1998 Dive Team Newsletter Summaries
| MONTH | HIGHLIGHTS |
|---|---|
| January 1998 | Five new Divator Mk.II/BuddyPhone sets go into service. |
| February 1998 | Cold water training and one standby operation. |
| March 1998 | The Dive Team's entry in the Public Safety Dive Team competition was cut short for a multiday search operation. |
| April 1998 | Spring training continues. A new metal detector goes into service. |
| May 1998 | A quiet month with no operations. |
| June 1998 | Night training and no operations. |
| July 1998 | A quiet 4th of July weekend due to rain on the 4th. One recovery operation later in the month. |
| August 1998 | Several Team divers finished the Search and Recovery Specialty requirements. One recovery operation and one vehicle investigation. |
| September 1998 | One recovery operation on Labor Day weekend. |
| October 1998 | Two recovery operations: one at Windy Point and one at Camp Chatauqua. |
| November 1998 | Training on steep slope contour-based search patterns. |
| December 1998 | Election of Dive Team Officers for 1999. |
January 1998
January Training
January training was Saturday January 17 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm at Tom's Dive and Ski, 5909 Burnet Road. This was a pool session on use of the full-face masks and communicators. Several of our newer members checked out on donning, flooding, clearing, and cleaning the masks.
Deep Diving Specialty
Lewis has received PADI authorization to offer the Deep Diving Specialty course. That will be done this spring. The Team has seen an increase in the frequency and depth of very deep operations in the past year.
EQUIPMENT UPDATES
The five new Divator Mask and BuddyPhone communicator sets have been delivered. We will keep one of the new sets in the trailer and assign the others to active members. Team officers will determine where to assign them in the next few weeks. All Team members who have assigned mask sets are expected to keep them maintained and ready for operation.
We are going to remove the old portable generator from the trailer. That will clear some space to start carrying specialty equipment for deep operations. We are also going to equip the trailer with a battery for the interior lights and the breakaway brake activator.
PUBLIC SERVICE DIVING SEMINAR
The regional Public Service Diving seminar will be hosted by ARL on April 1 and 2 at the Balcones Research Center. UPDATE - Diving sessions are now planned for a large test tank at the Balcones Research Center instead of Lake Travis.
OPERATIONS
There were no operations in December. The vehicle investigation tentatively planned for last month was cancelled after further investigation of the target's age and the number of times it had already been checked out.
February 1998
TRAINING
On Sunday February 22 we worked with the voice communicators and surface console. Team members practiced setting up the surface console and surface-directed navigation. We also rediscovered that 56 degree water is cold even with a full face mask.
Deep Diving Specialty
Lewis has received PADI authorization to offer the Deep Diving Specialty course. That will be done this spring. The Team has seen an increase in the frequency and depth of very deep operations in the past year.
COMING EVENTS
The Dive Team has been invited to compete in the annual Public Safety Dive Team Search and Recovery competition on March 16 and 17 in San Marcos. If you are interested and available for those two days, contact Paul Eisman.
The regional Public Safety Diving Seminar will be hosted by ARL on April 1 and 2 at the ARL J.J. Pickle Research Campus on Burnet Road at Braker. Dry land meetings will be in the Commons Building (at the base of the water tower).
Steve Carlson has information about a one-week Nitrox Diving course for public safety divers in San Marcos in July. There were still a few openings but the course is filling up fast.
OPERATIONS
On Wednesday morning February 25 emergency services received a report of an aircraft down in Lake Travis. The Team was placed on standby at 9:24 AM and dispatched at 9:32 when a witness confirmed seeing the plane go down into the water in the Arkansas Bend area. At 10:06 the response was cancelled when other witnesses reported seeing the plane fly close to the water and climb back up again.
March 1998
TRAINING
There are several training sessions in March.
- Sunday March 8: Trailer Work Session.
- Several team members met at the trailer to check equipment for the coming season and conferences.
- Saturday March 14: Competition Practice.
- Team members met at the Test Station for final practice for the Dive Team Competition next week.
- March 28 and 29: Seminar Field Exercise Setup cancelled.
- We were supposed to set out an Aircraft Investigation and Recovery field exercise for the conference at ARL on April 1 and 2. The field exercises were moved to one of the ARL tanks due to high water in Lake Travis..
DIVE TEAM COMPETITION TURNS INTO THE REAL THING
Nine Team members attended the second annual statewide Public Safety Dive Team Conference and Competition in San Marcos on March 16 and 17. This event is sponsored by the Underwater Institute at Southwest Texas State University. It is directed toward law enforcement dive teams, with emphasis on crime scene management and evidence recovery.
Nine teams from Texas and Louisiana were entered in the Dive Team Comptition on March 17. The Travis County team was geared up and ready for our turn in the blackwater obstacle course event when we were called back to Travis County for a missing person search. Wait until next year.
COMING EVENTS
The regional Public Service Diving Conference will be hosted by ARL on April 1 and 2 at the ARL J.J. Pickle Research Campus on Burnet Road at Braker. Announcements have been sent out and are now available in local dive shops. Dry land meetings will be in the Commons Building (at the base of the water tower).
Steve Carlson has information about a one-week Nitrox Diving course for public safety divers in San Marcos in July. There were still a few openings but the course is filling up fast.
OPERATIONS
At 9:25 AM on Tuesday March 17
the Team was dispatched for a missing person search in
Little Devil's Cove on Lake Travis.
Divers examined the boat and searched much of the cove (right)
while dogs and other surface units searched on land.
Divers, dogs, helicopter, boat, and land units
continued the search for several days. Team divers assisted by
the DPS Dive Team searched a wider area including part of the
main Devil's Cove but the subject was not found. Underwater
search operations were suspended pending further investigation.
April 1998
TRAINING
The April training dive is Sunday, April 26 at 2:00 pm at the Lake Travis Test Station. This will be a busy session covering:
- Field maintenance of the Divator full face masks.
- Checkout of all the lift bags.
- Start familiarization with the new metal detector.
- Finish any outstanding Search and Recovery specialty certification requirements.
MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND
We want put divers in each of the Sheriff's patrol boats over the Memorial Day weekend. The Holiday schedule runs for four days, from Friday May 22 through Monday May 25. There are three boat shifts each day:
- 10 AM to 6 PM with Don Whitehead out of Emerald Point Marina
- 12 noon to 8 PM with Jo Ann Carson out of Yacht Harbor Marina
- 4 PM to 12 midnight with Jeff Anderson out of The Island at Lago Vista
Sign up at the April training dive. Or call Tim Hoffman or Paul Eisman to get first choice of times.
NEW EQUIPMENT
The Team now has a new Gates underwater metal detector. It will be a big help in blackwater evidence searches. In the past we have had to borrow equipment like this when we needed it. We will start training with it at the April training dive - it takes practice to find a weapon among the beer cans and other metal trash.
OPERATIONS
There have not been any operations since the last newsletter.
May 1998
TRAINING
There is no separate training dive before the Memorial Day weekend. With temperatures at record highs and Lake Travis full, there will probably be operational dives over the long weekend.
MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND
We will have divers in each of the Sheriff's patrol boats over the Memorial Day weekend. The Holiday schedule runs for four days, from Friday May 22 through Monday May 25. There are three boat shifts on each of the four days:
- 10 AM to 6 PM with Don Whitehead in Lake Patrol 20 out of Emerald Point Marina
- 12 noon to 8 PM with Jo Ann Carson in Lake Patrol 10 out of Yacht Harbor Marina
- 4 PM to 12 midnight with Jeff Anderson in Lake Patrol 30 out of The Island at Lago Vista
The shift schedule is in the hardcopy newsletter. If you can't cover the shift you signed up for, contact Tim Hoffman to arrange a replacement.
OPERATIONS
There have not been any operations since the last newsletter. We had divers on two of the Sheriff's Department patrol boats on Splash Day, May 3.
(Don't) LOOK MA NO PICTURES
We would like to add some pictures to the Dive Team web page. If you have any good pictures from recent operations or training, bring them to the next meeting. (Or use the Message Form to let us know where to get them.) We can copy plain photographs, but we can't copy halftone pictures from newspapers and magazines. We can also capture pictures from videotape. If you have any saved videotapes of TV news coverage of operations, we can copy pictures from them.
June 1998
TRAINING
Night Dive- The June training dive will be Tuesday evening, June 16, at the Test Station starting at 7:00 pm. We'll review all of the basic patterns and run them in dusk and darkness. Bring your Search and Recovery Specialty notebooks so we can finish the required dives.
JULY 4th WEEKEND
We want to have divers in each of the Sheriff's patrol boats over the 4th of July weekend starting on Thursday night July 2 and running through Sunday night July 5. Sign up for a shift at the training dive on June 16. The final shift schedule will be out on the 15th and won't be much different from the Memorial Day schedule. There should be 3 TCSO patrol boats on the lake:
- 10 AM to 6 PM with Don Whitehead in Lake Patrol 20 out of Emerald Point Marina
- 12 noon to 8 PM with Jo Ann Carson in Lake Patrol 10 out of Yacht Harbor Marina
- 4 PM to 12 midnight with Jeff Anderson in Lake Patrol 30 out of The Island at Lago Vista
OPERATIONS
There were no dive operations over Memorial Day weekend or the rest of May.
There was a water accident on the night of May 30 involving a boat collision off Emerald Point Marina. One of the boat occupants was missing and presumed down in the water. Dive Team members worked with the Sheriff's office and the DPS Dive Team but were unable to determine accurately where the collision took place. No dive operations were scheduled due to lack of a starting location and very deep water in the search area. The subject's body was recovered on June 11.
July 1998
TRAINING
On Saturday morning July 25 fourteen divers worked on bag lifting. Eight divers finished the heavy lifting requirements for the Search and Recovery Specialty while other divers tested and marked the 1000 and 2000 pound bags on the "wedding cake".
OPERATIONS
The July 4 weekend was pretty quiet due to rain on the 4th.
On Saturday July 18 at 3:13 pm the Dive Team was dispatched to Devil's Hollow for a drowning. A boy had jumped into the water from a houseboat anchored in the Hollow and had not surfaced. Divers from other agencies had attempted to search for approximately 45 minutes without success. Dive Team members established an organized search and recovered the subject at 4:22 pm after a short search in approximately 25 feet of water.
August 1998
TRAINING
The August training dive on August 15 saw several Team members finish the final requirements for the Search and Recovery specialty. We also did final practice of the rapid-deployment patterns to get ready for Labor Day.
LABOR DAY WEEKEND
We will have divers in the Sheriff's patrol boats over the Labor Day weekend. The schedule is different from the Memorial Day and July 4 holidays. There will be three boats operating staggered 10-hour shifts from 10 am to 2 am each day. Check the Labor Day Boat Schedule for the times and shifts available.
There will be an announcement on the pagers soon about how to sign up. Paul and Tim will be coordinating the schedule. Team officers are testing a new on-line Boat Schedule Manager, and the schedule on the web page is updated from there every fifteen minutes.
OPERATIONS
On Saturday July 18 at 3:13 pm the Dive Team was dispatched to Devil's Hollow for a drowning. A boy had jumped into the water from a houseboat anchored in the Hollow and had not surfaced. Divers from other agencies had attempted to search for approximately 45 minutes without success. Meanwhile Dive Team members determined a high probability search corridor from the boat's anchor configuration and wind direction. Lewis Thompson and Travis County Park Ranger Dean Miracle launched a hasty search of the high POA corridor while nine Dive Team members at the staging area prepared for a large area sweep. Thompson and Miracle recovered the subject at 4:22 pm in approximately 25 feet of water.
On Sunday August 16 at 2:05 pm the Dive Team was dispatched to the end of Imperial Drive to investigate and recover a reported vehicle in the water. A large contingent of Dive Team members responded. The first divers to reach the vehicle discovered a pickup truck that was empty, partly stripped, and deteriorating badly in the strong current. The vehicle had been reported stolen 3 months ago. It was decided to leave it where it was due to its fragile condition and nearly inaccessible location.
September 1998
TRAINING
The September Training Dive was on Saturday morning September 19 at 9:00 am at the Lake Travis Test Station.
BOATING SKILLS AND SEAMANSHIP CLASS
There will be a Coast Guard auxiliary Boating Skills and Seamanship class on Friday evenings in October. Times and dates are: 6:30 pm to 9 pm on October 9 and 6 pm to 9 pm on October 16, 23, and 30. Classes will be held at the new LCRA building on Lake Austin Blvd (across from Hula Hut). There is a charge of $15 for class materials, and the fee for the Parks and Wildlife card will be $10.
Call Mike Vandermate at (512) 244-7343 to arrange a seat and class material.
OPERATIONS
The Dive Team had one recovery operation over the Labor Day weekend. On Sunday September 6 at about 8pm the Team was dispatched to Windy Point park for a drowning recovery. The subject had last been seen wading about 100 feet from shore. Dive Team members riding in the Sheriff's Lake Patrol boats joined divers from LCRA and Travis County Parks in a hasty search without success. Meanwhile seven more Dive Team divers and four surface support personnel arrived and begam setting up for a large area search. Team members placed a PLS marker buoy with the help of a witness and set up a large circle search on the PLS marker. The subject was recovered in nine feet of water shortly after the search started.
October 1998
TRAINING
The October Training Dive was cancelled due to the extended operation at Camp Chatauqua October 10-12.
OPERATIONS
On Sunday October 4 at about 4:55 pm the Dive Team was dispatched to Windy Point. The subject had gone underwater a few minutes earlier and had not surfaced. Recreational divers at the park recovered the subject in 8 feet of water before Dive Team members arrived.
On Saturday October 10 at about 6 pm the Dive Team was dispatched to Camp Chatauqua near Pace Bend. One occupant of a boat involved in a serious collision was missing. Nine divers and surface personnel did three large circle searches in the area with no success. Search conditions were very difficult, with zero visibility, irregular bottom conditions, and many large underwater stumps and small trees. Operations resumed on Sunday morning October 11 with 12 divers and surface personnel. Divers did a long out-and-back sweep and three large circles, still with no success.
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| First arriving divers get briefed on the operation. | Lake Patrol 10 checks depth in the search area. | |
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| Divers discuss search strategy. | Setting up the surface communication console. | |
Dive operations were scheduled to resume at 8 am Monday morning October 12. The subject surfaced shortly before 8 am just as Dive Team members and a TCSAR water search dog finished investigating the search area. The subject was recovered in the day's search area and just outside the area searched on Saturday night and Sunday.
November 1998
TRAINING
The November training dive was on Sunday, November 15 at Windy Point Park. Twelve Team divers and surface support personnel practiced running a contour-based line pattern along the steep cliffs. Sheriff's office and County Parks personnel joined in on the surface and in the water. Divers enjoyed warm weather, comfortable water, and good visibility, probably for the last time this year.
NEW TEAM SHIRTS
| Steve Carlson has two prototypes of the new Team shirt, one in black and one in brown. They are knitted, with collar and pocket, and with the Team logo above the pocket. You can order the shirts at the Christmas party. The shirts are $22.50 each except size XXL which is $23.00. Here are closeups of the embroidery and how the shirts look on a dive operation. |
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OPERATIONS
There have been no operations in November.
December 1998
ELECTION RESULTS
Results of the Election of Officers for 1999 at the Christmas meeting and party:
| President: | Paul Eisman |
|---|---|
| Vice-President: | Tim Hoffman |
| Secretary-Treasurer: | Steve Carlson |
| Dive Team Captain: | Dennis Glover |
| Dive Team Lieutenant: | Lewis Thompson |
| Board Place 3: | Jon Crockett |
| Board Place 4: | Dean Woodley |
TRAINING
There is no scheduled training dive for December.PUBLIC SERVICE DIVE TEAM COMPETITION
The Texas state Public Service Dive Team Competition and Conference will be on March 14-16 in San Marcos. We will send a team to the competition again this year. Check your schedules for the next three months so we can schedule training at the January meeting. If local missing persons will cooperate, we can actually compete this year.OPERATIONS
There were no operations in December.
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