Paladin
Contributor
Maybe it's because I'm getting older and feeling it, or maybe it's because of the posts I have read here on SB, or maybe a combination of both, but lately I've found myself doing lot of reminiscing about my early years of diving. At the time, I really didn't think about it much. It was all so new and exciting and every dive was a new adventure. Only now, looking back from the perspective of 44 years later, do I understand how special it really was.
What made it so special was that a group of crusty old ex-Navy divers, hardened by two wars and years of doing hazardous work underwater, would reach out to a snot-nosed kid with a yearning to learn to dive. Can you imagine a bunch of guys in their 40s, 50s and 60s volunteering their time to dive with a kid who was barely big enough to strap on a SCUBA tank?
When Harold introduced me to his friends that first time, there wasn't a grumble one from the bunch. They pulled me right into their midst and accepted me as one of the gang right from the start. In spite of my newbie status, to them I was a diver, plain and simple and they treated me as such. I wasn't aware of it then, but now I realize that they must have frequently tailored their dives to match the limited experience and abilities of their newest member: staying shallow when they really wanted to go deep; cutting a dive short to stay at NDL rather than doing a deco and other sacrifices done for my benefit. Perhaps it was because they all had kids who had no interest in diving, or maybe they just wanted to share their world with someone new. Whatever the reason, I owe those old guys a lot.
Thanks, Guys. Wherever you are.
What made it so special was that a group of crusty old ex-Navy divers, hardened by two wars and years of doing hazardous work underwater, would reach out to a snot-nosed kid with a yearning to learn to dive. Can you imagine a bunch of guys in their 40s, 50s and 60s volunteering their time to dive with a kid who was barely big enough to strap on a SCUBA tank?
When Harold introduced me to his friends that first time, there wasn't a grumble one from the bunch. They pulled me right into their midst and accepted me as one of the gang right from the start. In spite of my newbie status, to them I was a diver, plain and simple and they treated me as such. I wasn't aware of it then, but now I realize that they must have frequently tailored their dives to match the limited experience and abilities of their newest member: staying shallow when they really wanted to go deep; cutting a dive short to stay at NDL rather than doing a deco and other sacrifices done for my benefit. Perhaps it was because they all had kids who had no interest in diving, or maybe they just wanted to share their world with someone new. Whatever the reason, I owe those old guys a lot.
Thanks, Guys. Wherever you are.