2019 Team's new recond

2019 Will go down in the dive team’s history. In this one year the team has recovered 6542 pounds of lead sinkers.

    The team recovers these in the course of our training dives. As the members learn about search patterns and the power of observation we recover the sinkers we see, sometimes they are just sitting on the bottom and are easy just to pick up and other times they are in large balls of fishing line and have to be cut free. 

  So now the divers have to work to cut them free, using a dive knife or dive/EMT scissors. Learning to work underwater is a must because we never know what we may be asked to do (IE evidence dive, body recovery, car or truck recovery) we want to be ready for anything.

    During these dives the divers now have to do some problem solving, we have found sinkers now we have to cut them free and now we have to get them back to an exit point or up to a boat. We use a capped PVC pipe as a sinker tube to carry the sinkers in, only the more you find the more you have to carry and the bigger the tube the heavier it is. Some of the tubes we use can carry up to 60 pounds.

    Swimming 60 pounds of sinkers is no fun, now the divers get to use another tool that they need to be able to use and that is a lift bag. A lift bag is a water proof bag that the diver fills with air and it gives the sinker tube buoyancy and with the right size lift bag and enough air the sinker tube can become weight less, making it much easier to swim with.

    Since the dive team is part of the first aid squad the team doesn’t get a whole lot of funding. But by recovering sinker and selling back to the fishermen at the annual fishing flea market the team is able help support itself.

    In the course of these dives the divers remove large amounts of fishing line and other debris that litter the bottom. These large mounts of fishing line can trap fish and crabs and this turns into a death sentence.

   So by the team’s training dives we are mastering our skills, cleaning the environment, raising funds for the team and making it a little safer for the marine life.

Elk's Polar Bear Plunge

February 1 2020 the Dive Team and First Aid were asked to be part of the Elk’s 2020 polar bear plunge on the beach in Point Pleasant. With the divers suited up and in the water and the first aiders on the beach just in case they are needed.

 

    It is a fun day for everyone, the elk’s provide a free breakfast for the divers and the first aiders. Then it’s out on the sand and get ready for the hundred or so people who plan on jumping into the water.

    We have all our gear on the beach in the squads big five ton truck for all the divers gear and 346 and 349 our four wheel drives to move patients off the beach if needed.

   Today’s conditions could have been a problem, with waves breaking waves on the beach and a pretty good drop off of a few feet. But with the count down and the word “GO” all hundred people headed off the water.

   But like in years past everyone jumped in and pretty much jumped right back out. With a 43 degree water temperature not many stayed in too long. Only a few needed to be helped to their feet after being knocked down by the waves.

   The divers hang around just in case anyone wants to go in again or if anyone is running late. Then Jerry (Mr. Barnegat Bay Island on Facebook) get his group picture

and this year we got one of him because he is always behind the camera and never gets in the picture.

   This is just one of the many events that the dive team and first aid covers throughout the year.

New Year's day dive

New Year’s Day means many things to many people, a new start to a workout plan, a time to change their ways and some to sleep off a night of partying. But to the members of the Point Pleasant First Aid underwater Search & Rescue team it means it’s time to dive.

    Every year the team starts the year off with a dive on New Year’s Day. No matter what the weather is cold, rain, snow, warm we go, high tide, low tide or going in off the beach we go. Since the team can be call 24/7/365 we have to be ready to go in the water.

   2020 first dive was at the boat ramp at the foot of Bay Avenue. This is a great area to dive in but can only be used in the winter as the amount of boat traffic in the warmer months makes it to dangerous. Many awesome artifacts have come up from this area, old bottles, a old brass boat hook and yes even a gun (that was turned over to the police).  This year it was all bottles and a few lead fishing weights.

   Here in the picture are a few of the bottles that came up, an old whiskey flask, a square milk bottle, An old coke bottle from the 1950’s, a broken small medicine bottle, a small blue Bromo-seltzer bottle and three J.R. Lynch bottle (who was the soda maker in the Point Pleasant Beach area for many years).

   There are a few pictures of pass first dives

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!