Biography
Scuba diving continues to grow and change. Today diving is easier and more complex. More equipment, training, boat charters, resorts. When I learned to dive, we scrambled to try the one single-hose regulator provided for the class. For early dives I invested in a skin-two wet suit, weight belt, tank with J-valve to pull when my air was gone. A depth gauge, knife — and the lusted-after single-hose “reg”. Two years later I got a pressure gauge and compass, the next year a horse-collar buoyancy compensator. Step-by-step training for recreational divers did not exist — we learned the basics, were certified with one open water dive. Then tried things, learned from other divers. It’s one way to develop skills. But since those early exciting years, diving instruction has leapt forward along with the development of equipment. Today my gear includes a dry suit, console with multiple gauges, and an analyzer to check my nitrox mix just before each dive. No, I don’t have to pull a J-valve. But I’d better watch the gauges. Complex, simple. |
One thing about diving that has not changed for me is that whether I walk quietly into the shallows or roll off a boat, I know something new will soon come into my life. It has to be the same for technical divers laden with gear going down a descent line. The newness of each dive is the magic I experience on every dive, even when returning to the same location time after time — that’s what keeps me diving. |
One piece of equipment has not changed for me over the years: I still wear my original weight belt from 1967; see it on page one of this site.