Dear Dolphin Divers of Sacramento,                                                                     December 1, 2024

As the waves of another year settle, I want to take a moment to share my gratitude and send you warm wishes for this 2024 holiday season! This year has been filled with incredible dives, unforgettable underwater adventures, and the camaraderie that makes our diving community so special.

May your Christmas be as vibrant as a coral reef, as peaceful as a calm ocean, and as full of wonder as the first time you explored the underwater world. May the new year bring you deeper dives, clearer waters, and countless opportunities to connect with the beauty of the sea.

Thank you for being part of this amazing journey. Wishing you joy, blessings, and countless bubbles of happiness this holiday season and beyond!

Image from Town and Country Magazine 2023

Our Annual Christmas party is at the Donte Club this Saturday, December 7, 2024, and I encourage you to sign up NOW time is running out!  We only have a few days before the event happens and we are going to have a blast!  We will have a raffle and prizes for best photos and biggest fish contests held throughout the year.  We also brought dancing back with our very own DJ, Jason Moore; thank you again for being the guy with the tunes. I will again be hosting this year, and we have some great activities planned – so you won’t want to miss it!!   

As a reminder, we will not be having a General meeting for December as the Christmas party will replace our meeting, however, I look forward to seeing you again next year at the next general meeting and hope you will come and listen to our featured guest speaker.  Please note, our next Dolphin Club General Meeting will be held in-person on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm at Round Table Pizza (9500 Greenback Lane in Folsom), and via Zoom for those who would prefer to attend remotely. Marilyn will send information on the day of the meeting. You will not want to miss this meeting…everyone is welcome to join!

Hope to see you in the water and bubble’s up!!

Owen Autry,

President

Safety Officer’s Message
By: Brad Freelove

Heading to the California coast – take care!

If you have plans on heading to the California coast during the next couple weekends, you might want to watch the weather channel, check out any tsunami reports and look at the tide charts.  California is being hit with some much-needed rain but not all the weather is helping us out.  Storms are churning up the ocean and combining with our annual King Tides to produce some monster waves, flooding, and high winds.  Along with the high tides, rain, and winds we now have some tsunami alerts as earthquakes are hitting Japan. 

So, if you are heading to Monterey to check out the Monarch butterfly migration or going diving at the breakwater or Pt. Lobos, you might want to check the local weather reports and ocean conditions for signs of trouble. 

Monterey Aquarium during high and low tides

If you do go to the coast, you might want to take a couple photos of the waves.  You can enter your photos in the California King Tides Project annual photo contest.  You can visit their website at : www.coastal.ca.gov/kingtides/participate.html. 

December 13-15 would be a great time to take your photos.  Maximum high and low tides take place on the same day.

QUOTES FROM THE SEA

“My demons tried to drown me
But they didn’t know
I could breathe underwater”
-Jordan Sarah Weatherhead

“When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out with its great wide sounds, cleanses me with its noise, and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me that is bewildered and confused.
Rainer Maria Rilke

“The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.”
Isak Dinesen aka Karen Blixen

A Diver’s Dream: Exploring the Vibrant World of the Belize Barrier Reef

This place is like stepping into a living, breathing work of art. The colors, the movement, the sheer diversity of life—it’s all overwhelming in the best way.

As soon as you descended, you are greeted by a microcosm of life thriving among the coral heads. The coral itself is a masterpiece, with fans swaying in the current and brain corals that look like intricate mazes. But the real stars are the smaller creatures darting in and out of the nooks and crannies.

You spend ages watching a cleaner shrimp doing its job. It was no bigger than an inch long, but it commanded the attention of a much larger parrotfish, which hovered patiently as if waiting for its turn at the spa. Nearby, you see a tiny flamingo tongue snail, its shell adorned with striking orange and black patterns, inching across a sea fan like a jeweled treasure come to life.

Then come the tiny gobies—so small, you might miss them if you blinked. Perched on coral branches, these little fish are like the reef’s watchful guardians. You see a neon goby cleaning a grouper! Their electric-blue stripes practically glow underwater, and they zip around like underwater fireflies.

But it wasn’t just fish stealing the show. The banded coral shrimp scuttles across the reef with its candy-cane legs, looking like it was ready for a parade. And there was an itty-bitty squat lobster, waving its claws from under a ledge as if trying to say hello.

Midway through your dive, out of nowhere, a dolphin zips past you, playful and curious. It circles around a few times, as if inviting you to join in its game, before vanishing into the blue. That moment alone would’ve made the dive unforgettable, but there is so much more!

Toward the end, you come face-to-face with a hawksbill turtle. It is munching on sponges and barely notices you. You hover nearby, mesmerized by its peaceful demeanor and the way its patterned shell seemed to blend perfectly with the coral around it. Just as you thought things couldn’t get any better, a nurse shark cruised by, calm and unbothered, its sleek form moving gracefully over the sandy bottom. She stops and seems to be wanting your attention like a small water-puppy. It felt like the reef was saying, “Don’t worry, we’re all friends here.”

You didn’t want to leave.
From the impossibly tiny brittle stars hidden in coral crevices to the mesmerizing flashes of damselfish flitting about like confetti, the Belize Barrier Reef is alive with wonders at every scale. And those brief moments with the dolphin, turtle, and shark? They were like nature’s punctuation marks, perfectly rounding out an unforgettable dive…

…You wake up and realize it was just a dream, but then remember you have that vacation coming up and those frequent flyer miles burning a hole in your pocket. You open your computer and begin the real planning… Just remember to bring me with you!

Just Laugh
(Text Only This Week)

20 quick SCUBA Jokes from the internet:

1. Why did the octopus want to be a comedian? Because he had eight-tickling material!

2. How do you organize a space party underwater? You planet!

3. Why did the scuba diver bring a pencil to the dive? In case he wanted to draw some eelustrations!

4. What do you call a fish that wears a crown? A kingfish!

5. Why don’t lobsters share? Because they are shellfish!

6. How do you make a squid laugh on Saturday? Tell it a joke on Octopunday!

7. What’s a scuba diver’s favorite game? Squid and seek!

8. Why are scuba divers so bad at relationships? They always need space!

9. What’s a shark’s favorite sci-fi movie? Jaws!

10. How do you communicate with a fish? Drop it a line!

11. What do you call a fish with no eyes? Fsh!

12. Why did the crab never share? Because he was a little shellfish!

13. What’s a scuba diver’s favorite instrument? The harpoon!

14. Why did the shrimp break up with the seahorse? He was too shellfish!

15. What do you call a fish magician? A magicarp!

16. How do you compliment a scuba diver? Tell them they’re fintastic!

17. Why did the jellyfish go to school? To improve its tentacle abilities!

18. What’s a shark’s favorite snack? Fish and ships!

19. Why don’t seagulls fly over the bay? Because then they’d be bagels!

20. How do you invite a fish to a party? Drop it a clam!

Member News

December 2024 Birthdays

Brandon Flood 3-Dec
Sara Porter 3-Dec
Janiece Parker 4-Dec
Richard Sears 6-Dec
Bob Taylor 12-Dec
Will Dutton 28-Dec
Joe Morgan 28-Dec
Mike Johnson 30-Dec

November 2024 New Members

AS MEMBERS, REMEMBER WE ARE ALWAYS LOOKING TO GROW OUR “DOLPHIN DIVERS FAMILY” SO PLEASE REACH OUT TO OTHER DIVERS AND LET THEM KNOW ABOUT THE CLUB WHENEVER YOU GET THE CHANCE.

Are you interested in becoming a Dolphin Divers of Sacramento member?
CLICK HERE TO JOIN

December Meeting
Christmas Party!!!

Annual Photo Contest

Don’t forget to head over and see the Photo of the year entries and begin your planning for your entries next year!!

2024 Member of the Year and Photo Contest

CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS

For the full view click here…

Dec. 7th 2024	DDS Christmas Party	Dante Club	Owen Autry	(916) 955-9105 ocautry@gmail.com	Tickets on sale
Dec. 15th 2024	DDS Board Meeting Board Christmas	Doug’s Home	Owen Autry	(916) 955-9105 ocautry@gmail.com
Jan. 1st. 2025	DDS Board Meeting		Owen Autry	(916) 955-9105 ocautry@gmail.com
Jan. 15th. 2025	DDS General Meeting		Owen Autry	(916) 955-9105 ocautry@gmail.com	Speaker Needed
Jan. 18th. 2025	Pt. Lobos Dive to Celebrate Jack’s Birthday	Point Lobos	Jack Millard	(916) 955-8017 jbmillard@aol.com
Feb. 5th. 2025	DDS Board Meeting		Owen Autry	(916) 955-9105 ocautry@gmail.com
Feb. 19th., 2025	General Meeting		Owen Autry	(916) 955-9105 ocautry@gmail.com	Walter Marti, Black Water Photography
Mar. 5, 2025	DDS Board Meeting		Owen Autry	(916) 955-9105 ocautry@gmail.com
Mar. 19, 2025	General Meeting		Owen Autry	(916) 955-9105 ocautry@gmail.com	Erica Bishop-Water Forum

EDITOR’S NOTE
By: Joe Morgan

I’M LOOKING FOR MEMBERS TO SEND IN PICTURES OF DIVING, DIVING VACATIONS ETC.

• Trip Reviews: Let us know where you have been diving, what operator you used, the hotel you stayed at and how was the diving there. Let us know if the operator was safe and fun. Let us know if the hotel was a good deal, give us as much detail as possible and hopefully more Dolphin Divers will venture there in the future.
  
• Recipes: I was told that in the past Dolphin Divers gave each other SEAFOOD recipes that they loved so that everyone could enjoy the bounty of the sea, I hope to continue that each month with at least one good recipe.
  
• Dive and Camping yard-sale items you wish to include in the newsletter.
  
• Dive Activities: Please let me know if there are any dive-related activities you would like included in the newsletter.
  
• Pictures from your last dive. Please make sure to let me know how you would like the picture credited in the newsletter. -example – Picture by John Member, of a Silky Shark, at Roca Partida Mexico.

PLEASE MAIL ALL SUBMISSIONS

Editor@dolphindivers.org

DOLPHIN DIVERS OF SACRAMENTO
BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President: Owen Autry
Vice President: Ken Takata
Treasurer: Marlyn Sepulveda
Secretary: Brad Freelove / Corinne Fuerst
Safety Officer: Brad Freelove
Activity Chair: David Whiteside
Webmaster: Renee Viehmann
Promotions Chair: Tracy Clarke
Newsletter Editor: Joe Morgan
Historian: Jack Millard
Member at Large: Tom Mischley
Member at Large: Lalanyia Little
Member at Large: Ed Hurff
Member at Large: Sally Walters
Member at Large: Douglas Hillblom
Alternate Member at Large: Corinne Fuerst