The Marker Buoy Dive Club of Seattle, WA is celebrating 50 years of exploring the waters of the planet in 2011. The club was started in 1961 by divers who enjoyed the fun and companionship of their fellow scuba fanatics.

Marker Buoy members have always found fun ways to share in their love of diving such as exploring new dive sites and gathering together with families and friends to have fun socially.

It is the members who drive the club; members who want to dive all around the Puget Sound, British Columbia and the waters of the world. We try to have great guest presentations at all of our monthly meetings. The Marker Buoys have seen some amazing things in our 50 years. The club has been around from Sea Hunt to Cousteau and on to the digital world of photography and video. We've seen the growth of diving technology.

It all got started back in 1961 when John (Jack) Miller and his wife, Alma decided to spin off from his job at Boeing and start a dive shop in the Ballard area of Seattle. John was active in the Boeing Seahorses Dive Club. He and some friends felt it would be a good thing to start a new dive shop on the Puget Sound. The Marker Buoy dive shop was begun. Like any good dive shop, a dive club was needed to help it along. The first name of our club was the, "Marker Boys" dive club and the current name, the Marker Buoy Dive Club, was adopted in mid-1970.

At the 50th anniversary of the Boeing Seahorses a few years ago, I was honored to meet Alma Miller. At the reception, Alma proudly showed me her jacket with the original Marker Boy patch still sewn in place. She and John made it possible for their legacy to go on in the diving community of Seattle through all the work they did.

Speaking of legacies! The world of dive travel would not be what it is today if it hadn't been for Marker Buoy member Bob Goddess and Tropical Adventures. Bob was one of the original divers to take travel and create it as a specialty for divers to find far-off adventures.

If you have a Dive Alert signaling horn on your BC, you can thank our own Marker Buoy member Dave Hancock for it. While looking at his Freon boat horn, he had a flash of inspiration. The Dive Alert was born! Jack Connick of Optical Ocean Sales is one of our long time members. Jack is a very accomplished underwater photographer and graphics artist. If you've opened a National Geographic publication and looked at some amazing underwater shots, chances are they are from old time club member, Stuart Westmoreland. He is one of the top "shooters" for NatGeo. Way to go Stuart!

In the world of dive medicine we have Dr. Ed Kay. We are proud of the fact that this well-known hyperbaric physician to the University of WA, Divers Institute of Technology, NOAA and other fine diving institutions is a long time member and friend to many of us at the Marker Buoy Dive club. There are many more folks in our membership who have gone on to make fine careers in the world of diving research, teaching, science, dive business owners, etc. All of them have been able to share those passions with this fun club.

It is all of the many wonderful, active scuba divers who are the back-bone of this dive club. So come on! Get Wet! Join the Marker Buoys for another fifty years of underwater adventures! For more info visit www.markerbuoydiveclub.org