So back in 1996 I was pretty much a prick of a human being (I know, I’m not much different now). No social skills, but broke with new wife and new kid. I didn’t really deserve anything good anyone had to offer, but two people that I consider fantastic human beings (Jim Calvin and Bill Rennaker) took me under their wings and took a chance on me. Never really having a decent father figure to look up to, I found myself spending most of my free time around Jim. Of course I couldn’t afford gear or instruction. Jim let me work off both in his shop. Bill Rennaker let me help work on his “shop” when it was just a place to live and a compressor, long before any dive gear or anything.
For the next few years I was getting invited by the cave diving elite to dives few people at that time had ever done. I feel like the cave community was different back then in that when they saw an idiot kid with issue after issue, they grabbed ahold of the kid and tried to put him on a successful path. Both socially and in terms of diving. Hey at least the diving part stuck.
So, years later, still hanging out with Jim, but Bill retiring, and now me making pretty good money, I felt like I wanted to be like Jim and Bill and take the less fortunate under my wing. As such, I’ve tried to seek out the people who frankly can’t afford to cave dive. But still might deserve to. I’ve tried to clear a path for a select few that might have grown up like me but have great potential if ever steered in the proper direction. Even if I haven’t necessarily met that potential. I used to track it year to year, now I don’t care, but I’ve given away more classes than I’ve charged for. Unfortunately, some people don’t respect things that they don’t have to work for, so I’m more selective now in who I work with.
I’m 44 years old now, and certainly not the caliber of man that any of my mentors were, but I still work at it. Maybe one day. Anyway, that’s why I became an instructor. To be more like some great people I met early in my adult hood and at the infancy of my diving.