Seek and ye shall find

[NothingClever]

Akimbo, I recognize your seniority in the dive community so I will endeavor to honor your request. And Chilly always has informative posts here so that’s just more fuel for the fire.

 

[David Wilson]

There’s apparently a famous NatGeo UW photographer that dives right up the road from me here in the Red Sea. I know he’s closing in on his octogenarian decade. One of his BCDs is on display in one of the local dive shops and they look older than me (51). I really should get off my duff, go meet him and perhaps feature him a bit here. I readily recognize my efforts to introduce some historical material will likely pale in comparison to the seasoned SCUBA historians here that I appreciate so much.

Please don't hesitate to carry out what you are contemplating doing, NothingClever. So much diving history remains to be written and may soon be lost for ever unless it is shared online or in print. History itself is more than a bunch of anecdotes about kings, queens and presidents. Or in the case of diving history, about the likes of Hans Hass and Jacques Cousteau. It's so much more than that: everybody's story, however insignificant it might seem at first glance, contributes at least one piece to the great jigsaw of free and scuba diving. So do make friends with this man and find out what he has to say. I grew up here in the North East of England reading my father's National Geographics and enjoying their wonderfully colour-illustrated underwater articles so much that I couldn't wait to get my first set of fins, mask and snorkel. It may well have been your very UW photographer's pictures that inspired me to take this first step. Keep us posted on how you are getting on and pass on to us every tidbit of information you glean, however trivial.

 

[АлександрД]

There’s apparently a famous NatGeo UW photographer that dives right up the road from me here in the Red Sea. .. I readily recognize my efforts to introduce some historical material will likely pale in comparison to the seasoned SCUBA historians here that I appreciate so much.

Where are you on Red Sea? May be I can ask my friend from Hurgada to meet with you and David to support you in this meeting? My friend is one of the basement of diving edication in Russia, he teached thouthands divers and many instructors, issued own education book of Diving basics, and was one of leading members of CMAS branch in Russia, and was one of senior lecturers of our sport institute . Now he keeps own LDS in Hurgada with fleet. He can help to keep discussion more wide and interesting, I think, If he`s in Hurgada now.

 

[Akimbo]

History itself is more than a bunch of anecdotes about kings, queens and presidents. Or in the case of diving history, about the likes of Hans Hass and Jacques Cousteau. It's so much more than that: everybody's story, however insignificant it might seem at first glance, contributes at least one piece to the great jigsaw of free and scuba diving.

Nicely stated sir. We all make and observe events that contribute to history. Knowing the small details enhance our understanding far beyond the public relations driven press releases that dominates media. In the past, gleaning information from personal letters was far more informative than newspapers and history books. In the near future, historians will rely on places like ScubaBoard.

 

[NothingClever]

Where are you on Red Sea? May be I can ask my friend from Hurgada to meet with you and David to support you in this meeting? My friend is one of the basement of diving edication in Russia, he teached thouthands divers and many instructors, issued own education book of Diving basics, and was one of leading members of CMAS branch in Russia, and was one of senior lecturers of our sport institute . Now he keeps own LDS in Hurgada with fleet. He can help to keep discussion more wide and interesting, I think, If he`s in Hurgada now.

Thank you for the offer to help.

I’m getting lots of local help from seasoned dive buddies with my interview questions so I think I’ll have a pretty good start point for the conversation.

 

[NothingClever]

Thanks for the encouragement everyone.

Hans has agreed to an interview. He remembers diving Egypt before it was developed so I’m looking forward to doing my best to capture his memories, thoughts and insight.

Switching topics slightly...

Today at about 10nm offshore, my AUS dive buddy and I got surprised by a pod of 11 dolphins (inclusive of two juveniles) that joined us at 10msw for about 10 minutes as we did a lap around the reef at Cable Wreck.

Over Turkish dinner tonight, we bounced back and forth between gushing about the amazing eye contact and cognitive thought the dolphins displayed and developing interesting interview questions for Hans to bring up the gold from his memory bank.

Once complete with my interview questions, I’ll pass to Akimbo, David, Dr Miller III, Chilly and the Chairman for their chop.

Sorry for the hijack....back to David Doubilet.

 

[soonerwink]

Thanks for posting, I had to share this with my dive club's facebook page.