Ah, so it’s the post you’ve all been anxiously waiting for, the recap of the 2015 Safari Hunt. I bet you’ve been on the edge of your seat thinking, when is she going to post this? Well never fear, today is your lucky day because it is finally up and ready to go. I hope you were able to come out and enjoy the day! It was beautiful. But enough of our little gab session, let’s move on to the details!
As you saw running around facebook, the animals were ready to be hidden. They took over the kayak’s, an Ed’s truck, pick up trucks, the GMC, the display case and even Grady’s desk. They were practicing hiding as the big safari hunt was coming up.
June 20, 2015 was the day. The weather finally cleared up and it was gorgeous and sunny. The temperature was a lovely 89˚F.
Water levels were up on the lake again. Rachele Lord, Dan La Due, & Grady Weston, hid 12 animals in the lake between the surface and 35 feet down.
29 divers came out to take their chance at finding an animal (or just be a dive buddy…. Whichever the case may be).
At 1:30 the hunt was on. Participants were to dive for 45 minutes or to a tank pressure of 500 psi. At the 45-minute mark the duck call was blown and divers surfaced. Each animal was numbered which gave the participant his or her number to draw for a prize. 
When the duck call was blown, 10 of the 12 animals had been located.
Cam Parrish & Chris Parrish
Ashlyn Parmley & Justin Walkinshaw
Chris Krei 
After all participants had drawn for their prizes, Deb & Grady put all participants names in a hat that didn’t find an animal and drew out names for the last 2 prizes.
- Cailee Lake – Dan Mat/Dry bag,
- Emma LaDue – Solo Class,
- Chris Parrish- Dan Mat/Drybag,
- Chloe Lake – Nitrox Class,
- Tori Willoughby – Subgear Cooler,
- Justin Walkinshaw – Scubapro Mk11 Regulator,
- Tiffany Hayworth – Sealife Sea Dragon light,
- Cam Parrish – Scubapro Chromis computer,
- Ashlyn Parmley – Scubapro City bag,
- Chris Krei – Princeton Light.
- Jeff Carnes – Subgear cooler,
- Gary Lassley – Princeton light.
This event is a fundraiser to help raise funds for the Newton County Rescue & Recovery organization. Everyone was encouraged to purchase tickets for a raffle drawing. Tickets were $1/ticket. Then after the prizes were distributed for the Safari Hunt, it was time to start giving away the raffle prizes. Thank you to everyone who purchased raffle tickets, over $600 was raised for NCRR.
Now don’t worry, we didn’t forget about the kids. They had their own “safari hunt” in more of the form of rings. The kids were broke up into two groups, 6 and under and 6-10. The younger kids rings were dropped so that they could easily pick them up but not have to go into the water. The older kids might have to “dive” for theirs. Truthfully they were still easily seen/picked up but the older kids wanted a reason to go underwater for them, it was warm, why not!?!? 
A special thank you to Sealife, Scubapro, Princeton Tec, Pelican, SDI, DAN, XS Scuba, Trident, and Innovative Scuba for donations for the 2015 Safari Hunt and congratulations to all the winners of the Safari Hunt. Hope to see you next year!!