Bay Area Divers celebrates 40th Anniversary
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PORT CLINTON - In 1983, a small group of scuba diving enthusiasts gathered at the Bellevue Recreation Center for the very first meeting of Bay Area Divers. The group was led by the late Joyce Hayward, a former fourth-grade teacher with Bellevue City Schools. Among the group were Ron Smith and Chris Walter, who are still members today.
In June, Bay Area Divers celebrated its 40th anniversary at Ala Carte After Hours in Port Clinton, and this fall, it will once again host the nationally recognized Shipwrecks and Scuba conference, an annual event that brings speakers and guests from across the country and Canada. The event is open to everyone, whether they dive or not.
Divers group draws nearly 300 to annual conference
“We draw about 300 divers and historians from all over,” said Jim “Curly” Wilson of Catawba. “Seven or eight years ago, Fabien Cousteau was a speaker, so we’ve had some pretty cool people over the years.”
This year’s keynote speaker is Ken Merryman, who will talk about “The Great Lakes Best Sidewheelers.” Sidewheeler steamers, which were mostly built in the mid-1800s, had wooden masts and hulls but iron hull frames, boilers and engines. Hundreds of sidewheel steamers were lost in the Great Lakes, but only three of them sit upright in the water, their engines and sidewheels still intact. Merryman will talk about the sidewheelers and their shipwreck stories.
Among the other six speakers is Kevin Ailes, who will share the history of the Porcupine, the ship captained by British naval officer Robert Heriot Barclay during the Battle of Lake Erie in waters near Put-in-Bay.
One speaker will review the the ship that traveled the Sandusky River
“Kevin Ailes’ program is very targeted to our area. He’ll talk about ships on the American and British side of Lake Erie,” said Bay Area Divers President Steve Michel. “Ailes is looking for the Porcupine. It was Barclay’s ship. He came up the Sandusky River in the Porcupine from the Battle of Fort Stephenson.”
The Shipwrecks and Scuba conference will be on Nov. 18 at Sawmill Creek Resort in Huron. Daytime programs will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The dinner program featuring Merryman’s talk will be at 7:30 p.m. Conference and ticket information can be found at shipwrecksandscuba.com.
Bay Area Divers members discussed the conference at its monthly meeting at Ala Carte After Hours on Sept. 28. Each month, the group meets at the restaurant for dinner, fellowship with fellow divers, and presentations by special guests. The September speaker was Hannah Michel from Fremont, who spoke about her diving internship in South Africa.
After the presentation, Walter, a retired Lakota teacher, spoke about his passion for diving. He has been diving since 1983.
"I read an ad in the Bellevue Gazette for diving lessons. My father was a frogman during WWII, so I thought it would be interesting to do,” Walter said. “I did my certification dive with manatees in Florida.”
Walter was the first secretary and is a former president and director of Bay Area Divers, and fellow founding member Smith is a former director. They were instrumental in organizing the first Shipwrecks and Scuba event.
Bay Area Divers is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing recreational dives for members and friends. Its mission is to promote the sport of scuba diving and diving safety. For more information, visit bayareadivers.net.
Contact correspondent Sheri Trusty at sheritrusty4@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Port Clinton News Herald: Bay Area Divers to hold annual conference Nov. 18 at Sawmill Creek
