Celebrating America’s Birthday in DBD style – Dutch, Bainbridge & Dutch!

 

Team IVS is popping up like the gopher in the carnival game this weekend, with simultaneous diving, grilling & drysuit demo’s at Dutch Springs and Bainbridge Sportsmen Club. 

We started off Friday at Dutch, setting up the big tent and grille, and getting the Dueling Drysuits Demo weekend going.   Wei & Chris from Washington DC journeyed up to dive with us, and eleven divers test-dove our suits on Friday, alternating between the Whites Fusion and the Waterproof Draco’s and Aquila’s.  Lots of great experiences, lots of smiles, and some new friends!

Saturday Donna Raleigh, Jarred Rogers, & Frank Gabriel, along with a big gang from the ScubaBoard Dive NY group, represented IVS at Dutch while John Glodowski & Dave V hauled the demo trailer to Bainbridge Quarry for our first ever visit to this dive site.  Located in Lancaster County just southeast of Harrisburg, we could not have been more impressed by the friendliness of the staff and all the divers we met there.  So unpretentious, no egos or other acts of silliness.  Instructors and divers alike lined up at the Dueling Drysuits pavilion to learn more, get a chance to try our suits, and even to talk about our Poseidon rebreathers which we were diving today. 

About a dozen divers tried our suits, and every one came back smiling and asking when we were coming back – very cool indeed.  The longest distance traveled award goes to John Jannone, who drove in from the Pittsburgh area to dive with us and try a Fusion!  John G & I got a couple of dives in after escorting some of our demo’ers, and finally it was time to call it a day, pack it up, and head back to the Center of the Scuba Diving Universe, Harleysville.

Sunday a.m. I drove the demo trailer back up to Dutch and we spent a glorious July day doing demo’s, talking about drysuits, diving and of course grilling!  Donna Raleigh flips a mean spatula on the grill, and we enjoyed her efforts, including the fajita’s, wraps, grilled corn-on-the-cob, and of course burgers & dogs.  Mike Parzynski brought out some carnivore delicacies, including chicken and steaks, marinated and delicious!  The ScubaBoard Dive NY gang, led by ScubaSam, Hobo Diver, CJM, Letter Boy, OhmDiver, Betty Rubble, ParzDiver, Dbuggy66, QRPC, and the rest, added an even greater element to the day – so cool to spend a Sunday diving and meeting new friends! 

Csaba, Niki & Sylvia Lorinczy visited us, and enjoyed the Aqua Park for the afternoon.  It was a busy afternoon of demo’s and finally we packed it up and headed home, back to the grind, until next weekend!