The 8th traditional non-competitive meet of the New England Freedivelist members took place at King's Beach and Fort Adams, Newport, Rhode Island, on October 4th, 2003. Attendance was low with many regulars missing due to very bad conditions, reminding the 6th Meet at King's Beach in 2001. King's Beach must have a spell that we should break! We ended up at Fort Adams, however, the visibility was low and fish scarce. The only fish that I saw worth shooting was a 10 meter deep black sea bass that I unbelievably missed. Tautogs that I saw were small with no striper sightings, although baitfish were abundant. Mike Jette, who made an attempt to go out on a 5000 lbs powerboat with friends, reported that they were half way up the face of a wave and the crest was still feets above them! They saw two sailboats breaking masts and sinking off Beavertail. Thanks to donations from Roger Yazbeck (Picasso USA) and Matt "Catfish" Richards, we were able to hold our usual raffle at Fort Adams. After the dive, we met at Aidan's with the participants to get drunk and compensate for the bad diving day that we had with stories and Guiness!
Conditions:
High winds and very rough seas with small boat advisories. King's Beach impossible to dive. Fort Adams with much better seas, accompanied with low visibility.
Participants (in alphabetical order):
Ata Bilgili
Thomas Campbell
Toni Cianci
Robert Clavin
Alex Ducruet
Jean-Baptiste Ducruet
Mike Jette
Joe Klinger
Frank Oterelo
Virgil Popescu
Matt "Catfish" Richards
Atakan Yalcin
Fish Taken:
Tautogs only.
Raffle Winners:
- Thomas Campbell: Freediver bag from Picasso USA.
- Joe Klinger: Gun bag from Picasso USA.
- Alex Ducruet: Floatline made by Matt "Catfish" Richards.
Other Stories from the Meet:
- None
The following are some pictures from the meet taken by Joe Klinger at Fort Adams.
From left to right, Tom Campbell, Virgil Popescu and Ata Bilgili,
trying to bump into something at Fort Adams!
Fort Adams. Notice reefed sails!.
Fort Adams.
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