Beach Sweep #2 ~Jersey Shore~

The dive team answered a request for our service to do a underwater search of the swimming area off of point pleasant beach. The search was for large debris from super storm sandy and if found to remove it, making the area safe for swimming.

  This is the second time we have done this search in two weeks. The first time was two weeks ago and we searched an area that ran from the inlet to Trenton Ave. (just under an mile) The search was conducted  at high tide  so the area searched will be the swimming area even at low tide. Working in a water depth of between ten and fifteen feet we started the search swimming south.

 Today we started our search at Trenton Ave and worked our way north to the inlet. This made it an easier swim for the divers as they were moving with the current. We had better visibility this time with five feet or more at times.

Teams of two divers were used for the search, It was up to each team as to how far they would go. With a water temperature of 51 degrees and low visibility most teams lasted 40 minutes. Four teams were used the cover the whole area.

Nothing of any size was found, Divers Sue and Ali did find a stereo tuner and the divers on the beach did recovered some bricks and cinder blocks and a concrete fence post. The search area was found to be mostly flat clean sand bottom. There was some small (less than six inches long ) pockets of wood debris that was moving along with the current, but nothing that would appear to pose a risk to swimmers.

This will be an ongoing project as we cannot guarantee as to future conditions.  But we will do our best to make the area safe for everyone.

     As the chief diver for the dive team I would like to thank all the divers and first aiders who gave up fourteen hours over two days to help make this season safer for everyone involved…

Historical Bottle Diggers of Virginia... ~2013~

 

The Dive Team attended and had a display table at the recent bottle show of the Historical Bottle Diggers of Virginia in Harrisonburg, Virginia...

This was a unique opportunity for the team members to show off what they have found over the years as well as showing what the Dive Team has and continues to do for the community.... 

Our display table had a collection including artifacts from numerous shipwrecks along the New Jersey shore, river and tidal zones, and of course bottles found while diving. Special emphasis showed how antique bottles are found by way of "Underwater Bottle Digging" and the condition they are found in. Several visitors to the table stated that they found this tactic very interesting and one person contrasted it to his tactic of "Digging bottles with his debit card" on e-bay...

We were provided with two tables and at first there was a question if we could fill both tables but once the items started to hit the tables it was obvious we did well with our selections of items...

One third of the display was devoted to the marine environment where many of these items were found along with where the Dive Team trains, practices, and performs the procedures as duty requires. Special display was devoted to a pile of fishing sinkers in sand and a description of how the Dive Team has retrieved over 5,600+lbs of sinkers that were sold during the Winter Fisherman's flea markets to support Dive Team functions....

It was a impressive show and one with over 75 tables of bottles and collectibles. It was a great opportunity to speak with other collectors\dealers and to compare prices and regional history of bottles. Several visitors to our display tables described artifacts that they have found over the years including civil war artifacts and the rich history here in the Shenandoah Valley...

 

 

Overall a great day...

Many bottles to look at and discuss...

Numerous people and collectors to meet and talk with...

Pulled pork bbq sandwiches...

And first place award for display and most educational...

Thanks to Chief Diver Chet Nesley who made the 5+ hour ride to the valley and thanks to the Historical Bottle Diggers of Virginia for their hospitality and interest in our "hobby".... 

 

Post Sandy Beach Clean-up...

 

On Sunday the dive team answered a request for our services. A call was made for the team to search the beachs  for storm debris before the start of the swimming season. We were asked to search the shallow waters along the shore for large debris and to remove it.

A plan was made and the call went out for divers, it was a good turnout. We had ten divers and six first aiders show up ready to go to work. We had three trucks on the beach to carry all the dive gear and diver up and down the beach. This made it a lot easier on the divers and saved us a ton of walking.

 The weather was on our side, with sunny skies and waves no bigger than three feet and warm temperatures, not to hot and not to cold!

 

 

 

We put our rescue boat ( rescue 34 ) in the water to ward off wayward boaters and to give surface support to the divers if needed. Tom C. was our coxswain for the day and did a great job. Once rescue 34 got on location we started our search at the foot of broadway.

 

 The plan was for the two divers to go out to between eight and fourteen feet and search swimming south. The search was done on the high tide so even at low tide the area search would be the area used by swimmers. The first team was Joe S. and Tom T. With the water temperatures at 44 and a pretty good surge running also a current running to the north at just under a knot each team was going to be in the water only a little over a half hour.

Tom and Joe got the ball rolling covering over two city blocks, at the end of the dive tom T. got in the boat with tom C. to be on hand if tom C. needed the help. They did run into some small debris pockets, but nothing that would be a risk to swimmers. It was also moving with the current.

 

As teams were getting in and out of the water and gearing up it was the training that both the first aiders and divers had that made it look easy. Everyone helping each other, as divers came out of the water they were helped up the beach to the back of jerry truck and sat down and their gear was removed and the next team was briefed by the first team and geared up and helped into the water.

 

The second team was Sue L. and Ali B. and they showed up the guys today. They covered right up to jenks main building. The first pair of divers were hard to spot from the beach so Sue and Ali were send in with a surface float which made it easier for the shore people to see them. When they came out they reported no debris at all.

 

Joe S. and Bob S. were the next team in and they covered the area from jenk’s main building to pass martell’s. They also find no debris at all.

The last team in was a solo dive done by Chet N. and he covered the last of the search area up to the foot of Trenton ave. He also report no debris.

 

Many people came up to us to find out what we were doing and every one took the time to tell them what and why we were doing the search. It was a long day for everyone. To be in a dry suit for 7 hours is not a good thing. The smell of all the food cooking on the boardwalk had our mouths watering, but food had to wait . We had gear and trucks to clean!

7-11 Support....

 

The Dive Team presented a plaque to Jay Patel who is the owner of the 7-11 store on Broadway in Point Pleasant Beach...

 

Over the years Jay has been a great support to the team by providing aid to the team in many different forms while they return from incident calls and training sessions....

Swept Away......

The stories have been told and retold of the enormous damage Hurricane Sandy caused along the east coast. Today we were reminded of the impact that powerful storm had on the area and how it personally affected one family.

The water wasn’t looking that great for a dive, so the team decided to use the day for boating and search pattern training. It was a good day to hone our skills and teach the newer members some of our procedures. We headed out in Rescue 34 and headed towards the Rt35 Mantaloking Bridge. All along the shore were reminders of Hurricane Sandy. Docks twisted or stripped of planking. Houses that are broken in half or sunken into the ground. Walls crumbled into piles of debris. A house stands in the middle of the waters. Ripped from its foundation and dropped into the bay. The water lapping at the second story windows.

After surveying the area we found a stretch of land to practice our search skills. We split into two teams. Chet, Joe and Sue in Team 1 and Gibby, Sammi and “The Other” Joe in Team 2. The debris field offered a great way to examine how items are affected by strong weather. Here were the remains of a house that was demolished by the estimated 22 knot current created by Hurricane Sandy near the foot of the Mantaloking Bridge. The entire roof was torn from the rest of the structure and floated across the bay.

 

 

As we approached the structure we found a group of people searching through the debris. One of the women, Nancy G., explained that it was her Grandmothers house and that they were collecting things to help recreate what was lost during the storm. She and her son Sam were brought here by Julian. Julian had heard about their loss and called to offer her boat to take them out to the remains of the house. Nancy agreed and invited Charlie, a family friend to accompany them.

We were all moved by their story and offered our help. We sorted through several lifetimes of memories. Furniture, books, clothing, photos, all jumbled together in the attic space. Nancy went back to the dock with the first boat of salvaged items. The boat returned with Nancy’s sister Rebecka on board. She told little stories of each item she tried to save. A favorite T-shirt from when she was a little girl, a chest of blankets, small rolls of fabric that had been used for decorating the downstairs. Each one a small reminder of her family’s life spent in this 85 year old house.

 

We helped supervise a tow of their salvaged items back to their dock and then it was time to call it a day. We were a little tired and a little cold, but we were all happy to be at the right place at the right time to offer a little help.

Fishermen's Flea Mkt ~2013~

Sunday was our big fund raiser for the year. The ocean #1 fire company’s fishing flea market. We recover sinkers all year and sell them back to the fishermen and anything else we find, ie fishing pole, lures, tools, anchors or old bottles. Some people will buy any thing. One  year we sold a three foot high concrete owl that sue and tom recovered.

  This year we had over 2056lbs of sinkers and over one hundred lures to sell and fishing poles and anchors. It took over eight hours to clean the sinkers and lures to get them ready to sell. Saturday night we finished up the sorting and cleaning and loaded up the dive truck for Sunday.

Sunday morning saw a pretty good turnout of members to get set up and sell! Sell we did!! It didn’t look to us like a good turnout, most times you can’t walk around due to so many people. But not this year, you could walk around without any problems. Sales were slow for a little while but picked up after about an hour. The good lures were the first to go. Afew old bottles got sold and the anchors were gone, tom was pushing the fishing poles and sue and flo had the sinkers flying off the table!

Then it was let’s make a deal time! People didn’t want bags of sinkers, they wanted half buckets of sinkers. The captain of the queen mary got all the 4 oz sinkers and that started it off. Paulie D and his hand truck got one hell of a work out, he was running half buckets of sinkers out to cars and trucks the rest of the day. By 1200hrs we were sold out of sinkers and lures and anchors. We had afew fishing pole and some old bottles and that was it.

Getting back to the building and getting everything put away it was time to sit back and start planning for next year! May be we can get 2500lbs this time!

We had our best year ever, we made over $1300!  I would like to thank Ocean fire company #1 for the table” you guys are the best”, and I want to thank Sue, Flo, Joann, Ali, Tom C,     Tom T, BOB, Mike B, Paulie D, and new member Joe P for all their hand work in pulling this off.

Point Pleasant Beach footage from the air....

Aerial footage of Point Pleasant Beach from what appears to be a remote control Helicopter....

Rescue 34 Hurricane Sandy footage....

It's all in the training!....

As you can tell by our previous posts...its all about Hurricane Sandy. Its hard to describe to anyone who hasn’t seen it first hand. Everyone is doing their best to get things back to normal. Yesterday we helped out a friend a bit by retrieving a lost piece of salvage equipment. It made for a great day.

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Today, it was back in the water for more search and retrieval. This time at a local marina. Some of the items that had been lost during Sandy had been recovered from this area, but there were still more to be found. Chet led a team of six divers consisting of Joe, Bob, Tom C., Gibby, Tom T. and Joe #2. Sammi helped Chet with shore support.

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The water the day before was just less than zero visibility. Today….it was even worse. If your hand was touching your mask, you knew it was there, otherwise you may as well have just closed your eyes the entire dive. For most divers this is a “No Go” situation. Not the type of diving that your typical sport diver should even consider trying. Add to that equation the cold water, strong currents and debris and you can see how easily a diver could get in trouble.

However, this is what we train for. This is why we train in all diving conditions. This is why we practice working, salvage techniques, navigation and team work in underwater conditions that most people would just laugh at. Because when its time to get the job done…we want to be as prepared as possible.

We setup an out and back search pattern with guide lines. This helped a great deal with navigating in the murky muddy darkness. Sweeping our arms out, we slowly crawled over the search area. Fishing Poles, Job Boxes, Tools, Signs, Boat Canvas, the list goes on and on. At the end of the day the dock was covered with items retrieved from the murky depths.

To some it may have looked like a bunch of crazy divers in cold murky muddy water. But to us...it was just another day doing what we love most.

Walking on the Wild Side....

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Two weeks after Hurricane Sandy and things were a bit quiet today for the Dive Team. People were busy taking care of their houses and cleaning up debris from the storm. It looked like it was going to just be Chet and Joe today.

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We took a quick look at the inlet and the water was as murky as its been since the storm. We decided to check out the RR Bridge just in case...but the viz was just as bad. We sat looking at all the debris around Gull Island and decided that today would be a good day to explore. As divers, we want to know what is in the water...but we also keep an eye out for possible land hazards also. Things that may end up as an underwater hazard later on.

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As we walked thru the thick brush and along the shore, the first thing that becomes apparent is the amount of plastic bottles. When I say they were everywhere….I mean EVERYWHERE! Seeing them concentrated in such a small area reminded me of stories of the Pacific Garbage Patch. It hammers home the need to recycle.

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As we walked we also found the strangest assortment of debris. Most things you expect to find such as, Plastic Bottles, Fishing Debris, 5 Gallon Buckets and Milk Crates. Notice the common theme of plastic here. But then you come across a 12 person Hot Tub! Just sitting on the shore line as if it was waiting to be installed. Bowling Pins. (These I added to my juggling bin). A Guitar case...missing its instrument…the guitar only to be found just around the bend..smashed and held together by the strings.

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It was a hot day. Hard work navigating thru the debris and the brush. If only we had a tasty beverage. Sure enough, seconds later Chet asks me if I’d like a cold Ginger Ale. He found a refrigerator stocked with still cold beverages. Boy did that Ginger Ale taste good!

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We collected around 25 tennis balls and spent quite a bit of time trying to regain Joe’s swing. Lets just say...Joe will never play Major League! Chet gets the award for the longest hit!!

We also found the parking bumpers from the inlet parking lot. These are made from a high density plastic and were held into the pavement by 18’’ long spikes. Here they were tossed like toothpicks along the shoreline. Ripped from the ground and floated away by the force of the waves and water.

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We decided to launch Rescue34 and retrieve the bumpers. Tom C. and Joe brought the boat thru the canal and over to Gull Island. It was getting late and by the time we retrieved the bumpers it was dark. Bob showed up and we loaded the bumpers and other debris into the dive truck. Chet and Joe decided to bring Rescue34 back as Tom and Bob took the dive truck back to the squad building.

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It’s a long ride back to where we launched the boat and we were taking our time enjoying the quiet of the night. Up ahead we noticed flashing red lights near the entrance to the canal. There was a hint of smoke in the air so Joe thought it was perhaps firetrucks along the shore. Chet was sure it was in the water. Sure enough, as we came closer we noticed a work boat that had been doing “Sandy Cleanup”

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We came alongside slowly and asked if everything was alright. The Captain replied

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“ No…I think he may have broken his arm”..pointing to a man sitting in the rear of the boat. Chet asked if they had reported it and he said…”Isnt that why you are here? I was just going to joke what took you so long!”. It was then that we looked towards the bow of their boat. It had run into one of the navigation markers. This is like hitting a telephone pole with your car...except you are in the middle of the water!

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We quickly called in the situation and arranged for an ambulance to meet us at the Garden State Marina. We transferred our patient to Rescue34 and transported him to the waiting ambulance. In the end..the arm was broken in several places and their boat was in bad shape…but it could have been much worse.

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We stopped by the State Police marina to check in with the owners of the boat and then slowly made our way back to the boat ramp. As we drove back to the squad building we all said the same thing…sometimes you are just in the right place at the right time.

 

 

 

Time to deliver the mail....

Saturday brought us a beautiful clear sky and a brisk wind. It also brought us almost zero viz! But since when has that ever stopped our Dive Team?

One of our friends lost quite a bit in hurricane Sandy. Flooded house…flooded business and lost gear. One of the items just happened to be a piece of underwater salvage equipment called a Mailbox. This is a large pipe approx 3’ in diameter and 6’ long, weighing in at 400lbs! And it was our job to find and recover it asap.

Chet lead the team of divers consisting of Joe, Bob, Gibby, Bond and newcomer Sammy. Chet and Sammy stayed topside to help guide the operation while 2 teams of divers used search lines to pinpoint debris that had been lost in the hurricane.

While searching we found items such as lawn chairs, drain pipes, rope coils and even a hedge trimmer! Joe and Bob found the Mailbox after several sweeps. They used our 500lb lift bag secured by running lines thru the pipe itself. No problem floating an item this large when you train for these kinds of things...but the big question was…how are we going to get it OUT of the water?

 

Our friend suggested he could get a crane over to lift it out. However we have Chet’s incredible knowledge as a rigger and quickly devised a plan of action. We setup our ladder as a ramp and used our winch from the Dive Truck to gently pull the Mailbox up onto the dock. With a bit of extra muscle from some members of the First Aid squad that showed up…success!

But wait ..what is that large white area over by the dock? What was our final find of the day? A commercial bathroom stall door! We all laughed and pulled it from the water. Just another piece of debris to add to the massive cleanup at Point Pleasant.

 

Driving back to the squad building we all remarked at the devastation around us. It was obvious that it was going to take a lot of time and a lot of help to get this town back to its old self. Today we felt like we were able to help…just a little bit.

Megan & Jonathan on the Ellen show....

4:30 minutes in the Point Pleasant Beach Rescue Dive Team is mentioned for the work and service it performed for the community during Hurricane Sandy...

Jonathan is the Captain on the Point Pleasant Beach First Aid Team and Megan is a EMT...

Shore Community Recovery....

Sandy on Sunday – 5 days later..

The weather on Sunday was simply beautiful. Sunshine with just a hint of clouds. . The ocean water was blue and inviting. The winds of Hurricane Sandy may have died down….but the aftermath remains. Just turn your face towards any street and you can see the destruction stretching out as far as you can see.

 

We started the day by taking a quick tour of one of our favorite dive spots, Manasquan Inlet. We left the rig behind and started out on foot towards the inlet. As we slowly walked along the road, the cleanup was in full effect around us. Piles of trash, in most places 6 or 7 feet high surrounded us. Mattresses, bookcases, sheetrock, lamps, the debris was everywhere. Each piece representing a slice of someone’s life. Books, clothes and photos all placed at the curb waiting to be carted off to the junkyard.

 

The inlet was hardly recognizable. A utility pole lay stretched across the road blocking the way. Wires dangling. The bathroom was gone. Ripped off its foundation. Only pieces of the concrete walls remain. The corner waffle house gutted. More utility poles lay strewn across rooftops. Balconies tilted dangerously off of houses. The 500lb wooden doors of a restaurant...gone...washed out to sea.

 

The photos you see don’t tell the whole story. They offer only a small peek into the destruction. Walking along this battered street made everyone just shake their heads in disbelief.

 

It was time to get back to the squad building. We had our own cleanup to do.

 

In the afternoon we took food to the workers in Mantoloking. Approaching the Rt 35 bridge was like entering a war zone. Boats and debris everywhere. Trees cut up and placed along the street or still laying across lawns.

 

As we drove over the bridge we could see the amazing power this hurricane delivered to the NJ coast. Hurricane Sandy had cut a new inlet at the base of the bridge…but the army core of engineers had already cut off the flow of water from the ocean. What an amazing feat. Tractors, bulldozers and dumptrucks were everywhere. Like ants they swarmed over the area. Each one taking us a step closer to returning this place to the people who live here.

 

We thank each of the workers out there laboring to bring our world back to some sense of normalcy. The Police, Fire Dept, First Aid, Rescue Workers, Construction Crews, Utility Crews and Volunteers everywhere…our heartfelt thanks.