Sean Walberg
Contributor
Wanted to give a quick recap about Scuba Jam in case anyone is involved with a youth group that might want to go next year.
We drove down to Lake Phoenix from Northern Virginia on Friday and got to the registration tent by about 7:30pm. Traffic on 95 sucked. Got registered and set up camp.
Saturday morning was started by a great breakfast provided by the event followed by a briefing of the activities for the day. We signed up for one of the first slots for the day's activity, so were in the water by a bit after 10. The youth went through a series of skill events during the dive -- first trying to put as many golf balls on the ends of PVC pipes as they could in 5 minutes, then trying to navigate some hoops while keeping a ping pong ball inside an open ended tube, then seeing how many plastic crabs they could get in a bucket using only a fly swatter. Finally they had to try and lift a weight by inflating balloons and putting them in a lift bag.
We took the boys on an afternoon dive to check out some of the attractions, had dinner, then got ready for the night dive. The ranger team had laid out glow sticks under water to make a path for the groups to swim, but due to all the silt, it didn't quite work out. Some groups gave up, others made the best of what they could see.
The next morning we took the group on a deep dive. The boys really wanted to see the airplane. Due to some misreading of a map we ended up landing at another deep area, eventually finding the plane but hit our turn pressure before we could spend any time there.
Turned tanks around and the youth did the treasure hunt activity. They needed to get a certain combination of hidden coins and return in 28 minutes, with points being deducted for too many/few coins and returning early or late. Our eagle eyed kids found the needed coins very quickly, and spent the rest of the time having fun near the exit point. They returned exactly at 28 minutes and were very happy to have aced that activity.
During the activities the event keeps rangers underwater for safety. If they see the youth showing good skills or teamwork they will swim over and hand out a green ranger coin. I'm proud that our team got two such coins over the weekend.
After lunch we said goodbye to the staff from Aquatic Adventures who had served as our dive pros, and our smaller group went for a dive to the campsite and then some underwater basketball. Turned in our tanks to be refilled and picked them up right before dinner.
The dinner and awards were a good time, with two of the three youth in our group getting $100 scholarships to the LDS. Last year one of the boys in our troop won a nice camera system!
In the morning we packed up camp and did another dive before returning home.
Cost for the event was $170 and included all the food, camping, and air fills. Our dive shop gave us a deal on gear rental and also brought some extra help so that our boys were supervised underwater for the times that the other adult from the troop and I were doing AOW dives.
While a lot of the people there are from Venture crews, it's open to virtually any youth group for people under 20 such as troops, girl guides, church groups, or anything else. It's super low key and everything is planned for you. Just show up with camping and scuba gear, and some youth that want to have a great weekend.
We drove down to Lake Phoenix from Northern Virginia on Friday and got to the registration tent by about 7:30pm. Traffic on 95 sucked. Got registered and set up camp.
Saturday morning was started by a great breakfast provided by the event followed by a briefing of the activities for the day. We signed up for one of the first slots for the day's activity, so were in the water by a bit after 10. The youth went through a series of skill events during the dive -- first trying to put as many golf balls on the ends of PVC pipes as they could in 5 minutes, then trying to navigate some hoops while keeping a ping pong ball inside an open ended tube, then seeing how many plastic crabs they could get in a bucket using only a fly swatter. Finally they had to try and lift a weight by inflating balloons and putting them in a lift bag.
We took the boys on an afternoon dive to check out some of the attractions, had dinner, then got ready for the night dive. The ranger team had laid out glow sticks under water to make a path for the groups to swim, but due to all the silt, it didn't quite work out. Some groups gave up, others made the best of what they could see.
The next morning we took the group on a deep dive. The boys really wanted to see the airplane. Due to some misreading of a map we ended up landing at another deep area, eventually finding the plane but hit our turn pressure before we could spend any time there.
Turned tanks around and the youth did the treasure hunt activity. They needed to get a certain combination of hidden coins and return in 28 minutes, with points being deducted for too many/few coins and returning early or late. Our eagle eyed kids found the needed coins very quickly, and spent the rest of the time having fun near the exit point. They returned exactly at 28 minutes and were very happy to have aced that activity.
During the activities the event keeps rangers underwater for safety. If they see the youth showing good skills or teamwork they will swim over and hand out a green ranger coin. I'm proud that our team got two such coins over the weekend.
After lunch we said goodbye to the staff from Aquatic Adventures who had served as our dive pros, and our smaller group went for a dive to the campsite and then some underwater basketball. Turned in our tanks to be refilled and picked them up right before dinner.
The dinner and awards were a good time, with two of the three youth in our group getting $100 scholarships to the LDS. Last year one of the boys in our troop won a nice camera system!
In the morning we packed up camp and did another dive before returning home.
Cost for the event was $170 and included all the food, camping, and air fills. Our dive shop gave us a deal on gear rental and also brought some extra help so that our boys were supervised underwater for the times that the other adult from the troop and I were doing AOW dives.
While a lot of the people there are from Venture crews, it's open to virtually any youth group for people under 20 such as troops, girl guides, church groups, or anything else. It's super low key and everything is planned for you. Just show up with camping and scuba gear, and some youth that want to have a great weekend.
