Wazee 2009 Rules

[deep thought]

Wazee 2009

Hey folks, I just opened my letter from Jackson County Parks and there is some issues that concern me regarding Instructor use and abuse of access to the site, as well as students or divers abuse.  First off I must admit this letter has been sitting on my desk for weeks as I assumed it was the regular complimentary pass for dive centers…it was not – eek!  So my apology if I’m rehashing an issue, but I didn’t see a post regarding Wazee in this regard.

The park is not providing a pass to dive centers to allow instructor(s) access to teach diving at Wazee,  rather they are asking instructors to fill out a “teaching” form each day of diving with student names and DOB.  So the change is no pass card, the form was used last year, but they added student DOB.  The issue is that the park is concerned over instructors accessing the site for free when they are not actually teaching, and putting names of divers on the teaching roster that are not actually taking classes.  Instructors diving for fun was listed as not allowed, instructors were asked to pay. 

Having used Wazee for years, I have seen positive and negative changes, more positive than negative…but the site remains a tremendous resource for teaching and fun dives.  When you consider the resources the park has provided  (or allowed) such as underwater platforms with lines and floats, relaxed dive flag standards, artificial shipwreck, gremlins, diver tables, improved camping, paved roads, they are planning 2 new diver access points for 2010,  plus the high quality emergency response service, not to forget the coincidental benefit we receive from the well stocked fish population and the restriction on motorized boats... Yes the rate for diver entrance, parking or yearly permit has risen significantly but not out of line with other dive parks around the nation that I visit.

Having used Wazee for years, I have also seen people skip out on entrance fees, and once I was myself thrown out of the park for an alleged violation of park rules.  This story is actually quite funny and dates back to when a “dive shop” used to sell air on the property,  then the park policy changed to not allow sales of air on-site.  Keith was just opening his shop – early days – and the “other store” had summer hours…so as a back up I brought out a small shop compressor for my customers use.  The other store felt threatened so they called a park ranger who happened to be home painting his shed and was so riled up by the call that he came down to investigate.  I have some guy in plain clothes come up to me and ask to buy an air fill.  “Sorry” I reply, “no air to sell, this is for my divers only”.  “You are a liar” states this person, “I have it on good word that you sell air fills”, then proceeds to pull out his citation pad… Oh, Oh Boo-Boo, it’s Mr. Forest Ranger.  A nasty letter was sent to the park, and they remained ignorant and only obstinate conciliatory.  It was easy to deal with the complaining dive store – years of warning customers about bad air fills is tit for tat…and directing people to visit the shop that is there year round.  In years to follow I didn’t need to bring a compressor with a local store that supports rec and tech, then rebreathers –opps! that’s another story….

Compressors on site at Wazee are no longer allowed.  This has nothing to do with selling gas fills, it has to do with instructors and divers running compressors at locations that annoyed other visitors at the park.  This could have been totally avoided if people were considerate and moved to remote areas.  This does not apply to every person who had a compressor,  but a few people in bad locations.

Getting back to the park concerns over abuse or cheating on entrance fees, the letter states that instructors were abusive to park staff?  I don’t care for additional paperwork, nor am I excited about more hoops to jump through, but I certainly wouldn’t abuse park employees!  How about a positive letter to the park expressing your concerns or perhaps some suggestions on improving the check in procedures.  And for instructors who are teaching, we have a burden to ensure that our students are registered if we want to keep our concessions. 

For the divers who are using the park, please come prepared with small cash for the honor box when park staff are not on site, I realize it happens from time to time.  And from what I gather speaking with people who are close to the park, Rangers will be more active and writing citations for violators – be warned.  And I think we are past the point of returning to days of trust, we just have to accept layers of bureaucracy to enjoy Wazee.

Gee isn’t diving fun.