It could be a matter time, when the other area has been developed, over a few years, the quarry will be less used, and have less advocates, when the argument to close comes up next.
Right, that's a real good point. Less advocates. No one is going to be passionate about a training site primarily used by dive shops. Here's what I wrote on our dive club mail list:
I do understand why Jim (Atlantis Aquatics) did this, his primary concern is (and should be) his business, and possibly that of other dive shops who do training in the northeast. He may not have had any financially reasonable way of continuing with the sort of insurance coverage that Dutch Springs had to allow for public diving, I don’t know. I also am not 100% sure if this is a done deal, since at one point he mentioned something about “lake staff” supervision. It is possible that he described the plan as “supervised diving” to make the board more likely to grant the variances, but deliberately left open the possibility of surface supervision (like Dutch Springs has always had) to satisfy his insurance underwriters or something. If that’s the case, then great, I’m still interested in diving at Dutch.
If not, I really have no interest in diving at Dutch Springs any more.
Dutch was a magical place not because of the water or the attractions or the facilities. It was magical because of the community. The idea that you could just randomly drive there (often on a blowout day) and spend the day running into old friends and finding new ones. The big barbecues and the camping. You could dive at your own pace - leisurely have lunch, work on gear, see what other people were doing, kibbitz and learn. It was like a local pub.
We ask a lot of our club volunteers who work so hard to make local diving events fun and safe for everybody. But if it was up to me (it no longer is), I would absolutely NOT ask a pro (DM or Instructor) to take on the professional responsibility and potential serious liability of supervising anyone. If they are WORKING as pros, doing a class, and getting paid for it - fine, that’s why they became pros. But it’s not fair to ask them to just do this on an ongoing basis so that non-pros can dive at whatever is left at Dutch Springs, especially since the pros have the right to fun diving as well. With the old Dutch Springs, they had that. They wouldn’t if Jim insists on in-water supervision, which presumably would have to comply with training standards (i.e. pro to student ratios). It’s not like you could show up with one DM and 20 non-pros and have that one person’s insurance cover everyone. I certainly wouldn’t agree to that if I was a DM.
I wish Jim well - there needs to be a place for people to do the open water portion of training, we don’t want to rely solely on air travel for that. But that has nothing to do with the local diving community.
I am excited about the possibility of Verplank, and now that there may be a lot of interest and financial support from many of us, maybe that will happen faster. Probably not by the upcoming season, but maybe 2023.
I’m also hopeful that this may be a shot in the arm to local ocean diving - we have been losing boats over the years, and maybe this will encourage more people to consider getting into the charter business. I’m also looking forward to showing people our excellent shore diving. I know that it’s not a replacement for Dutch, given the depth and the tidal concerns, but it’s free and there is an incredible thriving marine ecosystem in shallow water within a short drive from NYC, with great beaches and food to pass the time between high slack tides.
Happy New Year, everybody…!