1st Regional Event...Athens May 21-23 2004, Come see what all the fun was about! Options

[zendiver]

Athens Event - May 21-23

Greetings gang! Sorry that I didn't get the opportunity to post any pictures this past weekend as I was kept pretty busy. I was however able to log on, thanks to Dejah and her cool wireless toys, and check in to see if there was anything that needed immediate attention. Glad to see that there were no technical issues this weekend while all of us were away.

First of all, I would like to thank Jim, WW, and Dejah for putting this event together. I believe it was a HUGE success and looking forward to doing it again. There is talk about making this a monthly or semi-regular event, but WW will give more details on that when we get everything worked out. I would also like to thank EVERYONE for coming out. to have fun and to help support SingleDivers.com! So we have a few awards for people who were there!

BluBlood (Gar) gets the "Long Distance" award for traveling the furthest to the event flying in from New Mexico, Dandy Don gets the "Last Minute" award for making the 900 mile round trip for one day on the spur of the moment, and B2B gets the "Better Late then Never" award driving in after working all day from Arkansas. Leslie and Angela get the "Right Place at the Right Time" award for showing up at Athens just when WW happened to be in the dive shop and discovered that they were single and didn't know anyone at the park...boy did she hook them up! 'Chie, DiveCutie, ScubaHoney and ScubaBK get the "Angel Patience" award for spending most of the weekend modeling wetsuits in 90+ weather and STILL smiling even when several of the shoots had to be repeated! The local divers sure loved the fact that our angels were modeling MOST of the weekend...I know I did! Kim aka FinGrabber (make that BIG MALE FINS ONLY...) gets the "Funniest" award cuz she kept us all in stitches this weekend but ESPECIALLY WW. GLPirate and CyclingMike get the "Photog" awards for being our official resident photographers not only of the angels but also of the rest of the event! Wayne gets the "Best Decision" award cuz he cancelled OTHER diving plans to come and dive with us! GLPirate and Narwhal get the "Best Cooks" awards for bringing fried chicken and bbq fixens not to mention our morning java respectively. Sunlover gets the "Roughing It" award for sleeping without a tent and air mattress the first night...boy he NEEDED the hot tub the next day! Sandy-Ke gets the "Almost Shy" award...she tried to be shy all weekend but just couldn't make it...I guess she'll be an angel in no time! Marc YogaBoy gets the "How do I get THAT job" award...he was picked to model with the Angels in a number of shots....hey WW...I think you need to work on agent contracts for this gang! Cycling Mike also gets the "Tool Time" award for having the best camping tools...now now ladies...you JUST had to be there to know exactly what tools we are talking about! Scuba Texan gets the "Early Bird" award for being the first one there on Friday...almost before the organizers! Marc aka TekDiver gets the "Most Toys" award for bringing a TRAILOR of dive gear which he also helped to explain to people...dive with people...set up the navigation course for people and of course serve and drink beer with people! Gena gets the "Artistic" award...ya just had to be there for that one and of course there were more people who joined as we grew in size this weekend! And yes...WW gave me Zendiver the "DeFeathered Angel Carrier" award as I was revealed this weekend or was that defeathered this weekend??? and I had to eat my words and carry an angel AND two tanks at the same time. Thank goodness she only made me carry her to the car and not all the way around the lake!!!

Thanks you ALL for the tremendous support you showed for making the long journey and for coming to have a great time with some really great divers and new friends!

Now I will attempt a trip report of the event along with some photos:
I left the Houston area approximately at 4pm on Friday as I wanted to make sure that I made it to Applebees to meet everyone for dinner. Traffic was lite so I made it to Athens just prior to 7pm and checked in at the park. Some had already left for Applebees while others were getting ready to leave. I had the pleasure of meeting a quite few of our members before leaving to go to dinner and then a LOT more once we all arrived. Applebees was packed that night so needless to say, we had to wait quite a while for our table. That was ok with me as that gave us all some time to get to know one another. Below is a group shot of the majority of who went to dinner:

(Left to Right)
Gina, cyclingmike31, BluBlood, Narwhal, WreckWench, sunlover, Scubatexan (from ScubaBoard), fingrabber, sandy-ke, waitress, Dejah


After dinner, we went back to the park and then several of us went to the pool/hot tub area. We had a blast there until Calvin (owner of Athens) decided that it was time to call it a night at 2:30 am. I personally think it was because he figured out that he couldn't hang with us any longer.

Saturday morning consisted of breakfast, diving, photo shoot (Angels in their new Pinnacle wetsuits), more diving, lunch, more diving, then we all went back to the office for the Scuba Radio interview. If you havn't heard the interview, Click Here (3.18MB).

Later that day, we had a fantastic dinner: brisket, ham, turkey (all smoked) and then we all went diving (do you see a trend here?) That evening consisted of everyone sitting around getting to know one another and telling dive stories. Before we knew it, it was already after midnight.

Here are some images of our very own Angels modeling the wetsuits:











Other photos:
(BlueBlood and finGrabber)
[img]http://www.singledivers.com/surfaceinterval/uploads/events/athens/Gar&Kim.jpg[/img]

Our very angel scubacutie and Calvin (owner of Athens Scuba Park)
[img]http://www.singledivers.com/surfaceinterval/uploads/events/athens/scubacutie&Calvin.jpg[/img]

Bubbles2Bubbles and Dejah
[img]http://www.singledivers.com/surfaceinterval/uploads/events/athens/b2b&dejah.jpg[/img]

BlueBlood and Dejah
[img]http://www.singledivers.com/surfaceinterval/uploads/events/athens/blueblood&dejah.jpg[/img]

Dandy Don and B2B
[img]http://www.singledivers.com/surfaceinterval/uploads/events/athens/DDon&B2B.jpg[/img]

Fingrabber and Sunlover
[img]http://www.singledivers.com/surfaceinterval/uploads/events/athens/fingrabber&sunlover.jpg[/img]

The Gang


SandyKe and Wayne
[img]http://www.singledivers.com/surfaceinterval/uploads/events/athens/sandyke&wayne.jpg[/img]

SandyKe coming out of shyness


Shannon, Calvin (owners) and Wayne
[img]http://www.singledivers.com/surfaceinterval/uploads/events/athens/shannon&calvin&wayne.jpg[/img]

Athen Scuba Park


Our campsite

[triggerfish]

what a great bunch o' pix, zd!!!!
angels, you are ALL even MORE GORGEOUS than your pictures suggest, and i now for SURE hate EACH OF YOU!!!

wish i coulda been there. i was diving in my own quarry here in chicago.

and zen, er, i mean SPICEBOY.....prepare yourself, my dear. july fast approacheth.

[DandyDon]

Hey ZD, super report and gallery!! Have you been awake since we broke camp yersterday working on this?

Good meeting ya', too; look forward to diving with you someday - after I get better. Don't wanta' embarrass myself too much... :anna2:

[WreckWench]

I'd just like to add my own personal THANK YOU! to everyone who made the event and for those that tried but couldn't make it. No Pressure called to say that he had surgery the night before and couldn't make it! My question was...what the heck were you operating on so late at night...must be a medical thing!!! LOL!!!

Several others called to say they couldn't make it... Bandit was one...so my only reply is....boy did you all miss out on some REALLY cool fun! But we'll have some more of these soon and they will be even better!!!

First Athens....and then other parts of the country and then the WORLD!!! <Spoken in my best Austin Powers voice!>

Great job on the report ZD....and just so you all know....here is the rule about ZD...

1. Any unauthorized pictures taken of ZD (and all pics of him were unauthorized) shall remain the private property of the owner! No resale, bribing, or distribution of any sort will be allowed!

2. The ONLY way to see ZD is to attend a SD event that he is attending. Let me assure you that many people think that just ZD makes the trip worthwhile! So if that is true...the next trip happens to be the 4th of July in Morehead City NC....our own Mr. Red White and Blue will being doing the 4th right!!! Will you be doing it with us?

3. Since ZD is rumored to be as good looking as he was 'built up' to be...yes pun intended...then I doubt the guys will want anymore competition and therefore will not break rule #1 and the girls won't want to share ZD with anyone so therefore will not break rule #1.

4. Anyone breaking rule number one will most likely suffer from terminal computer problems. I'm worried that the response time will also suffer since ZD is the only one who can fix your account issues and he might not be too excited about helping someone who has posted, published, distributed, etc. pictures of him when he has expressely asked that you not do so.

5. Please help keep our own IMOM...International Man of Mystery just that...Mysterious! Come see for yourself what the hoopla is about and I thank you for playing nice in the SingleDivers.com sandbox!!!

P.S. for those that don't know...ZD is a competitive body builder and that arena is very cut-throat. It is his wish and our command that no pictures be taken of him...published of him...traded, sold or otherwise distributed of him! And yes...we will honor his request...after all he does for us keeping the website going...he is our webgod and we will obey!! LOL!!!

[zendiver]

Thanks all....it was definitely a blast that needs repeating. I am up for it, anyone else?

Don, thanks for the kind words, but I did most of the editing of the photos while we were still in Athens. I just tightened them up this morning and then wrote and posted the report.

For those of you that were unable to attend, we look forward to your coming out to the next one.

-ZD

[Marvel]

Thanks all....it was definitely a blast that needs repeating. I am up for it, anyone else?

Don, thanks for the kind words, but I did most of the editing of the photos while we were still in Athens. I just tightened them up this morning and then wrote and posted the report.

For those of you that were unable to attend, we look forward to your coming out to the next one.

-ZD

Great report ,oh mighty webgod!! Thanks for the pics & details. Wish I could have been there :dltears: but we did the best we could here in S Fl!

[triggerfish]

BTW, zen...who was the pecs...i mean the GUY in the picture with the angels

This post has been edited by triggerfish: May 24 2004, 07:02 PM

[scubahoney]

BTW, zen...who was the pecs...i mean the GUY in the picture with the angels

heehee that's yogaboy/nerd.

[nextariel]

Great Report and Pics! You guys were having as much fun as it sounded. Those 'girls' are adorable! And the rest of you don't look tooooo bad yourselves. For the next one can you move Texas closer to Florida?

[Dejah]

Great Pic's guys!!! and a personal thank you to everyone who helped throughout the weekend... I had a blast! To those who weren't able to make it, I hope you see you on our next event at Athens, we all surely missed you there! :dltears:

Dejah

[chinacat46]

Looks like a great time. Good job on the pics and report ZD.

[divecutie]

thanks for the report ZD! and thanks for picking the good pics!

[Dejah]

thanks for the report ZD! and thanks for picking the good pics!

Divecutie, All the pictures of you 3 Angels were good!!

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm ready to do this again....but for longer next time I had too much fun!

Dejah

[DandyDon]

From before the trip...

Hey Don, Maybe you can make some extra money renting out some of the gear in your mobil dive shop!!!

And as a matter of fact, I did supply Gar's Octo-holder after his quit.

[scubahoney]

Yeah, someone provided me with extra weights...someone else with a light...and someone else with..um...what else did I need?!