I was watching television this morning while I was getting ready to leave the house and saw a Sonic commercial. They said Cheeseons (spelling?) Greetings. Add that to the fact that we just celebrated Labor Day and Christmas will be here before you know it! Where did 2014 go anyway? Here is a very sobering thought… Christmas is 16 weeks away. But let’s not think about that… I might give myself heart palpitations!
Let’s talk about the exciting and busy summer that Extreme Sports Scuba had this summer. Between fun trips to Beaver Lake just to dive as well as to certify a lot of great divers, to the trip to Cozumel in July to the Safari Hunt (recap coming soon!) to giving kids at 5 Mile Children’s Camp the opportunity to try out Scuba Diving.
Let’s focus on that last one today…
5 Mile Children’s Camp is located right down there on the Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma border behind Downstream Casino and if you’ve been to a Try it Tuesday at any point in time, you’ve probably swum or should I say Scuba Dived, Dove… tried Scuba Diving!… in the 5 Mile pool.
So starting the end of May until around the last week of July, every Wednesday night Extreme Sports Scuba packs up and heads to 5 Mile to allow that group of kids the opportunity to try Scuba Diving. This year the time frame was from May 28 through July 23. Typically we had 3-5 groups of 7-8 kids at a time. That means that we potentially had 192-320 kids try Scuba Diving. (You might want to double-check my math for me please )
We would like to give a big thanks to those who helped, the list includes: Grady Weston, Deb Weston, Jared Weston, Drake Weston, Shaye Weston, Chuck Beaver, Kathy Bennett, Kim Brungard, Aerielle Cupp, Carlene La Due, Dan La Due, Danielle La Due, Jason La Due, Lee Lake, Doug Lord, Rachele Lord, Chris Parrish, Cam Parrish, Brittany Renfro, Mark Willoughby, and Nicole Willoughby.
2 Great Stories:
The first week was a group of girls. I was sitting on the side of the pool and a girl walked up and sat next to me. She struck up a conversation and I asked her how old she was, she told me she was 11. I said that I had a daughter that was 11 and she thinks I’m mean. That poor little girl got the wildest look on her face and Dan started laughing. I winked and said I was kidding.
The other great story came from the last week of 5 Mile and a group of boys. This was a great group of boys, a little ornery but still a great group. So at the end when we were packing our gear up, the boys were sitting in the hot tub talking to Kim asking different diving questions. I walked up and said, “Now I want to tell you something, there are two types of divers: those who pee in their wetsuits and those who say they don’t but really do.” Then I walked off. Kim walked over and asked me if she should be ornery to them and I said, “Absolutely.” So she walked over to the hot tub and said, “Speaking of that I need to wash out my wetsuit,” and she proceeded to put the wetsuit in the hot tub. I’ve never seen a hot tub clear out so fast. Don’t worry though, we fessed up that we were just messing with them.
And this is the type of fun we have at 5 Mile in the summers! Now it’s time for some pictures!
Mark Willoughby & Doug Lord (and barely Visible Rachele Lord)
Jason La Due & Doug Lord 
Jared Weston, Lee Lake, Jason La Due, Chuck Beaver, Mark Willoughby, Doug Lord 
Jason La Due 
He couldn’t stand up above the water so we got him a Milk Crate to help 
This was after Dan La Due threw me in the water 
Do you see anything wrong with this picture? 
Here’s a closer look… Give up? Aerielle Cupp and I zipped the bag inside out for the boys at the shop to mess with the next day. That does make it difficult to carry… 