I want to say thank you to everyone who made today possible.
Thank you to the Ray and Kyaa and the crew of the Sundiver Express (aka Island Time) for making the charter available and for their generous donation to our disabled veteran.
Thank you to all the magnificent people who stepped up and bought tickets on the dive boat to help us cover the cost. Most of which were ghost tickets or outright donations. This generous gesture allowed veterans of the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars to enjoy an un-crowded boat while helping Challenges to afford it.
Thank you to Nicolas Coster, founder of Challenges Foundation Welcome To The Challenges Foundation Website for starting the project and spending 2 years getting the VA to let Challenges Foundation teach their patients to scuba dive, and to Bryan Troxler a Handicapped Scuba Instructor who along with Nicolas taught the course and Denise Dowd another handicapped scuba instructor (Handicap Scuba Association) who drove down from Santa Barbara be an additional instructor in the water for safety sake.
Thanks to Gerald an HSA Certified Dive buddy who came along to support the team and wound up beinga dive safety in the water when I turned up with a chest cold.
And last, but most important of all, thank you to the veterans for accepting the challenge to learn to SCUBA Dive or snorkel and for serving.
Now about the dives. These were dives 3 and 4, having done beach dives at Crescent Cove on Wednesday the 28th.
The ocean was flat the wind relatively calm the food good and the sun shining. We anchored in a beautiful cove at a site called starlight. The divers and snorkelers (we have some who because of their injuries could not get cleared to dive). Visibility was excellent (40-60 I am told as I had a chest could and could not dive, but Gerald took my place on a moments notice).
Dive two was topped off with a visit to the sunken sail boat and an angle shark.
The boat stopped to watch a large pod of dolphins on the way back.
Does it get any better than that?
Thank you to the Ray and Kyaa and the crew of the Sundiver Express (aka Island Time) for making the charter available and for their generous donation to our disabled veteran.
Thank you to all the magnificent people who stepped up and bought tickets on the dive boat to help us cover the cost. Most of which were ghost tickets or outright donations. This generous gesture allowed veterans of the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars to enjoy an un-crowded boat while helping Challenges to afford it.
Thank you to Nicolas Coster, founder of Challenges Foundation Welcome To The Challenges Foundation Website for starting the project and spending 2 years getting the VA to let Challenges Foundation teach their patients to scuba dive, and to Bryan Troxler a Handicapped Scuba Instructor who along with Nicolas taught the course and Denise Dowd another handicapped scuba instructor (Handicap Scuba Association) who drove down from Santa Barbara be an additional instructor in the water for safety sake.
Thanks to Gerald an HSA Certified Dive buddy who came along to support the team and wound up beinga dive safety in the water when I turned up with a chest cold.
And last, but most important of all, thank you to the veterans for accepting the challenge to learn to SCUBA Dive or snorkel and for serving.
Now about the dives. These were dives 3 and 4, having done beach dives at Crescent Cove on Wednesday the 28th.
The ocean was flat the wind relatively calm the food good and the sun shining. We anchored in a beautiful cove at a site called starlight. The divers and snorkelers (we have some who because of their injuries could not get cleared to dive). Visibility was excellent (40-60 I am told as I had a chest could and could not dive, but Gerald took my place on a moments notice).
Dive two was topped off with a visit to the sunken sail boat and an angle shark.
The boat stopped to watch a large pod of dolphins on the way back.
Does it get any better than that?
