Hi Rick,

Just found you guys on Facebook and liked your page. Love the magazine and all the dive information, especially the cold water diving sections.

We had read somewhere that you guys are seeking a diver of the year nomination? Not sure how to go about doing that or what information you need. My wife and I would like to nominate Peter Mieras and Kathy Johnson of Rendezvous Dive Adventures – if they can be named together? Looking at your Facebook page, you know who Peter and Kathy are, but I don’t know how formal you need this nomination or if they have already been nominated.

If you need a letter explaining why we think they are deserving let us know and we will write one. We appreciate your time and look forward to the next issues!

Marc and Angela Damant

Dear Marc and Angela,

We couldn’t agree more with your nomination! I wanted to share all of our emails like this for all of our nominees, but knew we would not have the space!  We were so lucky to receive such an outpouring of support of the local divers in the Pacific Northwest, and the selection committee struggled with who to pick. Eventually when we got right down to it, we realized it just wasn’t possible to give an award to each individual who works so hard for our local waters and dive community. We will definitely keep all of these emails and use them going forward.

Just as a note, the Diver of the Year selection committee is always accepting nominations throughout the year. We do appreciate a few words as to why you are nominating the person as well as the nominee and the nominators contact info. Just email me and I’ll make sure it goes in front of the panel before next year. This letter doesn’t have to be incredibly formal, just something quick will do.

To read more about this year’s winner, Diana Hollingshead, turn to page 28 in this edition, or see us at the Saturday Night Film Festival as part of the Dive & Travel Expo April 21 & 22 in Tacoma.

Thanks!
Rick
Oh, and our facebook page can be found at: www.facebook.com/nwdivenews

Dear Rick,

I am a frequent diver in the Monterey Bay area and I shoot dozens of photos every weekend. I was wondering if your magazine would be interested in any additional photos or maybe any article submissions.

Regards,
Marc

Hey Marc,

Thanks for taking the time to write! We absolutely LOVE submissions from our readers. Our entire purpose is to share the passion of diving locally, and who better to help us inspire other divers to dive in their backyard than those who dive there regularly?

There are a few venues for publication available to you, print or online.

If you want to see your article online, just submit us any length you want. A dive site review with photos. A unique story. A trip report from your last trip to Guadalupe. Any of these will be wonderful, especially if it’s something interesting (serious or comical or whatever). There is no limit on word count or the number of images. We can share these online at any time, and would love to. We have unlimited space online, and we’ll edit them so everything is spelled correctly and grammatically correct. We will keep the heart of your story though so don’t worry!

Getting into the physical magazine is a bit stricter due to space constraints. We have a few different types of stories you can share though.

Hot news brings a few short blurbs of local diving news to our readership. Found at the front of the magazine usually found on page 6, these are just quick news stories about an event that’s coming up (or happened) in the next (or last) month or so. They range from 40-100 words depending on the topic covered. This isn’t just about events. Sometimes we cover new diver congratulations, or updates to dive shops etc. As long as it’s relevant to the industry, we are happy to share!

Regional news items are similar to hot news, but consist of a few more images and a few more words. We really like to support local events and non-profit organizations with these, but again it’s all about relevant and interesting stories, but then again when isn’t diving an interesting event?

And of course, what every contributor wants to see is a feature length story. We will share all types of feature stories. Similar to the online submissions, we will take a dive site review of your last trip report or a funny assortment of diving anecdotes. The door here is wide open, but the problem is word count. We are limited on space in the print world, so these articles can only be 1200-1400 words. We do want to see photos with stories because of the personality photos can bring. However, we are happy to run an edited version with a link to the full version online.

We are always looking for great local content from our local divers, so please send us your stories. Email them to us and I’ll be happy to look them over. Who knows, you could find your story or photo on the cover next month!

Thanks,
Rick

Dear Rick,

I want to thank you for your support of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival held in Ann Arbor, Michigan last month. The GLSF went well again this year.  The good news is we had approximately the same amount of attendees in 2012 as we had in 2011. We had 300+ ticket holders and about 100 exhibitors and workers/volunteers. The really good news is we had a number of “NEW” attendees.

We handed out 3 boxes of Midwest Dive News at the event. At the Shipwreck Festival, we had a designated Dive News magazine hand out lady. I checked with her many times throughout the day. She handed out two of the boxes and started into the third box at the show. Of the remainder of the 3rd box, we gave half to a club in the Saginaw area and the other half to the Sea Lancers from Dearborn. They will distribute them to their club members at the next club meeting.

We do really appreciate the support of your magazine and you co-sponsoring the event.  I hope that this was satisfactory for you and I would like you to consider doing this sponsorship again next year. 

 Rudy Whitworth
GLSF Programming Committee

Dear Rudy,

Thanks for letting us know how your event went and thanks for “partnering” with us on it.  We want to support every event and we appreciate those groups who invite us to work with them. By supporting your event, we are doing our job and keeping up our mission, to help support and grow the local dive industry.  We wanted to attend the event and hand out our magazines ourselves but were unable to attend because of travel costs.. You thinking of us and handing out the magazine to your attendees is a great win-win and encourages us to keep doing these kind of partnerships.

We are looking for more events to support. Let everyone know we will support as many local events with news blurbs and stories in our magazine/website.  We want them to help us by handing out the magazine to their attendees.

We are all in this together.
Rick

By Pat Cline

Last February it was brought to the attention of shipwreck Salvors and metal-detecting enthusiasts that a Bill (SB-868) was pending in the Florida Senate that would adversely effect both professions. The only reason we learned about it was because Senator Hays of Florida was making amendments to it. By the time we found out, it had already been passed through the House and Senate and was now on Governor Rick Scott’s desk to be signed into law the following week and would go into effect July 1, 2012.

A massive write-in campaign through e-mail, Facebook and telephone calls had begun bombarding the Senator and the Governor with either vetoing the bill or retracting it. The Historic Shipwreck Salvage Policy Council, (HSSPC) a political action committee of Florida created in the mid 90’s to protect the rights of the professional Salvors, jumped into action and formulated its own amendments to the Bill and submitted it one half hour before the close of session on a Friday.

HSSPC, through a high-powered political consultant in Tallahassee, was able to get the Bill submitted and help notify all Senators of its admission. The following Monday, things were unusually quiet on the Senate floor regarding these new amendments. However, on Tuesday, our political consultant called saying Senator Hays would like to speak to us. A conference call was set up with HSSPC members, Taffy Fisher-Abt, James Sinclair, Gary Randolph, political advisor John Browning, and myself. After a serious but polite discussion, the Senator understood our concerns and then offered to retract his Bill. He also suggested that he would stay in contact with us on any further legislation concerning our professions.

We invited the Senator down to Key West for further talks and he gracefully accepted. It seems as though even after the recent debacle with Odyssey Marine having to return what we believe to be their lawful right to keep what they found, there was finally an opening for us to have a serious dialogue with government officials that hopefully stem the tide of most of the roadblocks legislators have been throwing at us. As Mel Fisher once said, “This must be a great country if a little guy like me can take my case to the highest court in the land, and WIN.”

Mel was right- “Today Is The Day!”

As chief videographer for Mel Fisher’s expeditions, Pat Clyne has been involved with the Atocha and Margarita recovery projects for over 35 years. In 1982, Clyne opened Paradigm Video Productions, which he still operates today. He has been involved in the production of many documentaries that can still be seen on T.V. He is the President of the Institute of Marine Archaeological Conservation (IMAC) and is actively engaged in various political conferences and debates involving the interests of the private salvor in researching and recovering our maritime heritage. Join the cause by going to http://tinyurl.com/USSRFL