Freedive-a-palooza II

[Jon]

Well,

It's getting to be that time of year again and we're getting ready for a repeat of last year's gathering. It will we the weekend of July 23+24, but I imagine that many of us will come up on Friday to maximize our time in the water.

This is not a comptetition, couldn't get the insurance and judges in for that this year, but a fun gathering of like minded divers. I was just up at the lake yesterday and surface temps were in the mid 70's (F). Vis was great both above and below the thermocline and there are plenty of lines and platforms for people to practice on- as well as fish cribs to explore in the shallows. Lake Wazee is the deepest (320') and clearest lake in the state. There's plenty of camping, and hotels, near by for people to stay at. Spearfishing is allowed, we even had an underwater target range set up last year, and we will have spearguns for people to try out if the have a current fishing license.

We didn't get anyone to donate any gear for us to try this year :waterwork , but between all of the divers who will be there we should pretty much have all the bases covered- from carbon fiber fins to DPV's.

If you want to read about last year's event check out this link: http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?t=38881&highlight=freedive-a-palooza

and this one: http://www.deeperblue.net/article.php/567/20



Jon

 

[fjohnson]

hey jon,, my brother and I are still planning the trip.. I've been dealing with a busted ear drum for the last 2wks and a half... not from diving (although I knew something was going on when I was diving a few days before) but from an ear infection.. doc told me today that it's healed over so I take it I can get back into the water this weekend. Still feels kinda plugged on the backside of the drum though. just been workin' like crazy on the house still!!! were taped, textured, and painted upstairs and we'll start the flooring next week. basement is getting mudded now.

APALOOZA ---- ALRIGHT!!! Later
Fred

 

[srmccall]

I am planning on attending..... It will be nice to meet some other freedivers from the Wisconsin/Illinois area.


Seth

 

[srmccall]

I am bumping this...... Who is coming?

Seth

 

[Jon]

Last summer we had 12 freedivers and 12 scuba divers show up and hangout all weekend. This year the response seems greater as I have been getting emails from more people whom I've never met before and are planning on showing up.

Jon

 

[khel]

I have to work on 23d and 24th :vangry :waterwork

Now, the question is, how late are you planning on being there? Cause I think I can manage to show up by 5 p.m.

 

[Jon]

If you read through last year's write up you'll find that we camp out and stay overnight. Last year we set up a screen in the campground and watched the BIg Blue. I'll have to see what I can come up with for this year's movie.....


Jon

 

[Margo Femrite]

Hey Jon, I'm glad to hear that so many are interested. I assume this will mean there will be a Freedive-a-palooza III, so I can come by next summer after senior year.
Wish I could be there this year though...<pout>

 

[Jon]

Time is coming close for another great weekend.

I was in a local lake today with 77 degree surface water and plenty of vis- for this area. When I was last up to Wazee, two weeks ago, we had surface temps in the mid to high 70's (F) and vis of over 30'.

I am going to try and get up there again Firday afternoon like I did last year. Fred, when are you and your brother going to get there? If you can make it on Thursday again and save a nice group camp site for us that would be pretty sweet! :thankyou There are also plenty of hotels close by for the "camping impared".

We will be up all weekend for those who can just make it part of the time. There is even some really nice night diving to do there- I know I jumped in for a night dive one night last year and saw a ton of fish last year- plus, I got too spook out a few bubble blowers as well.

Thermoclines don't start, for real, until you get to 30' so even newbies can jump in and not worry about a wetsuit. We'll have a few extras, and I should have my new suit from Spiros by then as well, so Fred and I can outfit a small army, or would that be a navy, with all the extra gear we have.

Unfortunately we didn't get any demo gear this year like we did last year- we'll have to work on that a bit harder for next year. Still plenty of fins, spearguns, and other toys to go around.

Jon

 

[fjohnson]

hey Jon,
I doubt I'll make it thursday night.. but friday is on the list and I hope that works out.. my brother is being vague on getting there because of the fly-in at Oshkosh at the same time. My ears doing great... I've been slacking so much on the diving I have got to get to Wazee. Plan is to start hitting some depths around here before the apalooza, just need my brother for support though.. the explorer is still full of equipment so I can help out with gear too.
Later,
Fred

 

[island_sands]

this is a question i have been to shy to ask... for years!!!

What the the hell is "A-Palooza"???

Time is coming close for another great weekend.

I was in a local lake today with 77 degree surface water and plenty of vis- for this area. When I was last up to Wazee, two weeks ago, we had surface temps in the mid to high 70's (F) and vis of over 30'.

I am going to try and get up there again Firday afternoon like I did last year. Fred, when are you and your brother going to get there? If you can make it on Thursday again and save a nice group camp site for us that would be pretty sweet! :thankyou There are also plenty of hotels close by for the "camping impared".

We will be up all weekend for those who can just make it part of the time. There is even some really nice night diving to do there- I know I jumped in for a night dive one night last year and saw a ton of fish last year- plus, I got too spook out a few bubble blowers as well.

Thermoclines don't start, for real, until you get to 30' so even newbies can jump in and not worry about a wetsuit. We'll have a few extras, and I should have my new suit from Spiros by then as well, so Fred and I can outfit a small army, or would that be a navy, with all the extra gear we have.

Unfortunately we didn't get any demo gear this year like we did last year- we'll have to work on that a bit harder for next year. Still plenty of fins, spearguns, and other toys to go around.

Jon

 

[Jon]

Lollapalooza: noun. slang. an extraordinary gathering of people.

Freedive-A-palooza: noun. slang. an extraordinary gathering of freedivers in the Midwestern part of the United States.


Jon

 

[Observer]

There used to be a big summer heavy metal rock concert festival tour every summer in the US called "Lollapalooza." Jon's mutated that name into this event by the looks of it. Where the concert people got that name from, I've no idea.

 

[srmccall]

Jon,

Will there be any issues with not having a dive flag? I am currenty waiting for my new one to come in and dont know if it will be here on time for the weekend......


Seth

 

[Jon]

The concert promotors got the name from an old "Three Stooges" movie.

Jon

 

[Merlin]

Off topic: Jon, I don't know why but that picture of you is hilarious to me.... it's like you are trying to sneak into the picture "hey look at me too" Good luck with the "palooza"

 

[fjohnson]

hey seth.. er..srmccall, no sweat on the dive flag.. not needed for snorkeling and no motor boats around anyway.
Fred

 

[crusty]

Just a side note the band that started the Lollapolozza thing was Janes Addiction.
One of my favourites
http://www.janesaddiction.com/janesaddiction.html


Crusty

 

[Jon]

I, finally, have a free moment to discuss where I got the goofy name. I believe that Lollapalooza was orginally pulled out of a Three Stooges movie. It meant to type of "unique gathering of people", or something to that effect. Some rock bands in the 90's used it to label their music festival, which was bigger than just a single band's concert.

When I came up with the idea I knew that I needed a different name. That's because we weren't doing typical event that you read about on this site- either a spearfishing competition or a depth/ time/ distance competition.

Our idea was to get a bunch of freedivers together for a fun weekend of diving. All of the divers happened to live in an area with a pretty sparse population of freedivers- I think that we're drawing from a 4-5 state area this year from the emails that I've been getting. It seemed the best way to conect with as many people as possible.

Last year we had a bunch of donated demo gear that all of the divers got to try, and which we eventually sent to others to demo or sold off for the companies who donated. Tougher economy this year and no, donated, demo gear. We still all have our own dive lockers to draw from and can outfit many divers at once.

So, Freedive-A-Palooza just seemed like a fun name for a fun event. To grow the sport I think we need to emphasize a little more of the fun aspects to get people involved. Sure, competitions are great to follow, just like watching the Tour de France, but your average biker isn't going to be the next Lance Armstrong and still enjoys the sport- I think the same needs to be said for freediving. The more fun events that we can have, along with the comps, the more people we can attract. the same can be said for biking- for every sanctioned race there's ten times as many fun rides going on out there.

Hope to see lots of you up there this weekend.

Jon

 

[Jon]

It was a great weekend with another dozen or so freedivers who showed up- many new faces from last year.

I imagine that if we got everyone together from this area, we had divers coming in from 4 states as it was, that we could easily get three dozen people to attend. Then, there were those of us who got up there late due to family/ job reasons.

We had lots of people set personal bests over the two days that we were there- the counter balance retrieval system was a nice addition this year.

We also did some nice long swims to areas of the lake that no scuba diver has probably ever touched- since the long swim would be prohibitive. Plus, it was a really great way to keep cool in the 100(F) degree heat.

We played with the bass in the fish cribs and also tested the mood of a nice snapping turtle. Lots of gear for everyone to try out and I know that Ted had a blast dive bombing the tec divers with my scooter. rofl

Here's a few shots from the weekend.

jon