The 2025 Beer Dive had a little of everything, laughter, a daring rescue, navigation challenges, hypothermia, hot dogs on the grill, and of course, beer.
Thursday, July 25th was a perfect day for the Beer Dive and Edmonds Underwater Park; partly cloudy, light winds, temperatures in the 70s. It was warm enough to be comfortable post-dive, and not so warm that people didn’t die from the heat between donning their drysuit and hitting the water. Ten SeaHorses gathered about 5:30. Dave Wakeley had already hidden the beverages, 28 bottles of beer and 4 Cokes, and the Beer Divers suited up to search for their elusive treasure.
Six divers went out, and six divers came back safely, so it was a successful club dive. Divers were Ed Gullekson, Randy Pedersen, Dane Dormedy, Trevor Veihdeffer, Dauzy Dauzenroth and me, Joe Sharp. Our shore support crew was George Barron, Dave Wakeley, Kaitlin Sharp and Joyce Hoffman.
I had a unique gear situation, in that my drysuit is currently not (dry that is, not at all) so I decided to go with my Sharkskin Lavacore, which is advertised as being “equivalent to a 3-mil wetsuit.” I was about to find out. I didn’t want to miss the dive and I figured that the Sharkskin would be enough for the limited time I’d be in the water and a dive no deeper that 12 ft. Besides, the water was a balmy 60 deg. at dive time. Since my steel-100 tank was only half full, I wasn’t going to be out there for long regardless. That seemed a little too easy, so I also misplaced my hood. I could have sworn I put it in my bag, but when it was time to put it on, it was nowhere to be found. Still, I was determined so I just powered through. (NOTE: DO NOT DO THIS! It’s not particularly safe, and I wouldn’t have done it if I was going any deeper than 10 ft. or more than 25 yards from shore.)
It was time to gear up, so we got ready and entered the water. Dauzy had a bit of a challenge with his drysuit, so he took some extra time, and he had a bit of a mishap while donning his fins (Kaitlin and Dave came to help, hence the “daring rescue.”), so by the time we were all lined up and ready to go, I’d been standing in the cold water for 15 minutes in my feeble dive skin, slowly losing core body heat. Finally, we were all ready, and Dave gave the signal to GO! I braced myself for the cold hitting my head and plunged in. When I submerged, my body, while not warm, felt okay, the Lavacore doing a good job; the cold blast to the head was a bit of a shock, but I kind of got used to it. However, I’m not sure if it was the cold water freezing my brain or what, but right from the start I got off course and swam out off to the right, far away from where the beer was hidden. By the time I figured it out and came back, others had scooped up all the beer.
After I came back in and took off my fins, I found out how cold I actually was when I stood up and my legs temporarily went offline, and I plopped back down on my butt. A second try to stand up and walk was successful after I got some circulation going.
Post-dive was fun. George had fired up the grill and there were hotdogs and chips and drinks for everybody. Randy Pedersen signed up for the club’s Cayman trip in November, and several others wanted to know what it was all about. If you’re still thinking about it, you should definitely go. It’s going to be really fun. The Cayman 2025 trip page has all the details and a link to the signup form.
Wine Dive, Thursday, August 21st
If the Beer Dive sounded fun, you have another chance next month at the club Wine Dive, Thursday, August 21st, again at Edmonds Underwater Park. It’s just like the Beer Dive, only for fancy wine people. Note that the Wine Dive is on the 3rd Thursday of the month instead of the usual 4th Thursday, to accommodate the Reid Harbor Rendezvous. We hope to see you there.
SeaHorse Grand Cayman Trip 2025
The club’s trip to Sunset House on Grand Cayman is Nov. 15-22. If you’re thinking about it, sign up now to guarantee your spot. The Cayman 2025 trip page has all the package details and a link to the signup form. We have to return unused rooms on our reservation in mid-August. After that, availability isn’t guaranteed. Contact the trip coordinator, Jeff Greene at cayman_2025@seahorsediveclub.com if you have any questions.
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