March meeting

Our March meeting will be on March 1st at 6:30pm at Dan & Anne’s house. This will be a pizza party and also used gear sale. Feel free to bring any gear you want to sell or if you need something you will probably find it here. Anyone interested in joining club feel free to attend. Email us at info@bottombreathers.org for information. Please rsvp to club email if you will be attending so we order enough pizza.

Florida Keys trip

We are diving for 4 days.  We will arrive on the 20th, dive the 21-24 and then leave on the 25th.  Dan and I will plan on hopefully going to dive the Blue Heron bridge on the 25th and then go spend some time with one of my sisters.  Anyone who wants can join us at the Blue Heron bridge. We will have to research times for diving there.  I’m told by one of my buddies in the Keys that there still is marine life there.
We will be doing 2 wreck dives in the morning and 2 reef dives in the afternoon.  You must be advanced certified to do wreck dives.  You don’t have to do wreck dives, you can do just reef dives.  Reef dives are 20-30ft and wrecks are 80-100ft. We recommend nitrox for wreck dives, but it is not required.
CostsAll dives, nitrox, room: $1022All dives, no nitrox, room $958Reef dives only, room : $630Non diver $335 for lodgingIf you need a bigger tank let us know and we will get pricing for that to you.Nitrox is for wrecks only, not reef dives.
We need a $200 deposit.  We had to put money down on condos.  We have 3 condos reserved.   Cost is based on 4 people per condo.  Each condo has 2 bedrooms.  1 king bed, 2 twins, 2 bathrooms and kitchen.  Ocean pointe has a great pool. We can add more condos if we need them.  Please let us know if you have requests of who you would like to room with.
Cost is based on 4 people per condo and more than 7 divers.  Cost is subject to change if we don’t have enough people going.
We are diving with Florida Keys dive center: www.floridakeysdivectr.com
We  are staying at Ocean pointe Condos: www.providentresorts.com
Everyone is responsible for their own flights.  You can fly in to Miami or Ft lauderdale.  We will send our flight info out soon.  We are staying longer to visit sister.
We try to have everyone who is on same flights book cars together to save cost.  Once we know who is coming we will send that out so people can arrange car rentals.
Any questions feel free to call or emailAnne 630-927-2663info@bottombreathers.org
Payment. Deposit of $200 due on sign up.  Remainder of payment due by April 20th.  Cancellation by April 20th for full refund.
Payment options
We can  accept electronic bank payments (to dannorris@dannorris.com or 630.723.4212) or some members use their electronic bill pay to send us a “bill payment” as well. All forms accepted–whatever is easiest for you. Most banks I think allow setting up an individual payee as a bill payee, so it should work.   For anyone  who wants to use Paypal as form of payment  use.  dannorris@dannorris.com.  Payment by check or cash acceptable.  Make checks out to Anne Poirier.
Hope we have another big group this year, lots of fun on this trip.  We usually eat breakfast in condo before diving and pack a lunch.  If you are doing all dives there usually is not a lot of time between getting back from wreck dives and going out afternoon reef dives.  We pack a lunch and eat at the picnic tables at the dive shop.  We go out for dinners.  Lots of good places to eat.
Please respond to email or call if you will be joining trip.  
Going to be a great trip,
             Anne & Dan

Meeting notes 14-Dec-2018

Overview and events slides from the dive club:

Questions about events or any upcoming trips, please contact info@bottombreathers.org

Links to programs and websites relevant to the discussions:

https://reefci.com/our-programs/

https://www.volunteerworld.com/en/volunteer-abroad/coral-reef

Presentation from Prof Cheryl Heeneman:

Club meeting notes 2-Nov-2018

We had a good group including some new members attend our club meeting! Welcome Patrick!

November meeting

Our next dive club meeting will be Nov 2nd at 6:30pm at Below H20 in Naperville.  Hope a lot of our members can attend.  Anyone interested in joining club please feel free to attend.

Club meeting notes 12-Oct-2018

Here are some notes from the dive club meeting on 12-Oct-2018. Thanks to everyone who attended and shared the pizzas together!

Please review the slides, especially the end ones regarding Blue Herron Bridge. If you’d like to help, consider adding your name to the petition: https://www.change.org/p/end-collection-removal-of-marine-life-from-phil-foster-park-by-tropical-fish-collectors

Club Calendar

2019

January 12th  Club party(Dan & Anne’s house)

Club meeting notes 14-Sep-2018

Here are the notes from the club meeting on 14-Sep-2018.

Club meeting notes: 3-Aug-2018

Here are the meeting notes from 3-Aug-2018. We reviewed the “Socorro” trip from June 2018 and introduced *two* new liveaboard trips we’re planning for 2020!

Next meeting: 14-Sep-2018

Bottom Breathers Liveaboard: 31-Jul-*2020* – Guadalupe White Shark Cage Dives

Updated: 23-Jul-2018, 28 berths remaining!

We are going to see great white sharks from underwater cages. This boat runs 5 cages–some at the surface and some submersible. This isn’t normal scuba diving as you won’t have scuba gear (no BCD, no fins, no tank). Instead, you’ll wear an exposure suit, some weight and stand in a cage while breathing from a 2nd stage regulator supplied from surface via long hoses. There’s no chum in the water (that’s not allowed by law), but they do bait the sharks using fish heads on ropes that they throw into the water to draw the sharks in for viewing.

This trip will be on board the Nautilus Belle Amie for 5 days. The trip departs from San Diego, CA (airport: SAN) on 31-Jul-2020 and returns on 5-Aug-2020. We’ll have one day of transit each direction and 3 full days of cage diving at Guadalupe.

Where: Guadalupe Island (Mexico), departing from and returning to Ensanada, Mexico (private bus transportation from/to San Diego, CA – about 2h ride)
When: Depart Ensenada on 31-Jul-2020, return 5-Aug-2020
Who: Bottom Breathers Dive Club has the whole boat reserved for now – up to 32 (cage) divers!! Boat and crew is run by Nautilus Liveaboards.
Boat: Nautilus Belle Amie (video about the boat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EZD04hwxtg)

Cost (per person – availability as of 23-Jul-2018):

• Premium Suite – $4,295 – main deck
• Superior Suite – $3,695 – upper deck
• Stateroom – $3,195 – lower deck
• Single Stateroom – $3,994 – lower deck rooms for single diver
• Triple Stateroom – $2,895 – lower deck room with 3 bunks (only 2 occupants allowed)

Every room has a private bathroom in the room. Each room has two bunks (except for triple room). The Superior Suite rooms can be rearranged so that the two bunks are pushed together into a queen sized bed.

Payment:

• $100 deposit to reserve a spot (per diver, non-refundable)
• 10% due 31-Jan-2019 (18 months from trip)
• 10% due 31-Oct-2019 (9 months from trip)
• 20% due 31-Jan-2020 (6 months from trip)
• balance due (about 60%) 1-Jun-2020 (2 months from trip)

Cancelation policy:

• $100 deposit is non-refundable
• 18-9 months prior to departure, 10% of the trip price is forfeit
• 9-6 months prior to departure, 20% of the trip price is forfeit
• 6-2 months prior to departure, 40% of the trip price is forfeit
• 2 months or less prior to departure, 100% of the trip price is forfeit

Of course, we will likely stay in San Diego for a day or two before and after the trip and would love for more to join us. You can’t book flights this far in advance, but a quick look at flights from ORD (to SAN) shows airfares less than $400 per person (rt).

First come, first served!

Look forward to another great trip with Bottom Breathers!

Contact info@bottombreathers.org for more information or to reserve a spot on the trip!

Dan & Anne