International Semi-Organized ScubUNO Association of Divers
History:
In the beginning was a thread, "[thread=153272]Fun stuff in Boring places...[/thread]" by trucker girl. In the fifth post in that very thread, on the third of August, 2006, Ber Rabbit uttered the words which would declare the impending arrival of what would eventually become ISOSAD:
Within days, the idea had blossomed into its own thread, [thread=154157]The Ultimate UNO Challenge[/thread], and on the 16th of August, erparamedic posted the thread announcing the first games had been played: [thread=155035]UNO results are in!![/thread] More games were to be played soon thereafter, and by the 19th of August, the underwater UNO was already being called "ScubUNO".Ber Rabbit:
Then, on the 10th of September, ClayJar and a buddy went up to Alabama Blue Water Adventures in Pelham, AL, and played several rounds of ScubUNO and other games, and in the "ScubUNO Baton Rouge field trip report." posted to the UNO results thread, the name "SOSAD" (Semi-Organized ScubUNO Association of Divers) was coined. By the 14th of September, with at least one Canadian involved, SOSAD added an 'I' for International and became ISOSAD.
By that time, there were already quite a few members, and ISOSAD has been growing ever since.
Mission:
ISOSAD's mission, which is more of a guideline than anything, is to spread the fun of underwater gaming to divers far and wide. While ISOSAD encourages divers to have fun in whatever safe ways they please, ISOSAD is specific to "indoor games" -- card games, board games, table games, et cetera.
(Playing catch with Toypedoes, underwater tag, or other such activities are outside ISOSAD, but there is absolutely no prohibition on combining them with gaming on ISOSAD dives.)
Membership:
Anyone who enjoys the idea of playing games underwater is welcome to become a provisional member of ISOSAD. To become a full member, you must participate in at least one underwater gaming dive. If at all possible, ScubUNO or a similar card game should be played.
There is no distinction between ordinary members and gaming dive leaders. However, any full or provisional member choosing to lead an ISOSAD gaming dive should bring the game materials or arrange for them to be brought by other participating divers. (In other words, if you get people to come play, be sure you don't forget the games -- that wouldn't be fun.
)There is a poll attached to this thread with public results showing all those who vote. If you are (or become) a member of ISOSAD, simply add your vote, which will automatically include your name on the results page (just click the number of votes to see the list). This way nobody will be overlooked or forgotten. Since polls need at least two options to be posted, there's also an ignore-me list for anyone who really hates games.
Games:
Helpful instructions for various games have been collected in the [thread=194534]ISOSAD: Underwater Gaming HowTo[/thread]. Included among them are:Feel free to convert additional surface games to be playable underwater, but if possible, either fill out the simple template on the HowTo thread or explain enough about how you did it for someone else to do the HowTo entry on that game. In this way, we can continually increase the number of games for which helpful information is available.
(Games currently being considered for adaptation include Monopoly, Risk, and other board games. Such games may require considerable preparation before being playable underwater, but *somebody's* gotta do it.
)Threads:
As ISOSAD's goals and the goals of Dork Diving mesh so very well together, ISOSAD threads go best in the Dork Divers forum on ScubaBoard. In order to make them easily locatable by divers interested in ISOSAD (and also easily ignorable by any Dork Divers who may not be interested in underwater gaming), all ISOSAD threads should have "ISOSAD:" at the beginning of their titles.
Periodically, the HowTo thread and any other ISOSAD reference threads may be restarted with only the reference posts reposted in the new thread (in order to consolidate the instructions). In such cases, the previous thread will be linked for archival purposes.
Other Stuff:
http://bewarn.googlepages.com/sosad (including additional history and member information)
CafePress ISOSAD Gear
CafePress ISOSAD Gear
