Shark River pre-Summer

With the coming of summer things change at the shore, you have to pay for parking, if you can find a spot, so many fishermen on the wall and the rocks and as of May 1st you can’t dive in Shark River Inlet during the day. So this last week end before the band the team headed up to Shark River to get in one more Sunday dive.

It was a good call as we had the south side of the inlet to yourself, no fishermen, tide just slowing down and bright sunshine and fairly clear water. 10 maybe 15 seconds on the shell drop. Big Joe was our surface support today, Lisa from Middletown Twp SAR was diving with Sue L and Rich G was teamed up Evan S and Joe OJ and I round out the divers in the water.

Getting everyone in the water down the jetty rocks is a lesson in team work and this is something we work on constantly. As everyone got in and headed down the tide went slack and we had a good hour of current free diving.

Sue and Lisa were first down and headed towards the mouth of the inlet. They didn’t have a tube so this was a look around and check out this area dive. Rick and Evan were next down and headed out behind Sue and Lisa but they had a tube so for them it was looking for sinkers. Both of them are fairly new to this so this is training on how and where to look. OJ and I were last in and we both knew where we wanted to search. 

In the past we have covered an area from the bridge out to about a hundred feet down the jetty so we headed farther out the jetty into new areas and we were rewarded with easy pickings. There were sinkers everywhere, we got so many I had to get a second tube as I fill the first one. OJ filled his also and had a fight with a lobster who though the sinkers were his. All together we came away with 143 pounds of sinkers.

After an hour and twenty five minutes under water it was time to come up and make that climb up the rocks. With all the training we do we know what to look for in an exit point. It all so helps to have people up on the jetty to pull up the sinker tubes. Rich and Evan and Big Joe all helped getting both tubes up the rocks and Evan found out just how slippery the rocks can be.

Everyone had a great dive, Lisa said she never saw so many fish in her life, two days ago you couldn’t find a fish and now they are everywhere. The water was 50 degrees down to twenty feet, below that it dropped a little. Visibility was 10-15 feet and as the tide turned it got a little better.
It was a surprise to see how many fishermen were on the rocks when I came up, but all worked out as they stayed away from the divers.

~2016~ Fisherman's Flea Market...

Sunday was Ocean Fire Co #1 fishing flea market and just as years past came off as a big hit. The dive team would like to say thank you to the fire company for the free table they always give the dive team to sell all the stuff we recover from the water. 
This year the team recovered over 3500 pounds of sinkers and hundreds of lures and a dozen fishing poles and we sell everything! You never know whats going to sell. One year Tom C and Sue L recovered a concete owl from th...e inlet and it was the first thing we sold that year. It sold so fast that Tom C said " we should have asked for more". This year it was a half a fishing pole that sold, who buys half a fishing pole. But it did have a nice reel on it.

Joe S (OJ) was selling the fishing poles and the lures and did a great job of selling out of everything. OJ takes all the lures we recover and cleans them up and makes them look like new. 

This was an hand hands on deck event, Just getting everything there and set up is the hard job and then we get out of the way for Sue L, Erin M, Joe S (big Joe) and Joe S (OJ) to do their magic of selling. Mike B, Rich G, Bob S and Tom T were the sinker movers and move they did. We had buckets of sinkers flying out the door. With hand trucks coming and going.

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Polar Bear Plunge ~2016~ Point Pleasant Beach...

The Elks held their annual "Polar Bear Plunge" at Jenkinson's last week and the Dive team & First-aid team provided support and protection...

Water temp was 34'degrees and there was a turnout of approximately 50-60 people who spent a "Short" time in the water. Several people returned to the water once they saw the Dive team assemble to take a group photo. 

Besides being a great opportunity to serve the public, this was yet another training session for the crews to work together and use equipment and practice skills...

New addition to the Dive team is a 5-ton truck that incorporated in the beach duty and performed very well. This gave team members the opportunity to use this new equipment and to get everybody up to speed on it's capabilities...

Truck and crews performed flawlessly only after proper inspection of "Terra firma" and foundation was completed...





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Prep for the upcoming Fisherman's Flea Market...

Work has started preparing the 3,507lbs. of sinkers to be sold at the upcoming Point Pleasant Beach Firemen's Flea Market...

Certification Day 2016...

Yesterday was recert day for the divers on the AED and for CPR, every years the dive team needs to recert in many of the skills we need to do what ever job needs to get done. CPR, AED, dry suit diving, cold weather operation, boat operation, search and recovery, surface rescue, ice diving just to name a few.


Linda C took us through all the steps and even gave us a written test just to make sure we were all up to speed on the skills. Lets just say she didn't make it easy on us.

After the class we headed out to do some cold weather training , we headed up to Shark River Inlet but the dredge was working the inlet so we headed back to Manasquan inlet.

With the tide still running in we headed out to the jacks and worked on climbing down the rocks in full gear. Working as a team we got everyone down the rocks and in the water safely. This is something we do often. Learning where and how to get down is important skill for the divers.

After everyone was in we dropped down to the bottom and searched our way back to the exit at the base of the seawall. Visibility was a good 10-15 feet and we had a water temperature of 41 degrees. With the depth of over 25 feet what little surge there was didn’t reach the bottom. It turned out to be a nice drift dive down the inlet. 

Even with the climbs down the rocks, the long walk in full gear out to the end of the jetty and the snow, every diver came away knowing if we had to and needed to we could do it. Hell if you ask anyone of them, they will tell you if was fun!

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New Years Dive ~2016~

The New Years Day dive is something the team has been doing for 19 years now. We have done them in all kinds of condition, very cold, warm, snow ,rain, winds, no visibility some visibility and some times it all comes together for a great dive.

This years dive was at the Shark River bridge which is out of the Teams normal coverage area  but knowledge of surrounding area is important in the event the team is called in for assistance. It also a enjoyable dive area with interesting bottom structure and favorite place for Full Moon night dives...

2016's will go down of one of the best, good weather, good visibility and 201.8 pounds of sinkers! Not only is that the second best day we ever had it put us over 3000 pounds for the year.

Retrieving lead fishing sinkers started out being a side note but it was discovered by Chief Diver Chet Nesley that there was a market for these reclaimed "Artifacts" at the annual Fishermen's Flea Market held every year. This has become a great opportunity for the team to interact with the fishing community and repeat business with individuals has become the norm. It is also a important fund raising program for the Team...

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U.S. Coast Guard rescue Manasquan inlet...

The United States Coast Guard performed a onsite rescue of the operator of a personal watercratft "Jet-Ski" while on a training mission. The helicopter crew was offshore and upon approaching the Manasquan Inlet observed the water craft on the inlet rocks and then spotted the operator in the water...

Point Pleasant First-aid Rescue Dive Team had divers and members ready at the first-aid building equipped and ready to respond if needed...

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"Jetty Training" with Life Guards and other Crews....

Thursday was the dive team’s drill with the first aiders and the life guards doing searches and recovery of people lost or hurt on the jetty or in the water and this is something we try to do every year.  With new life guards and first aiders, it is something that needs to be done before the summer season.

    Everyone is broken up in to small teams and search the jetty looking for lost or injured people and when found they get to help the first aiders recover and remove them from the jetty. It sounds easy but going up and down the jetty with someone on a back board is anything but easy with the many deep holes and slippery rocks. Learning to work together is what this drill is all about.

   This year the victims were deep in the jetty and in spots that took many rescuers to do the recovery. The scenarios used were based on past events that have happened on the jetty.  The divers were there as team leaders and safety backups for the search teams and also to teach the new people search and recovery techniques. Senior first aiders stayed back and let the new members do what needed to be done and keeping an eye on everyone to see that it is done right.

    The five victims were recovered and removed from the jetty and all with no one being injured. This was just the first part of the training for the life guards, the following week they were at the first aid building learning about putting victims on back boards and some basic first aid.

   This training pays off when we have first aid calls on the beach, the life guards are there first and start getting the victims ready for us. It all comes down to team work. Police, fire, life guards, first aid and dive team all working together.

   We all hope for a safe summer season, but we are ready if it is not!

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