Mike,
I do not know nor do I care if it is a measure of expertise or longitity...
Below is a much abridged summary of son Dr. Sam IV's espertise and experience, a recent Pro 5000 member, I will allow you to decide ...
Dr. Sam Miller, IV was born into a pioneer Orange county, California diving family. He began his diving career as a toddler at about 2 years old in the bath tub sucking on a modified regulator, by 4 the "Do-boy" pool at 5 into the family pool and then the Pacific, in the beginning not to deep or too far from the beach, but he was underwater and he was a diver in his mind. He rapidly progressed in his diving skills and grew in stature.. Prior to reaching his 10 birthday he had logged 100+ open water dives, on his 12 birth day he dove to 130 ( oops! depth gauge was in error was to have been 100 feet)
At the ripe old age of 11 he also made his first dive in a Mark V helmet, the KM and Swindel hard hats at the Commercial Diving center in Wilmington-- he was large for his age and his instructor dad fibbed a bit!
During the summer of his 12th birthday he was the youngest to be accepted and successfully complete the US Divers Equipment repair course under Bryan Miller, now the east coast US Divers sales representative. Because of his youth and excitement for diving he became a favorite of John Cronin, US Divers president and founder of PADI who presented him with a new set of equipment and several US Divers shirts. A few weeks later JY Cousteau sent him a personally autographed book
In high school he was an outstanding student, campus leader and athlete. He was active in his church and scouting became an Eagle scout.
One of his high school biology classes required a human performance experiment. Sam IV chose scuba diving fin performance. He contacted the manufactures who provided him ample test fins. He developed a performance testing machine and established test criteria. He enlisted his youthful diving buddies and dad as test subjects. His 15 page evaluation report was given the grade of A+.
Concurrently he was active in SoCal diving circles. He was accepted as a full member of the famous Long Beach Neptunes Spear fishing club, the second oldest and most restrictive membership diving club in US
His talents and contributions were recognized when at age18 he became the youngest diver listed in "Whos who of scuba Diving" by the Academy of Marine Science and Undersea research .
At Long Beach State (LBS) he studied graduated with a degree in Micro-biology. During his tenure at LBS he was an associate investigator on "Oil consuming bacteria"
During his college weekends he was a deck hand on the dive boat "Golden Doubloon" and in his spare time made and sold custom wood spear guns. His ingenuity and skill was acknowledged in Skin Diver Magazine by the late E. R. Cross.
Prior to entering medical school he was employed as a micro biologist. He set the national Microbiology board and was awarded the title of "Professional Microbiologist"
He began his diving career with 2 hose regulators. Over the years has amassed a rather presentable collection of these antiques. Therefore, it was logical that he become a charter member and active in the Historical Diving Society when it was established.
He also became a NAUI (Life) and PADI instructor and taught SCUBA at one of the largest southern California dive shops.
He convinced the corporate authorities of the dive shop to donate 24 scuba units to established one of the first, Scuba Boy Scout troops in the US. He became and acted as a hands on scout master until he entered medical school
He applied and won the the NAUI scholarship for the 2 week long Catalina chamber course and became chamber qualified technician
While waiting to enter Medical school he began Tec- Mixed Gas diving and made a number of dives in excess of 300 feet on a regular basis off the California coast with his childhood friend Jeff Bozanic.
While attending Medical school he was elected student body President for all four years.
He interned in Dayton Ohio and was appointed Chief intern. Upon completion he moved to Arizona for 4 years of ER residency. Dr. Sam IV successfully completed his ER residency, moved to San Diego and began a Hyperbarric/Diving medicine fellowship on July 1, 2007 at Scripps hospital.
He was awarded the prestigious SSI Platinum Pro 5000 dive award in October 2007 at DEMA. Sam IV and his father Dr. Sam111 are one of the few father & son to be so honored in the history of the Pro 5000.
Sam IV is an exemplary human and a outstanding veteran diver who has certainly distinguished him self in his professional life and in his leisure activity of recreational diving.
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So Mike what do you think?
