Gawd, but I have been surrounded by winners the last few days! I remember hearing about the new couple who'd just bought Conch Republic Divers two or three years ago when I wad diving with the Operator across the highway. This weekend I hear Brenda telling how she & Gary were both engineers in Texas, who got laid off by their corporate employers almost the same day and found themselves looking for a new life in The Keys, as so many who have found their way here. Today, my old Operator across the hiway is closed and gone, and Capt Gary & Brenda are local industry leaders with activities in TV and many other areas.
Matt's main boat was staffed by some of the top people in the scuba industry, top computer geeks - since much of this is organized on ScubaBoard.com and DivingADream.org, TV producers from the Today Show and Deep Sea Detectives, and so forth. It kind of seemed like a Chinese Firedrill at times leaving the dock 3 hours late, but hey - they're inventing a whole new technology and giving hope to who knows how many other challenged and maybe depressed people.
Even the Captain of the chase boat was an inspiration to know. He suffered a crippling stroke 10 years ago this month, and his docs wanted to assign him to a nursing home to waste out his days, but he fought back - hard and heavy. Today, he's a little quiet natured and seems a bit old, but I don't know that the stroke really affected him - other than to give him a new learning opportunity.
Matt made 5 attempts to dive today, with us watching from the chase boat close enough we were told to quiet down as they were doing video with sound, and they incurred 5 "failures" - except they were just learning opportunities. Matt must have been exhausted, but he just said "Hey, tomorrow." He was still going strong at the huge dinner party when I left. We couldn't get enough boats for everyone tomorrow so Matt, his team and the media folks are going out on the main boat and I'm going out with the regular divers to drop down on the Eagle - one of my favorite Keys wrecks.
Some preview pics from today....
I carry several cameas on trips, the Today Show carries a van full...
