General meeting: The April general meeting will be on Monday, April 5, 2004 in the Garden Room at the Orinda Public Library.

If you have suggestions for entertainment for upcoming meetings, please contact Membership Coordinator Chris Fryer at cfryer@hansonbridgett.com.

General meetings are generally held the first Monday of every month from 8-10 PM at:

Garden Room

Orinda Library

24 Orinda Way

Orinda, CA 94563

Executive board meeting: Executive board meetings are usually held on the third Monday of the month at 8 p.m. and are usually preceded by a potluck at 6:30 pm.

The April Eboard meeting will be held Monday April 19th at a still to be determined location. All Alacosta members are welcome to attend EBoard meetings.

Holiday Party: Scary though it may sound, it is not too early to begin thinking about this annual event. If you are interested in chairing a holiday party and/or know of a good location to hold next year’s party that is both central and is either very low cost or free for the club, please contact President Mike D.

Old Dives: At least ten Alacostans and some guests converged on Point Lobos on March 6^th.for a dive led by yours truly, Blurb Editor Susan Carter. The surface was a bit choppy, but conditions below the surface were decent, with vis between 25 and 40 feet depending upon location. Most Alacostans present, including new member Duff Johnson, making some of his very first dives post-certification with the club, chose to take the two club zodiacs over to Bluefish Cove, where the vis was at the upper end of the range. However, a few, including Janet Myers and Marcel LeBlanc, were just too eager to get in the water to wait the usual time it takes Alacostans to get the boats together, and shore dove at Whaler’s. For another report on the dive, complete with pictures, by Mark Griffith, see http://www.niffgurd.com/mark/scuba/2004/march/ The Blurb enjoyed this report, but feels obligated to let Mark know that while ‘Alacosta’ could well mean ‘to the Coast’ in Portuguese, the origin of our club name more probably is related to the names of two east bay counties where many of the members live…..

Van Damme Ab dive: John Beland will be leading the traditional spring camping trip/dive to celebrate the newly opened abalone season, at Van Damme State Park in Mendocino, April 9 – 11, 2004. As is usually the case with Alacosta dives, there will no doubt be tank diving, free diving for abs aided by the club inflatables, and a terrific potluck on Saturday night featuring some of the ‘spoils’ of the ‘hunt’! And yes, this is Easter weekend, so maybe there will even be an egg hunt in the campground Sunday morning (or at least a good omelet or two).

If you want to go, you are responsible for making your own camping reservations (unless of course you are inclined to find a nice B and B in town). Campsites can be reserved at Van Damme at http://www.reserveamerica.com/jsp/commonpage.jsp?goto=/usa/ca/vand/newindex.html

For more information, you can email John at jwbeland@att.net, or call him at 510-482-2934.

Cozumel, April 2004: Simon Kisch is leading a trip to Coz, departing April 25, returning May 2. The trip hotel will be the Barracuda: cost with 5 days of two tank dives will be $499 p/p double, and $685 single; airfare on SunTrips from Oakland will be another $485 including tax. If you want to join this great, reasonably priced trip, call Simon at 510-663-6400 (work), 510-841-5900 (home), or on his cell at 510-459-0256.

Catalina 2004: The dates for the annual trip to Catalina will be September 11 -18, 2004. Mark your calendars now and plan to attend; details to follow soon! Catalina trip Co-Chairs will be Rocky Rockafellow and Susan Carter. Contracts have been received from Emerald Bay and Ms.Christie (the Charter that carries us to Emerald Bay) and it appears that the trip costs will not increase from last year. It is anticipated that sign ups will start at the May meeting.

Australia: Susan Carter plans to lead a dive to Oz in November of 2005. She is starting the preliminary planning and hopes to have an initial proposal soon. Really.. If you are interested in going, email Susan at Susan.Carter@ucop.edu or still15320@aol.com.

New Interactive Web Site: Alacosta has a new interactive website. You can post dive reports. Users are allowed to modify the web site themselves, adding items, including

images.

Look at http://www2.alacosta.org/drupal and let Alacosta webmaster Kevin Dalley know if you have comments or suggestions.

As we go to press…..

The Blurb just received this update on dive conditions for Thursday, 4/1: Breakwater has really calmed down, and seas are flat with vis close to 100 feet in places. There are reports of many Basking Sharks in the bay, along with unusually balmy water temps for this time of year. (60 degrees at the surface). Moral of this story: Play hooky and go diving this weekend !

Alacosta Calendar

April 4, 2004, Monday, March General Meeting

April 19, 2004, Monday, EBoard, location TBD

April 9 – 11, 2004 Ab dive and camping trip, Van Damme State Park

April 25-May 2, 2004 Cozumel

September 11 – 18, 2004; Catalina Trip, Emerald Bay

November 2005 Australia

Alacosta Divers Officers and Executive Board Members:

Officers: Mike Daily, President; Kevin Dalley, Vice President; John Beland, Treasurer; James ‘Rocky’ Rockafellow, Secretary and Immediate Past President;

Chris Fryer, Membership Coordinator; Susan Carter, Blurb Editor

Executive Board Members: Mike Elliott, Simon Kisch, Bill McDowell, John Purnell, Gary Schleimer, Rob Vermuelen

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The Blurb

Alacosta Divers, Inc.

Editor: Susan Carter/still15320@aol.com/415-647-9036

101 Appleton Ave

San Francisco, CA 94110