:
Trinity's name is still on the label,
he couldn't handle his defeat so he took all the prizes off the table.
We don't need to play for trophies, prizes, or money,
'cause beating you at your own game is still much sweeter than honey!
;D ;D ;D
Who votes for most unusual anchor? Terry, the designated driver offer still stands ;D Team Isanti (Winners) will put together some
consolation(loser) prizes. ;D
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Let's see,,,,,,,,could a rhyme, be in order,
"TRINITY" gets pulled from the label, and you think all the prizes, "stayed", on the table, dude, you DO, live in a fable. :
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OK, the Impulse is finally BACK, she's been tested both in Superior and Minnetonka, its time to BRING ON THE PRIZES, ( I was just going to split up my recovered anchors between Nate and John) but thought that wasnt enough for all their effort, so I'm thinking some trips out to some wrecks in the big lake for the wieners, whoops, I mean winners, along with some fine grilling on board the Impulse, to those two slippery, I mean stellar divers from Isanity Co. Nate and John. I'm not bothered by the fact that most everyone I know feels they actually "stole" the win, on a technicality, thats beside the point, but hey, thats whats makes America great! I mean obviously Steve and I and Joe and Robert, the "G MEN", were much more efficient, at finding anchors, making us the true winners. Heres a pic and you can see the beaming pride in our faces the very last day and dive of the competition, Steve indicating his rightful place, and well, me just holding my huge tool. Much as Nate and John dropped the hammer, its time to bury the hatchet on my first icing challenge, and not in anyones forehead either :-\. Nate and John, Steve, Young Joe, Robert, Tulle, and myself, along with judges Christie, Bob, Angie and Patrick, it's been a good first year, it was a DANDY GOOD TIME! Some 200+ anchors were recovered, along with a bunch of lures and other jun,,,,stuff, lots was learned, I mean I myself was taught a bunch, hitting it that hard all winter long, like, dont dive a partially opened valve under the ice, dont hook fishermen lines, dont try to bring back more then 25 pounds of anchors without a lift bag, ESPECIALLY after, giving the signal to haul me out, dont cut the block with the saw blade angled in (that SUCKED!) There was a lot of cool people to meet too, the two guys who landed their plane on the ice to see what we were doing wrecking on Minnetonka, the family who stopped their snowmobiles to bs with us on Orchard Lake and we compared engine size with a young kid whose snowmobile had a 125cc engine verses my saw having a 95cc engine. There were "unique" people to meet too, like the old guy on Minnetonka, who was sure underwater video of the 5 (all female) therefore no offspring, Norwegian river sturgeon brought by James J. Hill from the Mississippi to Tonka many years ago would be worth at least $200,000, he estimated them to be 8-14' long :-\.
In all seriouseness, CONGRATS, JOHN AND HATE! whoops NATE! you guys did a stellar job! Let me know a weekend or two this summer your both available we can go out wrecking. Look forward to having you both on board. I know Steve wont but if I have to hang over the side, even if its totally calm, its only due to the waves
TRINITY
Curious what lessons learned the rest came up with, if you get a chance
Welcome back! I was wondering when you would crawl out from under your rock and make your appearance. I did warn you that your fall from the top would be brutal. The combination of the hickory switch beatings, being defeated by the [glow=red,2,300]master dive plan[/glow], and the crescendo that led up to the :o :o :o shock and awe :o :o :o, must have stung a little. "That's just your pride messing with you, ........ " Neo says relax......
Tissue?
lessons learned, play for bragging rights, it's way better than money, I think even sweeter than honey.
It would be pretty nice to get back Isle royal...
I guess if I had to do it all again... I probably wouldn't. It sure was fun all along the way, but In the end there are no "winners"... just a bunch of hard feelings and confusion. To me competition is all about winning or losing, or why would someone keep score if it didn't matter. So about the lessons learned:
1. I would have changed tactics earlier, and focused on the creek and river inlets to the lakes instead of focusing on visual landmarks on shore, combined with a nice drop-off's just off shore from these landmarks. Some of these natural fishermen 'draws' worked pretty well, but the real honey holes were just offshore from creeks where the early open water every spring would attract fish, and therefore attract fishermen. The more fishermen attracted to one area - the greater congregation of anchors. The "Ace in the Hole Dive" we did that produced 20 anchors in one hole was one of these honey holes near a creek inlet. I think now that the dust has settled on that fateful dive, it is safe to say that that has to be a state record (being there is no one claiming more... I make this claim).
2. To do it again, I would have had more fun and focused less on productivity. We had fun Nate and I. I think the G-men had fun too, but we were too busy to notice. Every time I would jog to the truck to get a piece of gear, Nate would tell me: "Relax, We have all day". We had the 'early bird gets the worm' mentality, and we would usually meet at the landing at 7:00 AM. Towards the end of the season as the sun would come up earlier, we would meet at 6:00 AM. I remember being at the bar one Friday night for my wife's Christmas party. It was getting close to midnight and I was getting crabby because I knew that I had a commitment to meet Nate at the landing at 6:00, and that would mean I would need to get up in 5 hours to schlep my gear into the Jeep in 15 below weather. Or the Thin Ice Training dive we had set up with the Safety Rescue and the Lindstrom Fire Department on the 11th of December. These emergency personell all bailed at the last minute because the weather was so bad. We went diving anyway in a pretty nasty blizzard (the one that took out the roof of the Metro Dome). To make the blizzard dive worse, I set up our hole over a moonscape and we scored zero anchors that day... Commitment? we had commitment.
3. I would have tuned up my snowmobile prior to the season, instead of waiting until we needed it for light transport in early December. If it was tuned up right, it would have had enough power to muscle through the 8" of slush on Forest lake instead of slowing to the point of almost getting stuck. Then Nate would not have had to jump off a moving sled, and get all wet prior to the diving day. I would have also wore a helmet that day and not frostbitten my cheek relaying gear 3/4 mile to the dive site.
4. I learned that complacency is our own enemy sometimes. By ice diving nearly every weekend, I got good at setting my gear up the same way every time and got things down to a robotic system (OCD? maybe). The one time we were set up over a promising area and Nate had already snatched up a few nice anchors in that hole. When it was my turn, I was so excited to find my share of the anchors that I forgot to put my fins on. This sounds stupid of me but here is how it happened. I was sitting on the edge of the hole with my feet dangling. Following the OCD rituals (at least most of them) I clipped on my canister light, attached the inflator, stuffed my lift bag in the thigh pocket, stuffed the camera in the other, attached the dive rope, hood, gloves, computer, mask, snorkel... No I did not use a snorkel, I was just seeing if you are still reading this garbage. I jumped in and dumped air to get to the bottom as soon as I could. 5' from the bottom I hit the inflator to level off, and then it hit me... No traction! NO FINS! I was so embarrassed that I seriously thought of walking on the bottom 30' to the side, pull out 100' of line, and just camp out there for an hour so Nate would not know that I did something so stupid. Instead, I popped back up into the hole. Nate said: "whats wrong?" I told him that I should probably try this again with my fins. He laughed so hard and that helped my embarrassment.
5. I learned that there are not many anchors left in Green Lake. Yes we could have dove in a variety of lakes, but that was not on my agenda (or Nates either) as it was not one of the parameters of the challenge. With the right set of priorities, a person can do just about anything they set their mind to. I made winning this challenge a priority on the first day it was made public, and I was in it to win it. Who ever came up with the phrase: "Its not whether you win or lose, its how you play the game" has their priorities all messed up, and probably got pushed down a lot as a kid. Keeping score is a primal instinct. Even the cave men drew pictures of woolly mammoths they had slaughtered on the cave walls to show future generations that he was the Baddest Mamma Jamma in the land.
So next year I will not be in the challenge (if there is one) so I can go dive areas that interest me, and not keep scores, or spend countless hours researching maps and such. I kinda thought this challenge would inspire more people to take up ice diving, or get back into ice diving, or do more ice diving, but it seems like it alienated a lot of people to think that we are on the lunatic fringe and that we have a one track mind. Sure was fun though! ;D
John
John when you get done with chaska lets do a ice diving class.
Sounds good Grumpie, but with this job getting done in early January 2012, I might be needing some warm water diving. All work and no play makes this Jack a dull boy. I am thinking Caribbean, but not a tourist trap. Maybe the sanctions against Cuba will be lifted by then, and I will go down there. (I always wanted to open up the first Wal-Mart in Cuba). That would be the trip of a lifetime. 200 Spanish era anchors in Havana Harbor alone, not to mention the countless others waiting off shore for an anchor finding fool to show up.
8) Well said buddy! 8) It was a pleasure. I'd do it over again.....
I'll dive with you anytime, anywhere...... Except on the impulse, ;D we should probably split up to make sure the boat is still there when we get back! ;D
this would be some good bkgnd music when reading John's eloquent post
Fl keys, spearfishing and treasure hunting. Have coordinates to a GOOD anchor, courtesy of Johnylongblades!
Terry, I appreciate and gratefully accept the offer to go diving with You, Steve, and Nate. I think we should make it as late in the summer as possible to ensure the agony of defeat has worn completely off and Nate and I don't become the first people to be marooned on Isle Royal in a long time
. I will check in with Jody and let you know what works best for me (thinking late July or early August). Really looking forward to it, and having you 3 show me some of the best wrecks in the big lake.
My lessons learned are few because I hardly make mistakes.
Terry and I never committed to winning. We're too old to fall for all the BS around winning, it's about the energy. I ride every Thursday at Buck Hill mountain bike races. I ride in the Advanced group and come in almost dead last (106 of 107). I usually beat some poor sole. But I'm last and I'm ok with that. I could win Beginner every week but why? The energy of being in the best group and trying to keep up is more enjoyable then winning. Terry and I didn't mind losing, we were behind all winter. We just wanted to run the race for the energy. Winning doesn't get you anything in the long run. Winning is always hollow, it means you didn't set the bar high enough. Do it enough and winning gets boring (I use to be really good at pool and winning was the norm and it stopped being fun)
My lesson learned, I did it correctly. It's still fun to hunt for anchors. I didn't give up one thing to dive every weekend, I didn't make it a chore, I'd do it again next year and lose all the same.
Terry and I have dove every weekend since it ended.
I think I went in the hole without fins once as well.