Extreme Safari Hunt 2016

Safari Hunt Day, Safari Hunt Day! Say it like the British are coming… maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t, but either way, this past Saturday was Safari Hunt Day! This is a fun event that we look forward to every year. It happens in June and it is a fundraiser event for the Newton County Rescue and Recovery Team.

We got down to the lake Saturday morning. Deb and Grady had some students to certify and then we started signing participants up for the Safari Hunt.

Doug went and put the dive flags out. This is a major event so we had 3 dive flags out to mark that there were divers below.

If you happened to be around, you probably got the opportunity to talk to Scuba Scott, our SCUBAPRO representative. He was in the area and wanted to come visit with Deb and Grady. Since we were at the lake, he came to visit us at the lake during Safari Hunt Day. Are you getting tired of me saying Safari Hunt?

I had the opportunity to try out the new Hydros BC, so I went down with Lee and Dan to hide animals. Hey kill two birds with one stone, right? Or hide 12 animals with three people. I also got to try out a new dive computer that Scott had, so I was told to go and create diversions, just hang out in different areas, so I played with the dive computer in a few places. I’ll have more about the fun new gadgets I got to try out in a different post. Stay tuned for that!!

We had to pull the animals out of the bag and get them wet and the air out of them to help with some buoyancy problems. If you haven’t read the post where the animals are introduced, you should do that. Another fun story to mention, Drake went to the store to pick them out and he was walking through with a huge arm full of stuffed animals. I asked where that picture was!

So… I took my camera down and took pictures of where I hid the animals so I wouldn’t forget, plus I’m the blogger. Well, if you didn’t hear, one of my animals got away and floated to the surface. Dan told me it was a rookie mistake. Woops!

My Hiders in Crime… Lee Lake and Dan La Due and of course me, but I didn’t take a selfie…..

The hunt got underway at 1:30pm. Grady went over the rules and then they were off.

Dan, Lee, and Jared stayed on the surface for help/relief in case anything went wrong. Then Jared took my camera and went down to get photos of the divers heading out on the “great” Safari Hunt!

And he might have gotten side tracked in taking fun photos. Hey I’m all for it! Remember, we have to document things!!

Tori and Doug were the first divers up. Their animal was found in 2 minutes. Justin Walkinshaw was closely behind in about 5 minutes. We wound up sending him back down with Steve Sweet when Steve got separated from his dive buddies. When Dan Hayworth came up, we wound up sending him back down with someone on the Hunt, he left his Gorilla up on the surface. The Gorilla decided to sunbathe.

While the adult Safari Hunt was going on, we started the Kids Safari Hunt or should we call it a ring hunt? 

The kids had so much fun. It was a lot of fun to watch them also because they got excited when they found their ring!

Once the hunt was over, it was time to finish up purchasing tickets for the fishbowl prizes and then time to announce the prizes for the Safari Hunt Animal Winners!

Tiffany Hayworth also mentioned that I had a blogger fail… I didn’t take a group picture of the winners. #fail

1. Megan Shafer found Spot the Giraffe and won an Online Nitrox Class & Dry Bag.

2. Fuzzy the Dog was not found until after the hunt was over.

3. Tiffany Hayworth found Leo the Lion and won the Retro Regulator Bag.

4. Brian Ollenburger found the Sea Lion from the 2015 hunt. No one found Frenchie the Bulldog until after the hunt was over (when Nelda Patrick found it) so Brian drew for the 4th prize which he won a SCUBAPRO 700 Light. (This is the one I hid that Dan had to rehide…)

5. Emma La Due found Stripes the Zebra (which if you know Emma, Zebra’s are her favorite animal of all time!!) and won a Subgear Cooler.

6. Steve Sweet found Goldie the Bear and won colorful Hood and Socks.

Steve pointed out he had his animal on a leash like the rules of the lake say .

7. Tori Willoughby found Genevieve the Bulldog and won an Online Nitrox Class and Dry Bag.

8. Sean Bennett found Snooze the Elephant and won a SCUBAPRO MK11 360 Regulator. (I hid this one too…)

9. Justin Walkinshaw found King the Lion and won the DAN Mat set. (this was the last of the 3 that I got to hide)

10. Small Fry the dog is still on the Loose.

11. Allison Rickey found Ellie the Elephant and won a $100 gift card from Extreme Sports

12. Dan Hayworth found Dean the Gorilla and won the DAN Mat set.

Because there were two animals not found, we had all the participants that did not find an animal put their name in a drawing and drew for the last 2 prizes. Penny St.Clair won a $100 gift card from Extreme Sports. 

Mindi Harper won the Extreme Sports Scuba Backpack and a $25 gift card.

Then it was time to do the fishbowl drawing. I’m pretty sure that some people slipped Carlene some money to win all the prizes… . I’m kidding, I’m kidding! 

We would like to thank everyone who came out for the Safari Hunt. We had 19 divers out for the 12 prizes. Through the fishbowl drawing we raised $350 for Newton County Rescue and Recovery. Thank you Everyone. Can’t wait to see you again next year for another exciting Safari Hunt!!

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