General meeting: The January general meeting will be on Monday, January 5, 2004 in the Garden Room at the Orinda Public Library. Entertainment will consist of a slide show by member Tracy Grogan from his Solomons Islands trip as well as slides taken free diving with humpback whales in Tonga! Join us for a terrific evening that will make you long for tropical locales….

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.

Because of the Martin Luther King holiday in January, the January EBoard will be held on Tuesday, January 20^th at Michael Daily’s house, 120 Starlyn Drive, Pleasant Hill. Call Mike at 925/932-8308 to rsvp and to let him know what you can bring to the potluck. All Alacosta members are invited.

Old Dives: As of press time, there hasn’t been a lot of diving due to unfavorable weather, at least for those who stayed in California and weren’t teaching classes (congrats to Simon Kisch, the newest instructor in Alacosta!). Some lucky folks, including Simon, Bill McDowell, and Mike Daily, did manage to head out to warm water locations to get wet…..If some of the rest of you went diving, please feel free to file a trip report for the next issue of the Blurb: guest submissions and letters to the Editor always welcome!

President’s Day Dive, February 16, 2004: Chris Fryer is chairing a President’s Day dive on one of Monterey’s fine dive boats, the Cypress Sea, on Monday, February 16, 2004. The dive will be a ‘go’ if Chris receives rsvps from 12 or more interested parties by January 15th. The dive will be a two or three tank dive depending on the majority’s interests. If you want to go on this great dive, email Chris at cfryer@hansonbridgett.com to sign-up, first come, first served, or let him know at the January meeting. Chris will send an email to the list with more details in early January.

Cozumel, April 2004: Simon Kisch is leading a trip to Coz in late April, 2004. HQ will be at the Baracuda Hotel. Details to follow, or call Simon at 510-841-5900.

Australia: Susan Carter plans to lead a dive to Oz in November of 2005.

Report on the Holiday Party: The annual Alacosta holiday party was held on December 13^th at Jim and Rennie Kirby’s in Oakland. Many Alacostans, old, new and not-quite-members yet, attended, and all present had a wonderful time playing in the hammock, feasting, sharing tall tales, and stealing Scuba Santa and laser- fishes- in- a- crystal- box from each other….A huge THANK YOU to Jim and Rennie for opening up their lovely home and putting us all in the holiday spirit! (and especially for some great cooking, including what has to be the world’s best chocolate cake!).

Alacosta Calendar

January 5, 2004, Monday, January General Meeting

January 20, 2004, Tuesday, January EBoard, Mike Daily’s home

February 16, 2004, Monday, President Day’s Dive, Cypress Sea

April/ May 2004 Cozumel

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