PGI Dive Club

Frank Panhuise
575-2042, fpanhuise@comcast.net

September, 2010

Members of our club enjoyed a nice presentation by Jim Joseph of Fantasea Scuba in late July. He conducted a very nice seminar to prepare us for the annual Florida lobster mini-season which permits sports divers to harvest the tasty crustaceans in a two day period before the regular sport and commercial lobster season annual opening date on August 6. The mini season is always the last Wednesday and Thursday of the month of July. Jim went over tactics, techniques, equipment, laws and safety issues with us. We hope to make this an annual event in our year long programs schedule.

In August some of us went to Islamorada, down in the Keys, for the August opening of the lobster season. We spent a weekend diving and hunting for lobsters aboard a charter from Keys Dives out of Bud and Mary’s Marina. Hopefully, all of our members are getting opportunities to dive now that the summer “diving season” is in full swing. This goes for several of our members who have fled the Isles to other areas of the country to escape the hot summer months in Florida, though it sure looks hotter than Florida in a lot of our country from recent weather reports. Our monthly Venice beach dives looking for sharks teeth fossils are always a nice opportunity for members to do some easy and fun beach dives in shallow water and get plenty of bottom time in as they search for fossils in the bath tub warm water in the gulf this time of year. Check out our website calendar of events for future dive dates.

The dive club picked up a couple of new members this month. We are glad to welcome both Peter Babbitt and Terry Bandel to our group and look forward to their participation in both club meetings and diving activities in the future. Our relatively new dive club has grown steadily since we formed this past spring. We continue to welcome anyone in the PGICA membership to join in the fun. Check out our website for information and view some of our activities. www.pgidiveclub.com

Our next scheduled meeting of the dive club will be the 3rd Thursday of the month—September 16 at 7 p.m. in the association building. See you there.