Thanks drbill
Its Georgia USA, I will be spending the holiday in Savannah Georgia USA
So... there is a whole country named after ole George? that guy really gets around.
My diving history is not very different than anyone else's. someone with 3000 dives ... now he will have some stories
I got certified doing shore dives, and that was my first year of diving minus several months when i was out of town. Our instructor told us there was a typhoon on the way and gave a choice to hurry up and finish or take our chances. We did our OW dives in one day, depths were 30-50 ft. good way to learn tables, since the only computer was the famous Bend-O-matic. Orca came out a year or two later. We used plastic backpack and horsecollar BC's,(wasn't attached to the tank) and had an oral inflator. No octopus, we were taught buddy breathing, Our instructor only had a backpack and harness. some tanks out there had the reserve system with the rod. We did have SPG's though. Two dives after certification, my buddy took me to 90 ft. today that is supposed to require AOW. How things have changed. I can remember wading out to a dropoff and fighting breakers. On the way back in, the waves would knock you down on top of dead coral. I had gashes all over the kneepads of my wetsuit. we could get a custom made wetsuit pretty cheap. i was sorry to sell it because it no longer fit. A lot of the dives required a surface swim - a long swim. One spot we found had a big gill net in water over 100'. we usually "borrowed" one or two fish.
After that I did some commercial diving cutting fouled lines off of propeller shafts. What a mess that was.
i didn't dive for a while, but discovered boat diving. Boy, what a difference!
i am getting ready to go on my fifth liveaboard. My first two were in Australia. The first in the ribbon reefs, and then further south. That was really the only hard diving i have done, very rough conditions, almost everyone was seasick, lost my watch. I did finish my AOW, but we didn't get to go anyplace good.
A few years later went on the Nekton liveaboard (was only one then, and it was almost new). since then it lost a dive platform ... and a few employees.
There are a lot more divers now, which is good, because there is a more competition between operators, there is more opportunities for professionals, and more and better training. seems to be safer also.
My dive history has been sporatic, I went 8 years without diving one time, a few years other times. I made a few trips the last few years, and am enjoying it. It isn't quite the same as when you are in your twenty's but what is?
Maybe we should start a thread about everyone's tougher dives, (different from near misses and accidents) I bet you have some good ones to talk about.
