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

Evidence dive, mutual aid

Tuesday night the team got a call from Chief Diver Rick Pullen with the Berkeley Township Underwater Search and Rescue asking for a little help on an evidence dive his team was asked to do. Since it was short notice and a week day I told him I could make it and would meet them at 0600 the next day.

   We met at their building and loaded up Rick’s truck and headed to Tobyhanna State Park in northeastern Pennsylvania. It was some ride as it was at the peak of rush hour! But we made it and were met by members of the D.A. office, state park police, a local police officer and TV cameras and one more member of the Berkeley dive team.

  After a briefing from a detective from the district attorney’s office the teams suited up and checked the water out. The visibility looked to be fairly clear so two divers set out to drift on the surface over the search area. Within minutes the first phone was found.

   It’s not a just pick it up and bring it in. You mark the spot and take measurements from shore and then you take underwater videos and pictures and then you recover it in special evidence container. Going from the bottom to the diver to the detective on shore.

   The next find was a battery cover from a cell phone right along the shore found by one of the team using a metal detector. Again measurements were taken and photos shot and then handed over to the detective on shore.

  Now the search area was moved over to the area were one of the phones was thrown in a month and a half ago. The detective gave us a location and the team started searching. This water was a little deeper so two divers suited up with scuba gear and worked the area. As to not dirty up the visibility for each other the divers worked apart. One working each side of the area. Working from the deep water toward the shallows. This paid off 45 minutes later with another piece of a phone being found and recovered and a few minutes later the battery of the phone was also recovered.

  At this time the team took a break, two hour out in 45 degree air with a pretty good breeze blowing and in 49 degree water it was needed. Even with dry suits on you do get cold and the hands are the first to go. Underwater searches are a very slow process so you don’t get to build up any heat.

    After the break is was back in the water, two divers in gear and one with the metal detector working in the shallow areas and two along the shore line and shallows. But the last piece of phone was not to be found. With the light fading and the cold really setting in it was time to call it a day. The detective from the district attorney’s office was happy with what we recovered and thanked us for doing a great job.

   Then it was time for a few pictures with the crew and Rick pulled out his phone for the picture. Packing all the gear in the truck and then getting in dry clothes was a great feeling. But not as good as knowing we got the job done

  Thank you to the Monroe County District Attorney's Office, Park Police and the local Police in having the faith is us to invite us to help out with this recovery.

Divers make a splash at Jenkinson’s Aquarium

      World Oceans Day is an international event held every year in June to recognize and celebrate the role of the oceans in our lives.

 


On Saturday, June 9, the Point Pleasant Beach First Aid Dive Team participated in a celebration of World Oceans Day, hosted by Jenkinson’s Aquarium.

Team members, all volunteer SCUBA divers, created an exhibit focused on exploring the ocean and rivers of New Jersey.  Hundreds of aquarium visitors got to see and touch underwater artifacts, natural and manmade, that were discovered while SCUBA diving.  The display featured local seashells, bottles, and parts of old shipwrecks.

The Aquarium also allowed the team to conduct a SCUBA diving demonstration in the local waters exhibit, with the residents still in there!  Visitors were introduced to some of the equipment and exposure suits that divers in New Jersey have to wear to explore the chilly ocean.  (The tank was about 70 degrees F, not very warm, but still 10 degrees warmer that the ocean outside in June!)

Using hand signals, one team member outside the tank directed the two dive buddies inside to demonstrate some of the basic diving skills that allow us to safely explore the ocean.  Divers simulated a few gear problems and how to solve them (like getting water out of your mask), as well as managing buoyancy underwater.  The near-weightless divers could hover and flip almost as gracefully as the seals.

The divers even challenged the children outside the tank to two athletic events – a race and a high jump!  Even with powerful fins, we saw that a diver cannot swim through water as fast as a child can run in air.  However, a diver can easily jump much higher (with a little help from the water and the dive gear).

 Then families always want to take a photo with you through the glass.  We have our underwater camera too.  How often does an exhibit take a picture of you?”