CHUM - Houston's SCUBA Club is the sponsor of the 
Siren
Tiger Shark
- First Name
- Amanda
**long sigh**
I want to start off by saying how much I adore CHUM. Every CHUM Claims the Comal trip is a little different than the year before, but everyone comes and leaves with a smile. I think everyone really thoroughly enjoyed themselves this year, and that is a wonderful feeling for this “Julie.”
24% and I arrived at The Resort at Schlitterbahn around 4:30pm on Friday where we met Heidi Ho, who had already checked in. After unpacking our overnight bags, all 3 of us headed over to Landa Park and arrived there a smidge after 5pm. We “rescued” MermaidDiver who was locked out of the park and wasn’t allowed to enter because she didn’t have her car hang tag. Argh. (the man on the golf cart was not very accommodating). CHUMmers were already there setting up camp along the river. A few had arrived the day before. Polaris & MonkeyBusiness brought a 10’ x 20’ tent that was set up near the beginning formations of this year’s Circle’O’CHUM in site 506. I took pizza topping requests and placed an order for 9 pizzas. Thank you, 24%, for going to pick them all up in town. We ate most of them Friday evening, and the rest for Saturday lunch. Friday evening was also S’MORES roasting night. HeidiHo’s Glow-In-The-Dark sticks were a cool concept, but everyone agrees that her original LONG rotating sticks are still the BEST!!! As the rest of CHUM arrived and set up camp, we roasted marshmallows and peeps and adorned the graham crackers with Hershey’s chocolates and Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups. M&M and Chocolate Chip Cookies also made their way around the campfire. Heidi Ho had such a great time, she took a nap in the front seat of our Explorer for a few hours. Hahaha….It was a relatively early-ish night with most of CHUM heading off to bed around 10pm. We all agreed we are getting older. We left Landa a little after 11pm for the hotel. Unbeknownst to the rest of CHUM, apparently there was a rogue racoon that drank most of the rum in site 505 after everyone else went to sleep. Who knew!!!
Friday Quote Board: “You are NOT in charge of how often I stroke Amanda.” -- Heidi Ho
Saturday morning, bellies were filled up with yummy pancakes and bacon cooked up by Skip in site 101. He said he was well-seasoned at cooking for large groups of campers, and we happily agreed he knew what he was doing. Kinda spoiled us with his generosity. Thanks, Skip & Shoreline, for all you cooked all weekend. He even made “C.H.U.M.” out of pancake batter!! I vote to rename him “SKIP FLAY!!”
The Saturday morning dive was to begin by 9:30am which was more like 10am. The river was super low this year – the lowest we’ve ever seen it – because of the ongoing draught. The dive plan was to swim UP river and around towards the waterfall and come back. The water was so shallow that most divers were splashing face down at the surface to stay above the seagrass. It looked like CHUM Salmon mating season swimming upstream flopping around. Hahaha…. Visibility was zero, unless you got out from the silt of divers in front of you. I was the last upstream, and I was snorkeling. Being further to the left bank (heading upstream) was actually deeper and with less vegetation, and the visibility was about as good as the Comal ever gets. LOTS of BIG bass upstream. The smaller fish were plentiful but it was cool to see some bigger ones. We all congregated by standing up at the fork in the river to decide what the next dive plan was. Volans had already continued upstream – forging the river towards the waterfall, and was eager to report that the pool of water underneath the waterfall was deep enough for an actual dive. SURE ENOUGH – the pool area was about 13’ deep in an area about 30’ by 30’ wide!! It was SO neat to see CHUM actually in enough water to be UNDERWATER while diving the Comal!!! What started as the worst dive in CCC history turned out to be one of the best and most unique dives ever logged at the Comal. The conditions have to be absolutely right to make this dive work – the flow of the river has to be super low so that there isn’t any current blowing you off the waterfall. It was great!!! There was an Antique Car Show happening at the Wurstfest property, so lots of bystanders were intrigued by all the divers at the waterfall. I yelled up to some of them to take our picture and text it to me. And they DID!! The pictures are WAY fun!!!
Lunch at the campsite was low key. The leftover pizza was consumed and CHUMmers offered up sandwiches and snacks for anyone who wanted something to nibble on. Moonbeam (old school CHUMmer – Tracy) surprised us all by joining us for the afternoon float. Also, DiverDan (old school CHUMmer) and his girlfriend, Jenna, literally met us IN the water in innertubes. Tracy and Dan both moved to New Braunfels (separately – hahaha) and make up our New Braunfels CHUM contingency. It was awesome to have them float with us!!! We rented our tubes and began the float around 1:30pm. Do you want the good news first and the bad news second??! I am THRILLED to announce that the record was broken this year for the LONGEST CHUM’O’PEDE!!!!! The record of 24 tubes was held for exactly 1 year, and was crushed this year with 26 CHUMmers – technically 25 tubes, because ReefHound and watermonkee were in a double – BUT regardless, it is a NEW RECORD!!! CONGRATULATIONS, CHUMmers who Claimed the Comal!! You should be VERY proud!!! The young lady who took our pictures and video from shore never texted me the images, but we all know that it happened!!! Now for the BAD news!!! WE TOTALLY 100% FORGOT TO IMPLEMENT THE SUSHI BOY PROTOCOL!!!!! Oh, no!!! We were all wanting refills and there was not a staged car to allow us to top off. **cue WIPE OUT music** PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help me remember next year!!!
After the first tube chute, Lakediver and Cthulhu Calls, as well as ReefHound and watermonkee decided they had enough floating and walked back to Landa, while the rest of us leisurely floated down the Comal. It was a lovely lovely float. The last public exit was closed due to construction, so we all got out of the water at the bridge and walked to the Landa bus. The bus driver attempted to take a group picture of us and it is the WORST blurry picture EVER!!! But again, we know the smiles that were on all of our faces. Thank you to EL HEFE PRESIDENTE VikingDiver for being the official tube pusher to keep us floating down the river.
Back at Landa, Diver_T drove in to surprise us and stayed for dinner up at Skip’s site 101. Before eating, most people dispersed for shower and rest, and then made their way up to Skip and Shoreline’s campsite where he had fired up the grill for burgers!!! There was SO much food!!! I made 3 boxes of macaroni & cheese to add to the spread of potato salads, crawfish dip, cheese dip, fruits, chips, etc. Absolutely NOBODY was hungry by the time the sun set. A HUGE thank you to those of you who chipped in and provided so much food for all of us! We said goodbye to our 4 day trippers and the rest of us convened around the campfire in the Circle’O’CHUM. Cap’n Dougie and Scotty D. were hard at work preparing their dutch oven cobblers – HOLY DELICIOUS!!! Skip provided the Blue Bell Vanilla Ice Cream while we all scarfed up hot fresh caramel apple cobbler and cherry white chocolate cobbler!! YUMMY!!!! Thank you, boys, for treating us with this specialty dessert!!! More s’mores were roasted and cookies eaten, a few drinks consumed, but ironically, not a super late night. CHUM started to thin out earlier Saturday night than it did Friday night. Volans had gone to bed earlier and Misslodon stayed up with the rest of us. I walked her back to her campsite around 11:30pm and I am sure snores were heard all along the riverbank soon after we left. Except for Cap’n Dougie and Scotty D. – who knows how long they stayed up…probably waiting to catch that rogue racoon who drank all their spirits. Hahaha….
This was the 21st CHUM Claims the Comal trip and my 17th time heading it up. This means that for as long as I have been coming, I (all of us) am 17 years older than I was when I first came. The conversations have changed topics and the nights have gotten slightly earlier and less rowdy as we have all aged. Hahahaha….it is hilarious and fun getting older with all of you. However I WILL draw the line the moment a CHUMmer excuses themselves from the Circle’O’CHUM because they are missing Jeopardy.
24% and I arrived at Landa at 9:30am to find the Sunday morning break down tent routine was in full swing – and a little earlier than usual. Again, it must be that whole aging thing. Haha….what was going to be a 10:30am meet up time at Krause’s became a full table of 20 people ready to order at 9:58am. The “big ass fans” were on full blast and it was like we were sitting in a strong wind storm. After they turned down the fans, and the food was served, bellies were once again happy and everyone seemed to enjoy the last meal of the trip together. CHUM got our annual Krause’s Table photo and started the drive home to Houston in a sprinkle of rain.
Two thumbs way up for a fun weekend. No matter how it turns out, it always seems to be exactly the way it should have been. Thanks, friends!!
I loved being able to meet our C.C.C. newcomers – The Meg, MermaidDiver, Karma Vegan and his lovely wife, Clarena, and Skip “Flay” and Shoreline. I hope we didn’t scare you away and I realllllly hope you will join us again next year for the 22nd Annual CCC Weekend. Dates TBD.
I want to start off by saying how much I adore CHUM. Every CHUM Claims the Comal trip is a little different than the year before, but everyone comes and leaves with a smile. I think everyone really thoroughly enjoyed themselves this year, and that is a wonderful feeling for this “Julie.”
24% and I arrived at The Resort at Schlitterbahn around 4:30pm on Friday where we met Heidi Ho, who had already checked in. After unpacking our overnight bags, all 3 of us headed over to Landa Park and arrived there a smidge after 5pm. We “rescued” MermaidDiver who was locked out of the park and wasn’t allowed to enter because she didn’t have her car hang tag. Argh. (the man on the golf cart was not very accommodating). CHUMmers were already there setting up camp along the river. A few had arrived the day before. Polaris & MonkeyBusiness brought a 10’ x 20’ tent that was set up near the beginning formations of this year’s Circle’O’CHUM in site 506. I took pizza topping requests and placed an order for 9 pizzas. Thank you, 24%, for going to pick them all up in town. We ate most of them Friday evening, and the rest for Saturday lunch. Friday evening was also S’MORES roasting night. HeidiHo’s Glow-In-The-Dark sticks were a cool concept, but everyone agrees that her original LONG rotating sticks are still the BEST!!! As the rest of CHUM arrived and set up camp, we roasted marshmallows and peeps and adorned the graham crackers with Hershey’s chocolates and Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups. M&M and Chocolate Chip Cookies also made their way around the campfire. Heidi Ho had such a great time, she took a nap in the front seat of our Explorer for a few hours. Hahaha….It was a relatively early-ish night with most of CHUM heading off to bed around 10pm. We all agreed we are getting older. We left Landa a little after 11pm for the hotel. Unbeknownst to the rest of CHUM, apparently there was a rogue racoon that drank most of the rum in site 505 after everyone else went to sleep. Who knew!!!
Friday Quote Board: “You are NOT in charge of how often I stroke Amanda.” -- Heidi Ho
Saturday morning, bellies were filled up with yummy pancakes and bacon cooked up by Skip in site 101. He said he was well-seasoned at cooking for large groups of campers, and we happily agreed he knew what he was doing. Kinda spoiled us with his generosity. Thanks, Skip & Shoreline, for all you cooked all weekend. He even made “C.H.U.M.” out of pancake batter!! I vote to rename him “SKIP FLAY!!”
The Saturday morning dive was to begin by 9:30am which was more like 10am. The river was super low this year – the lowest we’ve ever seen it – because of the ongoing draught. The dive plan was to swim UP river and around towards the waterfall and come back. The water was so shallow that most divers were splashing face down at the surface to stay above the seagrass. It looked like CHUM Salmon mating season swimming upstream flopping around. Hahaha…. Visibility was zero, unless you got out from the silt of divers in front of you. I was the last upstream, and I was snorkeling. Being further to the left bank (heading upstream) was actually deeper and with less vegetation, and the visibility was about as good as the Comal ever gets. LOTS of BIG bass upstream. The smaller fish were plentiful but it was cool to see some bigger ones. We all congregated by standing up at the fork in the river to decide what the next dive plan was. Volans had already continued upstream – forging the river towards the waterfall, and was eager to report that the pool of water underneath the waterfall was deep enough for an actual dive. SURE ENOUGH – the pool area was about 13’ deep in an area about 30’ by 30’ wide!! It was SO neat to see CHUM actually in enough water to be UNDERWATER while diving the Comal!!! What started as the worst dive in CCC history turned out to be one of the best and most unique dives ever logged at the Comal. The conditions have to be absolutely right to make this dive work – the flow of the river has to be super low so that there isn’t any current blowing you off the waterfall. It was great!!! There was an Antique Car Show happening at the Wurstfest property, so lots of bystanders were intrigued by all the divers at the waterfall. I yelled up to some of them to take our picture and text it to me. And they DID!! The pictures are WAY fun!!!
Lunch at the campsite was low key. The leftover pizza was consumed and CHUMmers offered up sandwiches and snacks for anyone who wanted something to nibble on. Moonbeam (old school CHUMmer – Tracy) surprised us all by joining us for the afternoon float. Also, DiverDan (old school CHUMmer) and his girlfriend, Jenna, literally met us IN the water in innertubes. Tracy and Dan both moved to New Braunfels (separately – hahaha) and make up our New Braunfels CHUM contingency. It was awesome to have them float with us!!! We rented our tubes and began the float around 1:30pm. Do you want the good news first and the bad news second??! I am THRILLED to announce that the record was broken this year for the LONGEST CHUM’O’PEDE!!!!! The record of 24 tubes was held for exactly 1 year, and was crushed this year with 26 CHUMmers – technically 25 tubes, because ReefHound and watermonkee were in a double – BUT regardless, it is a NEW RECORD!!! CONGRATULATIONS, CHUMmers who Claimed the Comal!! You should be VERY proud!!! The young lady who took our pictures and video from shore never texted me the images, but we all know that it happened!!! Now for the BAD news!!! WE TOTALLY 100% FORGOT TO IMPLEMENT THE SUSHI BOY PROTOCOL!!!!! Oh, no!!! We were all wanting refills and there was not a staged car to allow us to top off. **cue WIPE OUT music** PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help me remember next year!!!
After the first tube chute, Lakediver and Cthulhu Calls, as well as ReefHound and watermonkee decided they had enough floating and walked back to Landa, while the rest of us leisurely floated down the Comal. It was a lovely lovely float. The last public exit was closed due to construction, so we all got out of the water at the bridge and walked to the Landa bus. The bus driver attempted to take a group picture of us and it is the WORST blurry picture EVER!!! But again, we know the smiles that were on all of our faces.
Thank you to EL HEFE PRESIDENTE VikingDiver for being the official tube pusher to keep us floating down the river.Back at Landa, Diver_T drove in to surprise us and stayed for dinner up at Skip’s site 101. Before eating, most people dispersed for shower and rest, and then made their way up to Skip and Shoreline’s campsite where he had fired up the grill for burgers!!! There was SO much food!!! I made 3 boxes of macaroni & cheese to add to the spread of potato salads, crawfish dip, cheese dip, fruits, chips, etc. Absolutely NOBODY was hungry by the time the sun set. A HUGE thank you to those of you who chipped in and provided so much food for all of us! We said goodbye to our 4 day trippers and the rest of us convened around the campfire in the Circle’O’CHUM. Cap’n Dougie and Scotty D. were hard at work preparing their dutch oven cobblers – HOLY DELICIOUS!!! Skip provided the Blue Bell Vanilla Ice Cream while we all scarfed up hot fresh caramel apple cobbler and cherry white chocolate cobbler!! YUMMY!!!! Thank you, boys, for treating us with this specialty dessert!!! More s’mores were roasted and cookies eaten, a few drinks consumed, but ironically, not a super late night. CHUM started to thin out earlier Saturday night than it did Friday night. Volans had gone to bed earlier and Misslodon stayed up with the rest of us. I walked her back to her campsite around 11:30pm and I am sure snores were heard all along the riverbank soon after we left. Except for Cap’n Dougie and Scotty D. – who knows how long they stayed up…probably waiting to catch that rogue racoon who drank all their spirits. Hahaha….
This was the 21st CHUM Claims the Comal trip and my 17th time heading it up. This means that for as long as I have been coming, I (all of us) am 17 years older than I was when I first came. The conversations have changed topics and the nights have gotten slightly earlier and less rowdy as we have all aged. Hahahaha….it is hilarious and fun getting older with all of you. However I WILL draw the line the moment a CHUMmer excuses themselves from the Circle’O’CHUM because they are missing Jeopardy.
24% and I arrived at Landa at 9:30am to find the Sunday morning break down tent routine was in full swing – and a little earlier than usual. Again, it must be that whole aging thing. Haha….what was going to be a 10:30am meet up time at Krause’s became a full table of 20 people ready to order at 9:58am. The “big ass fans” were on full blast and it was like we were sitting in a strong wind storm. After they turned down the fans, and the food was served, bellies were once again happy and everyone seemed to enjoy the last meal of the trip together. CHUM got our annual Krause’s Table photo and started the drive home to Houston in a sprinkle of rain.
Two thumbs way up for a fun weekend. No matter how it turns out, it always seems to be exactly the way it should have been. Thanks, friends!!
I loved being able to meet our C.C.C. newcomers – The Meg, MermaidDiver, Karma Vegan and his lovely wife, Clarena, and Skip “Flay” and Shoreline. I hope we didn’t scare you away and I realllllly hope you will join us again next year for the 22nd Annual CCC Weekend. Dates TBD.