Membership blog

A Google search lead Mike Bothwell to the USA Dive Club.  He attended our January 2024 General Membership meeting, and by the end of the meeting, he had completed an online membership application and electronically transmitted his dues to the Treasurer.

In 2001, Mike was certified in the chilly waters of Madison, Wisconsin.  He holds an Advanced Open Water certification and has approximately 150 dives.  He recently relocated to Florida from Denver, Colorado, and is looking forward to exploring Florida’s local reefs to sightsee and dive on a few wrecks.

His most memorable dive was in Barbados, and Mike looks forward to diving in the Philippines sometime in the future.  Other than diving, Mike enjoys having dinner with friends.

He has been renting equipment and would appreciate advice on where to buy gently used or reasonably priced new equipment.  Members may contact him by going to the USA website at usadiveclub.org.  Sign into your account, click DIRECTORY, and enter Michael Bothwell in the Search box.  

Let’s give Mike a warm USA Dive Club welcome when we see him on a dive or any other USA event.

As always, we invite you to browse through our extensive Photo Gallery to take a look at our social and diving activities.

As always, we invite you to browse through our extensive Photo Gallery to take a look at our social and diving activities.

USA welcomes two new members into the Hall of Fame

Congratulations to USA Dive Club’s Hall of Fame most recent members, Roger Cooper and Howard Ratsch.  To attain Hall of Fame status, one must serve as a Board of Directors member for 84 months or the equivalent of seven years.

Roger and Howard have become lifetime members in a group of people who worked hard to shape the Club into what it is today.  Click on the 'CONTACT' button at the top of this page and take a look at the list of other current Hall of Fame members.  USA Dive Club includes an "In Memoriam" section to remember our deceased Hall of Fame members. 

Roger Cooper

Roger Cooper has been a member of the USA Dive Club since October 2009.  He and Amy, his wife, have been active members in all aspects of the Club. Since joining, they participated in most of the social and diving events the Club offers.  They are eager to open their home to the Board of Directors and members for meetings and holiday gatherings.  Besides diving, Roger enjoys biking, kayaking, and photography, and if you look at the USA Photo Gallery, you will see many of his beautiful underwater photos.

Newsletter, President and Webmaster are the positions Roger held during the last seven years.

Howard Ratsch

Howard Ratsch joined the Club in September 2016.  He accepted an invitation to attend a USA General meeting from Ken Glaser, a former USA member.  Howard is an Open Water Scuba Instructor certified by PADI and an active diver.  Howard had accumulated over 3,500 dives when he became a member.  He demonstrated his photographic skills when, in June 2018, he volunteered to be USA’s Guest Speaker at a General meeting where he presented an in-depth show featuring Yap and Palau.  

Positions held by Howard over the past seven years include Newsletter/Webmaster Co-coordinator, Social Media, Safety, and most recently, Education Coordinator. 

Thank you Roger and Howard.  The USA Dive Club salutes the members of the Hall of Fame.  

As always, we invite you to browse through our extensive Photo Gallery to take a look at our social and diving activities.

Remember to fall back on November 5th.  

It's the perfect time of year to celebrate with family and friends while giving thanks for all our blessings.  

The USA Dive Club wishes you a wonderful, happy Thanksgiving.   

As always, we invite you to browse through our extensive Photo Gallery to take a look at our social and diving activities.

Keep on bubbling with your Club

Julie Manhold, Membership Coordinator 

Roy Cozart loves sailing.  He loves SCUBA diving, too.  Roy holds Advanced and Deep Diving certifications and has 103 dives.  He came across the USA Dive Club while on the Internet.  

Roy's most memorable dive was on the wreck of the M/V Castor, a popular hangout for goliath groupers.  When asked what his dream dive would be, he responded, "The next one."  A Caribbean Sea adventure is first on his bucket list.

Chris Burden, firefighter/paramedic for 20 years, RN for over 30 years, and a certified Divemaster since 1998, discovered the USA Dive Club while doing a web search for local dive clubs.  Included in his 200+ dives is St. Croix, Virgin Islands.  Here is where he had his most memorable dive: The Wall Shore Dive, Cane Bay.  Chris saw eagle rays, sea turtles, and moray eels.  In the future, he hopes his travels will include a liveaboard on the Great Barrier Reef.

Diving and traveling are only part of Chris’ interests.  He enjoys free diving, kayaking, sailing, triathlons, archery, and hiking.  Chris and Margaret, his wife of over 22 years, have three daughters and a female dog.  He joined the USA Dive Club to meet like-minded people and would like to start diving much more.

Please give Roy and Chris warm USA welcomes when you see them on a dive, at a meeting, or any other USA event.  

Have a happy and safe Halloween...and beware of ghosts, goblins, and haunted pumpkins.

As always, we invite you to browse through our extensive Photo Gallery to take a look at our social and diving activities.

For me, Labor Day brings back memories of the beginning of the school year.  But Labor Day is much more than that.  It's an annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers, and you may even get the day off.  Whatever your plans, we wish you a very happy and safe day.

For divers, September brings back the goliath groupers.  These huge fish have love on their minds.  Actually, they congregate in August and will continue this behavior until October.  At times they gather in large groups of 100 or more to spawn - it's called the goliath grouper aggregation.  It's a great reason to join the USA Dive Club.  We have a trip each year to try and catch the groupers getting down to business.

We have very active overseas and local diving programs and, although this year's overseas diving is over, Nils Jacobsen, VP of Overseas Diving, is hard at work on the 2024 and 2025 seasons.  Ryan Goheen, VP of Local Diving, will keep his program going strong through October.  Ryan, along with USA's year-round divers, will continue diving together through the winter months.

Just to keep things interesting, from time to time we'll come up with a non-diving event.  Guests are welcome to attend all of our functions.

What are you waiting for?  It's simple to join us.  From our Home page just click "JOIN US" and follow the easy-to-understand instructions.  Even better, visit us at one of our meetings.  We meet on the first Thursday of every month at the Aloft Hotel, Delray Beach.  We'd enjoy meeting you. 

As always, we invite you to browse through our extensive Photo Gallery to take a look at our social and diving activities.

More than half the year is behind us, and our overseas diving trips have been completed.  We broke records with our trips to Indonesia, Little Cayman and Bonaire this year, and reports of beautiful diving, great food and warm cameraderie came pouring in.  The photographers have been keeping me busy with their wonderful photos that are now in USA's photo gallery.  Take a peek!  All overseas photos are posted with the exception of Bonaire, our most recent trip.  Bonaire photos are still coming in. 

Local diving is in full swing, and what better way to beat this record heat wave than to make a dive into the beautiful waters of South Florida with your USA dive buddies?

Keep spreading the good word about the USA Dive Club.  There are divers all around us looking for buddies.  

As always, we invite you to browse through our extensive Photo Gallery to take a look at our social and diving activities.

There is no General Membership meeting in July due to the close proximity of the 4th of July holiday.  We hope you, your friends and family enjoy a safe and happy holiday, and look forward to seeing you at our August meeting when we will have another great presentation.

Michael Mullins has been diving since he was 16 years old.  Certified as an Open Water Rescue Diver in 1990, he has made hundreds of dives.

While participating in Coralpalooza Dive Day and Festival 2023, Michael met USA member Ryan Goheen and was invited to join the USA Dive Club. 

Michael's most memorable dive was 30 years ago in St. Lucia when corals blanketed the walls.  His dream dive would be on the Great Barrier Reef.  Trips to Bonaire, Bay Islands, BVI Liveaboard, Galapagos Islands, Fiji and Indonesia are also dive destinations he hopes to visit one day.  When not diving you can find Michael riding his motorcycle, fishing, woodworking and traveling.  

The USA Dive Club welcomes Michael and looks forward to seeing him soon on a local dive or other USA event. 

Our membership is continuing to grow, and our local and overseas diving is in full swing.  Don't forget to pass the good word about the USA Dive Club when making new friends on dive boats, overseas trips and any other places you meet people.

As always, we invite you to browse through our extensive Photo Gallery to take a look at our social and diving activities.

George Cathcart is a returning USA Dive Club member.  Originally, he heard about us from long-time USA Hall of Fame member, Marie York.  George holds Rescue Diver, NITROX and Solo Diver certifications.  He has accumulated more than 1,000 dives by traveling around the world with camera in hand.  George enjoys topside and underwater photography.  His main interest in diving is using his camera to capture creatures and landscapes below the surface.

His most memorable dive was with whale sharks in the Galapagos, and he would like to witness the sardine run in the Indian Ocean in the near future.  

Wanda Frazier was invited to join the USA Dive Club by George Cathcart. They are a couple and frequent dive buddies.  Wanda is certified as a Rescue and NITROX diver with over 300 dives.  

Wanda's most memorable dive was her first open water dive experience.  Her dream dive would be on Mars and when not diving, Wanda enjoys poetry, music and opera.

Melissa Hanono was certified for the first time before 2015 and made about 20 dives.  She is currently taking advanced classes from SDI and has made an additional two dives.  Melissa heard about us from Divebuddy.com.  Bavaro Beach in the Dominican Republic ranks high on her list of memorable dives, and she hopes to explore the Great Barrier Reef someday.

Other interests include Star Wars, and geeky things like movies and comic books.  She is a cat-loving newlywed teacher from Brooklyn and wants to dive as much as possible.

The USA Dive Club welcomes George, Wanda and Melissa and hope they enjoy their time with our scuba diving family.

As always, we invite you to browse through our extensive Photo Gallery to take a look at our social and diving activities.

Cassandra Weith has lived in Florida for decades.  Being a long-time Florida resident, she couldn't help but hear about the USA Dive Club.  Cassandra has been SCUBA certified since 2001 and holds Open Water, Rescue Diver and NITROX certifications.  

She has 435 dives with her most memorable dive on the Wall of Cuda out of Palm Beach.  Other favorite dives are with REEF dives and Ned and Anna DeLoche.

Cassandra's favoite type of diving is with a great dive buddy, anywhere with clear water and lots of marine life.   She's a party girl and looks forward to joining us in all social activities with SCUBA-loving buddies.

Matthew Williams went "Bowling for Turtles" with Force-E not long ago and met USA Dive Club member, Ellen Reinhart.  Ellen and Matthew starting talking about diving, and Ellen invited Matthew to a USA General Membership meeting.  He visited us and filled out his application the next day.

Certified in Syracuse, NY in 2004, Matthew is a Divemaster with over 3,000 dives.  His most memorable dive was his final checkout dive because it was this dive on which he became a SCUBA diver.  Sightseeing, drifting, wreck and fish/wildlife diving are among his favorite underwater activities, and his favorite dive site is the Keystone wreck in the St. Lawrence River in Albany, NY.  Matthew hopes to dive on a German U-boat someday, and a trip to Roatan is another destination on his list.  

When not diving Matthew enjoys kayaking, camping, hiking and photography.  He has never made a dive in salt water and looks forward to doing some serious local diving with us.

The USA Dive Club extends Cassandra and Matthew a warm welcome. 

As always, we invite you to browse through our extensive Photo Gallery to take a look at our social and diving activities.