an air temperature of 08 degrees and a   wind chill of -4 degrees

  Since the team is on call 24/7/365 they have to be ready to go in the water in all kinds of conditions. In New Year’s Day past they have had air temperatures in the 50’s, 40’s 30’s and water temperatures of always around high 30’s to low 40’s. Visibility has been anywhere from 0-30 feet, this year was pretty good with visibility between 10-15+ feet.

  It’s not always Gull Island. In 2020 it was at the foot of Bay Ave at the boat ramp

In 2019 it was at Manasquan Inlet

2016 it was Shark River inlet

   Some years when the ocean is flat the team will dive off the beach. Sometimes a beach wreck or off the beach and into the let like in 2015 where the team dove off the 
beach and let the tide bring them down the Manasquan Inlet getting out by the parking lot

   After the dives it was always back to the building to clean up and have a lunch of soup and sandwiches, but not this year! This year the team had a feast, thanks to Chris and his wife, Jim Sr & Jr, Sue L, Julia and Flo the team had two kinds of soups, chili, sausage and peppers and Corn bread, ziti and a nice salad. There was something for everybody

So if you're a diver looking to dive or someone who wants to watch and be part of the first dive, mark it in your date book for next New Year's Day. Come see what we do both the first aid and the dive team. You never know you might want to join!