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Author Archives: Nicole Willoughby

Junior Diver Interviews – Dylan Williams

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Back in May I had the pleasure of meeting Chuck Beaver‘s grandson Dylan Williams. Dylan was going through his scuba diving training classes this summer. Chuck made the comment that Dylan’s birthday was coming up and I happened to ask Dylan when his birthday was. His answer was July 30. I started laughing and when they asked why, I said he shared a birthday with me. I told him it would be extremely easy for me to remember his birthday, just like Tucker Cupp, because we all share a birthday. But that is neither here nor there because today’s blog post is to get to know Dylan Williams, one of our newest Junior Extreme Sports Scuba Divers.

Why did you want to become certified?

I wanted to become certified because I have always wanted to dive but my mom wanted me to be older.

What generation diver are you?

I am a third generation diver

What is your favorite diving experience so far?

My favorite experience is getting certified and seeing the boats.

What are your other hobbies besides diving?

Some other hobbies are football, and track and swimming

Where would you most like to try diving?

I would want to dive at the Bahamas or Cozumel

Diver’s Are Good For More Than Just Diving

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I think Tracy Lawrence’s lyrics from the song “Find out who your friends are” sum it up best…

You find out who your friends are
Somebody’s gonna drop everything
Run out and crank up their car
Hit the gas, get there fast
Never stop to think
“What’s in it for me?”
Or “It’s way too far”
They just show on up
With their big ol’ heart
You find out who your friends are…

And that’s just what happened. Friday and Saturday night the Missouri Governor’s Mounted Guard needed extra hands for the AYRA rodeo and Sunday day for the Dusty Craig Benefit that was held at the Webb City Fairgrounds. With some of the Missouri Governor’s Mounted Guards soaking up the sun and water in Cozumel, extra hands were needed to help run the cook shack. When the word was put out for extra help, divers from Extreme Sports Scuba stepped up to assist. That is when you know you have friends, they come running and ask what they can do to help. I’ve had it explained to me that divers are good for more than just diving!

Continue reading→

July Extreme Dive Club Meeting – 2014

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If you were unable to attend Thursday night’s dive club meeting, you missed out on a load of fun. Now I know I probably say this all the time, but truthfully, dive club meetings are fun! Yes, business takes place, but at the same time, there is a lot of fun, inside jokes and fellowship to be had with all who attend. Plus, like I’ve said many times, we have GREAT food! Just saying . And yes, sometimes it is all about the food! haha just kidding… kind of.

No dates were actually presented at this dive club meeting, so if you want to check dates and make sure you have them on your calendar, please check out June’s minutes.

And now, for the pictures!

Sysco (and Pete) were enjoying the pool as much as the rest of us!

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Blogger in Training

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So the buzz is we have a blogger in training…. (Deb told me to announce her )… or maybe my assistant blogger… We’ll figure out a special name for her .

Let me introduce Extreme Sports Scuba to our latest “diver” Addison Willoughby.

She was born June 26, 2014 to Mark and Nicole Willoughby (you know, your fun loving blogger who loves to eat )

We had to miss the Safari Hunt this year but don’t worry, when I get pictures there will be a post.

And don’t forget that this Thursday night is the July Dive Club Meeting at Grady & Deb’s House. On the menu is Pulled Pork. Bring your sides, your lawn chairs, your swimsuits and fireworks for a fun night with fabulous people!

Happy First day of July!

2013 Safari Hunt Recap

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This time last year my husband Mark and I weren’t yet scuba certified, however, we had been to a couple Try it Tuesday’s and thought about getting scuba certified so the weekend of the Safari hunt we were invited down to the lake. Have you ever been on a Safari hunt? Well if you’ve been reading facebook here these last few weeks, they’ve been talking about the Safari hunt so I thought I would share our experience with the Safari Hunt last year for all you new divers or divers who have been certified for a while, just never participated.

Last year the morning began with certifying a scuba diver. Dan La Due worked with him and he was certified which actually made him qualified to participate in the Safari Hunt last year.

The Safari hunt didn’t actually start until 1 pm, however, some of the divers were getting in the water earlier in the morning to check out their buoyancy and possibly to see if the animals had been set out yet so they knew where to go… hint, they were n’t. All divers were called out of the waters at noon, Grady and Dan went down to hide the animals and John Patrick went down to create a diversion, that way with 3 different sets of bubbles, who really knows which one was actually placing animals.
Now, if there is one piece of advice I can give to all participates and spectators, it’s WEAR sunscreen! Continue reading→

Dive Master Interview – Rachele Lord

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As I mentioned last week that we had a few new certifications that we needed to address. They just so happened all around the time that I was talking about the Memorial Day Weekend Dive Trip down to Beaver Lake. So I made a quick mention of it on Thursday but now it is time to go into more depth on Rachele Lord’s Dive Master Certification completion. Without further ado let’s get on to interviewing Rachele.

How did you get started diving?

I was starting to date Doug. He was starting to get into diving and I thought it would be interesting to do as a couple for weekend dates. Continue reading→

New Certification Updates to Check Out!

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So I hope that you were able to participate in all the fun, or at least some of the fun we had at Beaver Lake on Memorial Day weekend. If you weren’t, at least you hopefully enjoyed the posts and will be able to participate next year (hint hint!). If you have missed out on any of the experiences that we had, here is a list of those blog posts to check out:

Whew if that didn’t wear you out, I’m not sure anything will .

Now I have to mention that because of the Memorial Day weekend posts, a couple certifications haven’t been addressed yet.

  • Doug Lord completed his Assistant Instructor Certification
  • Rachele Lord completed her Dive Master Certification
  • Tori Willoughby completed her Junior Open Water Diver Certification

Now don’t think any of these people are getting away that easy without some kind of an interview or post or something… but these were all needing to be addressed so it was easiest to point those out now and then go back into further detail later. Let’s make sure we congratulate them!!

Also, one last piece of information on this rainy Thursday morning… if you happen to be reading this post during the morning or day, at least before 6:30pm on Thursday (that’s 18:30 for those of you who like Military time ) there is the June Dive Club meeting today. I noticed on facebook last night (which I’m sure everyone else probably has too??) that it has been moved to Extreme Sports Scuba due to this lovely rainy weather. (Grady don’t be too mad (Grady didn’t want it to rain until after 1pm) I’m happy about the rain, we did need it!). See you tonight!!

June Extreme Dive Club Meeting – 2014

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Another Extreme Sports Scuba Dive Club Meeting has come and gone. If you missed out on the meeting, let’s start with the food you missed out on. Because remember we like to eat around here .

Upcoming Dates:

  • June 9, 11, 16 & 18 – Open Water Scuba Class
  • June 21 & 22 – Open Water Dives
  • June 21 – Underwater Safari Hunt (have some great prizes and lots of stuff for the fish bowl drawing) Remember, this money is donated to Newton County Rescue & Recovery
  • June 27, 28 & 29 – Open Water Scuba Class
  • July 2 – Kayak 101 6pm at Audubon Center
  • July 3rd – Extreme Dive Club Meeting (Fireworks at Grady & Deb’s house)
  • July 5th – Seneca Fireworks display (Newton County Christmas for kids will be having a booth selling hamburgers and Suzi Q’s so come hungry)
  • July 12-19 & 19-26 Cozumel Group Trip
  • July 16 – Kayak 101 6pm at Audubon Center
  • July 26 – Kayak 102 8am at Audubon Center
  • August 7th – Dive Club Meeting at Grady and Deb’s House
  • August 9th – Water Festival, Joplin, MO (Be sure to attend this great local event, lots of stuff going on this year)
  • August 13th – Kayak 102 5pm at Audubon Center
  • September 4th – Dive Club Meeting
  • September 6 & 7 – Mermet Springs Group Trip
  • October 2nd – Dive Club Meeting
  • October 19th – Underwater Pumpkin Carving
  • November 6th – Extreme Dive Club Meeting
  • December 4th – Extreme Dive Club Meeting

Reminders:

  • If you miss one of our monthly meetings, be sure to check out the blog of meetings on our website.
  • If you are on Facebook be sure to like us, we have all of the events posted on Facebook.
  • Check your cylinders to see if they need hydros or visuals or regulators serviced.

New in stock: Scubapro Chromis computers and Subgear coolers

Acknowledgements:

Chris Parrish, Kimberly Brungard, & Lee Lake – Level 1 Diver Tech ERDI certification

Barbara McMurry was the drawing prizewinner. She won a Subgear collapsible bag cooler

Benefit & National Parks – Memorial Day

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Every Memorial Day the NEBCO Fire Department has a benefit breakfast. Grady mentioned that we should go eat breakfast there on Monday, which they usually forget about. He mentioned it to enough of us though, that we didn’t forget. So we met up at 7:30 a.m. and headed to the NEBCO Fire Department Community Center located in Garfield, AR.

There were 25 from our group that were in attendance and showed up all at once. We really were wondering if we had the largest group show up that morning. Continue reading→

Check out More from Memorial Day Weekend

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So we’ve covered a bunch of topics that happened during Memorial Day Weekend at the lake, but we’re not finished yet! Not only did the kids work on their certifications but a lot of other students worked on different certifications as well. There were 4 adults students completing their Open Water Certifications, 5 students completing their ERDI Certification, 3 students completing their Rescue Diver Certifications and 2 students completed their Solo Diver Certification.

Wow, what a great weekend right? Not to mention the fact that we had people who came to help kick off the Dive season. And there were more flowers added to the flower garden! It was an all around GREAT weekend! Also a special thank you to Mark Willoughby and Lee Lake for being “victim” divers to help out the ERDI and Rescue certifications.

Check out more pictures from Memorial Day Weekend

Pokey Cupp sporting his new dive equipment complete with pink bows courtesy of Deb Weston

Continue reading→