The Com Line

What a great day!!! The Labor Day Rally held at the L.A. Maritime Museum on September 4^th was as near perfect as we could have wished for including a clear blue sky and a light breeze blowing across the harbor. There was a constant flow of guest watching from the observation deck as CaCED members put on 'the show' diving from the museum's tug Angel's Gate tied up in the L.A. harbor.

A demonstration dive by Torrance Parker, CaCED member and author of "20,000 Jobs Under the Sea" was the highlight of the day. Mr. P's tender was his old friend, Gunner Overall, who is an outstanding diver in his own right. Using his new DESCO sponge helmet and Yokohama dress, he jumped from the tug into the water and with the effortless ease of a real pro, demonstrated to both the guest and fellow CaCED members alike how it is done! Coming to the surface and waving to the crowd brought cheers and applause from everyone including his grandchildren who were on the observation deck for their first chance to see grandpa dive. Borrowing Mr. P's gear and expert tender, Dr. William "Pete" Lee, the museum's director, then took his turn going into the water.

During the day 13 men took their turn "getting wet" using a variety of helmets including both a DESCO and a Schrader MkV, a TOA 3-light, and a Chinese 12-bolt. Charlie Orr had also brought along his Morse 3-light that once belonged to Lou Lentz. Charlie's air compressor (See Issue 4) kept up a steady and reassuring 'thrumppp' throughout the day. Among these 13 men were several working commercial divers including Tracy Howard from Chicago - having traveled the most distance, John Durham from the San Francisco Bay area, and Danny Carr from San Diego. Other men who dove during the day included Rick Eriksen, 'Big Al' Pilkington, Jocko Robinson, Dale Eriksen, Mark Howell, Ed Marill, Duke Drake and Charlie Orr. Al Perez also participated in the days activities, as well as James Trudeau from the College of Oceaneering

A nice display of helmets and diving memorabilia on the observation deck was hosted by Capt. Ed White, retired Master Diver who visited with the guest and explained the procedures used to dress-in the divers on the tug. The helmet display included a Divin Hood owned by the Museum, John Durham's 1917 MkV reconditioned by Bob Kirby, Leslie Leaney's (HDS) 1910 5-bolt that once belonged to E.R. Cross, Torrance Parker's 4-light commercial that he used back in the 50's, and his new Greek sponge helmet - hand pounded into wooden molds, as well as Charlie Orr's Morse MkV Helium helmet.

Cameras of every type clicked away throughout the day so that we now have some great pictures to add to the website, plus a couple of video's for viewing. Ed Marill e-mailed some digital pictures which are now up and running on the website. Al Pilkington got some great close up shots. Leslie Jacobs practically wore her two cameras out as she dashed about on the tug and Dorothy Barstad, using a telescoping lens, snapped away from the observation deck. It will take some time to get a selection of each persons photos scanned and loaded onto the website but the 'big plan' is to set up a web page for each persons photos since they were taken from such different angles and distances.

The fact that the day went so well can only be attributed to the planning and work done by everyone involved. It is difficult to single out specific people who deserve a special thanks as everyone there in some way contributed to the overall success of the Rally. Leslie Jacobs was certainly instrumental in making the contacts with Dr. Lee and making the arrangements for use of the tug. The dive helmets, dress, air hoses and weights were loaned by Charlie Orr, Duke Drake and Rick Eriksen. Charlie's air compressor was backed up by Jocko Robinson's (Dive 'n' Surf in Redondo Beach) loan of 2 tanks of air and 'The Deck Apes' - Mom Orr, Rhonda Drake and Dorothy Barstad, packed sack lunches to feed those unable to break for lunch. Of course, no one can forget Torrance Parker's willing participation in all the preparation and the day's activities, as well as Gunner Overall, Capt. Ed White and Dr. Lee. "Hats off" to everyone!!!

California Classic Equipment Divers was formed by Charlie Orr and Duke Drake just over one year ago. Four successful rally's have been held, three at the College of Oceaneering in Wilmington. The controlled environment afforded by the college's relatively safe diving tanks gave members the opportunity to get some experience diving the heavy gear. The fourth, and grand finale of the year, was the Labor Day Rally held at the L.A. Maritime Museum on September 4, diving from the tugboat Angel's Gate.

Other activities this year included several members attending the "Dive into History" held at Carmel in October '98 and an educational display set up at the Yuma Crossing State Historical Park in Arizona. The display was to honor Al Christie and his crew who worked on the construction of an inverted siphon on the Colorado River Irrigation Project in the early 1900's.

Membership has grown from seven members at the first rally to 40 at this time. The Com Line, a newsletter for the group, is now being mailed to 70 members and friends. A website for the group at >www.geocities.com/Pipeline/Halfpipe/4507, has also grown to include back issues of the Com Line, pictures taken at all the rally's, a three-part interview with Torrance Parker, as well as links to other websites such as Jim Boyd's NEWEG page, the HDS USA, and others.

The year has passed quickly. We had a lot of fun; met some great people that we would not have met otherwise and are looking forward to continuing on into the new millennium.

The Rest of the Story . . .

Actually an unofficial dive was held in August '98 which no one wants to talk about, least of all Charlie and Duke. This is referred to as the "Parking Lot Dive"

After making contact with the College of Oceaneering for the first rally, Duke and Charlie made arrangements to meet at the Santa Barbara City College for a practice session dressing-in. This was done so, hopefully, no one would guess how inexperienced and inapt they were at standard gear diving.

The BIG day arrived. But, instead of the usual cool, coastal marine layer, it was a sweltering 90º and to their dismay the Marine Tech department was closed for the weekend. Deciding to go ahead with their practice session anyway, they begin sitting up in the parking lot using two tanks of air they had rented for the day.

They laid their new air hose out over the hot, black-topped parking lot and proceeded with dressing-in. With rivulets of sweat running down the sides of their faces, they each did several dress-ins before actually putting on the helmet and turning on the air. By this time the air hose had "warmed" to a toasty temp to give them a few additional degrees inside the dress.

So there they were - fully dressed in 140 lbs. of heavy gear on a 90º day in a hot, blacktopped parking lot with their furnace feed air swishing around inside their helmets.

HDS USA & California State Reserve at Pt. Lobo held their 4th Annual Dive Into History on October 16th. Dick Anderson (Gold Diving in The Rivers of California) and Bill Wilson (Shipwrecks of Northern California) - were speakers during the afternoon. Several members of the CaCED attended and we hope to have a report and some pictures for the next issue of the Com Line.

Copyrights - We (Charlie Orr) have applied for copyrights on the logos for our name, the newsletter name, and abbreviations used (CCED & CaCED) by the group. This takes several months but hopefully will be granted by early spring.
Display in Yuma - We are planning to set up an educational display the last 2 weeks of November at the Yuma Crossing State Park again in honor of Al Christie who worked on the Colorado River Irrigation Project. We have also obtained an old dress (circa 1910) that once belonged to Oliver Shannon who was a diver from Eureka Bay in the early 1900's. Mr. Shannon's grandson, Dan Dumas, has given us the dress to present to Yuma Crossing Park to be part of a permanent display. The dress will be donated in their names.
Good PR - We had write up's in both the HDS USA 'Historical Diver' magazine this past month and a full page article in the HDS UK publication 'Historical Times' as part of their 'Around the World In Dated Ways' If you get a chance, be sure to check out both articles.
Letter from Tracy Howard - We recently received a letter from Tracy telling us that he will be working a job for the Underwater Historical Society in Chicago. He will be digging under the mud in the Chicago River to locate artifacts from a ship that sunk in 1912. Tracy will keep us posted on what he finds.
Rally's - (1) We are hoping to hold another rally at the College of Oceaneering sometime in mid-January participating in their Student Appreciation Day - date pending. (2) Also, Duke Drake along with Dr. Sam Miller of Pismo Beach, is in the process of setting up a rally at the Harford Pier at Avila Beach. We will be meeting with Bob Kirby at the Dive into History to discuss making this a combined rally with his Santa Barbara group. No date set as yet, but again, we will keep you posted. (3) We have also meet with Dr. Lee to discuss future rally's at the Maritime Museum. Plans are to make this an annual Labor Day Rally.
Retirement - Charlie Orr will be retiring after 27 years working for Mobil Oil. His retirement is set for Oct. 31st. Congratulations Bud!!!

Al was the first person to call Duke and Charlie when organization of the CaCED group began in August '98 (member #3). He is also a member of HDSUSA. Al, an avid surfer and SCUBA diver, prefers the 1950's double hose gear and often shows up for our rally's with his classic SCUBA gear to take underwater pictures of the standard gear divers. He is also becoming proficient with the heavy gear. He stated, "I am either on the water or under it!"

Born in 1963, in Auckland, New Zealand, Al left home at 15, ending up in Australia. From there he moved to Hong Kong! - later returning to Australia. (Al's uncle, Peter Field, is secretary of HDS Australia).

Al moved to the US in 1994, following his career in the movie industry as a free lance model designer and builder. He worked on the recent movie "Titanic" and has worked in several other films and movies. He does commercial dive work as well.

Al's hobbies include SCUBA diving, surfing, free diving, history, early aviation and aero space, photography and he loves animals. Several of his photos have appeared in Historical Diver Magazine and The Com Line. Al lives in Lawndale, California and spends most of his free time diving with his buddy's, Mark Howell, Al Perez and Jocko Robinson.

We now have a T-shirt design for members (& spouses) only. The shirts will not be sold outside the group nor used as door prices as they are to specifically ID CaCED members. The shirts are grey with the "diver" graphic and the group name on the back - a small "diver" and your name printed on the front with CCED under it. Printing is all in black.

Cost for the shirts mailed will be $15.00 for a large or x-large, $16.00 for xx-large, $1.00 additional for each x after that. If you are interested in having a shirt made to wear to our events, send your name, address, size and the name you want printed on the front. Send with check to Dorothy Barstad, 13119 47th Ln., Yuma, AZ 85367-6413. This is at cost with Dor using her lunch hour to do the foot work involved in getting the shirts made and mailed.

There were several real concerns about diving in the L.A. Harbor and extra precautions were taken to assure the safety of the divers. One problem was the deep layer of mud and silt on the bottom and the possibility of a diver getting stuck.

Of course, the inevitable happened -
Dale Eriksen called to his tender, Tracy Howard, "Tracy, I'm stuck!"
Tracy promptly responded, "How deep."
Back came Dale's reply, "Up to my ankles."
With a puzzled look on his face, Tracy said, "So! - What's the problem?"
"I'm on my head!" cried Dale.

A special - Thanks! - to Ric Koellner at DESCO. During the past year Ric has often given us a hand with our equipment, helped us solve various problems and answered numerous questions.

Also, I would like to personally thank Ken Downy at Morse Diving Equipment for the fine job they did on my Morse 3-light and Erik Bakker at "Antiques of the Sea" in Sunset Beach for helping us in obtaining some of the equipment we use at the rally's. ~ Charlie Orr