Bottom Time E

March 26, 2008

Edition 5

Here we are almost at the end of March and we still have winter. There is still over 30 inches of ice on area lakes and at this rate we will be ice fishing on fishing opener. It seems the last few years we have had a cold spring.

Classes start next week and we still have openings in Detroit Lakes, Fergus Falls, and West Fargo if you know of anyone interested. Spring is the best time of the year to take the classes as we are doing the open water dives shortly after the classroom sessions and that way you have all summer to hone up on your diving skills. The only place in the area that we teach summer classes is in DL so that means if you live out of the area you will have to travel a greater distance to take classes. We are trying to set up a class in Park Rapids this spring as we have some people in that area that would like to become scuba divers.

Our Super Spring Scuba Sale will be held in May again this year but we have yet to set up the date. We should know within the next couple of weeks when we will have the sale.

This last week has been a busy week for the Tri-State Diving salvage crew. Last Wednesday and Thursday Mike Rowe Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel was in Detroit Lakes to do a show on how Tri-State Diving recovers vehicles from under the ice. He was a real trooper helping with all aspects of the operation. He had never operated an ice auger before and he also ran the chain saw to cut the hole. On Wednesday afternoon Mike and his crew went over the procedures for ice diving and on Thursday two of his cameramen shot underwater video of Chris and Mike hooking of the lift bags and cable to the vehicle. It should air sometime in May and I will send out an email when we hear on the date. Our normal recovery time on this vehicle would have been about 3 hours but with all the time it took to film the event it took about 8 hours. I think Mike was pretty beat by the end of the day. On behalf of Tri-State Diving and Mike Rowe Dirty Jobs I would like to say thank you to the Lodge for hosting and the Fireside for giving Mike Rowe and his crew a private room so he could celebrate his birthday while he stayed in Detroit Lakes this last week. His staff was impressed with your hospitality. To the Becker County dive team for backing up Tri-State Diving's salvage dive team and Mike's crew at the recovery site. To Tim Gordon and the Becker County Sheriff's Department, the Ambulance Service, the Conservation Officers, and all other emergency personal for helping during the filming of the vehicle recovery for his TV show, Dirty Jobs. To Subway for furnishing subs for all personnel and to Denny's Auto for removing the vehicle off the lake. To the Tri-State Diving crew for making the event happen so successfully .

On Easter Sunday the crew traveled to Little Pine Lake by Perham to recover a 1 ton Dodge pickup in 55 foot of water. It went down on Friday with four people in the vehicle and they were all able to get out before it plunged to the bottom. They were headed out to do some fishing and the ice was about 30 plus inches and they went over a spot that the fish had worked under the ice and made it about 2 inches thick.

I need to let Nekton Cruises know about how many divers will be on our live-aboard trip next January so if you are still interested let me know so I know how many staterooms I need to reserve. For details on the trip go to tri-statediving.com and click on dive trips.

Sea you on the Bottom