Everything was new. We spear-fished like mad. Every dive was accompanied by a sense of adventure and even danger. Then the hunter became a fascinated observer and eventually a conservationist. I like to think that most — if not all — divers followed that course of awareness and care for the new world opened to them.
I am shamed to admit that I have never kept a log. I have no idea how many dives I have made over the years. I can tell you that it is the professional dive masters on the live-aboard dive boats who, in the long run, accumulate the most dives. A dive log could have recalled the many details that should accompany an account of adventures in the sea long ago. You bought one of the original aqualungs back in Did you ever have any contact with Cousteau?
I still have a summer home in Maine. My first use of the AquaLung was in front of my house on Penobscot Bay. That was about I supplemented my income as a blueberry farmer with small marine recovery jobs. My little compressor, made by Cornelius, was My insulation was a latex back-entry suit under which I wore long underwear.
It leaked. I froze; but I was young with a good metabolism and could handle it. I do not dive in Maine any more, having — long since — become spoiled by warm tropical waters all over the ocean world. I work in my woods, read on my porch that looks out on the sea, eat lobsters that I buy from the lobsterman right in front of the house and leave that cold water to younger divers.
I never knew Cousteau well. We were on many programs together over the years and knew one another, but I never dove with him. His younger son, Philippe, was a good friend. Our families visited back and forth. He died some years ago in a plane crash. His successor, Jean Michel, is also a friend. We meet too seldom. I think highly of him and very much commend the fine work he is doing in promoting marine conservation and sustaining the reputation of the Cousteau name.
He is a superb communicator with a splendid sense of humor. I wish circumstances enabled us to meet more often. Jacque Cousteau is for the diving world the man of the century. His first television series was a master stroke of showmanship. You lived the dream of quitting your job as a blueberry farmer and moving your family to the Bahamas to set up a dive operation. That was the genesis — the first spark — of a wild new thought.
Perhaps, by taking a chance, I could project myself into a new and exciting world of adventure in the sea. The life Cousteau had carved for himself was wonderfully appealing. Quite frankly blueberry farming was circumscribed by long periods of inactivity.
It was also economically precarious and hardly inspiring as an activity. What did it take to change the course of my life? The answer soon dominated my mind. Take a chance; make a move.
That somewhat obtuse but literary exhortation by the master writer was none-the-less inspiring for this young, restless farmer. It led to the building of a boat with a Maine Coast lobsterman hull and specially designed for diving. Contacts were made with friends in the Bahamas.
In I took my new boat, Zingaro, all the way from Maine to Nassau and, with the help of my friends there, set up business as a diver with a small live-aboard dive boat capacity. The family moved with me. The children started school there and I gradually developed a clientele. Was it a struggle in the early years to look after your family and pursue your love of diving? It was hard work. There was resistance from the local charter boatmen. Messages 3, Reaction score Location somewhere between Texas and Mexico of dives - Hey all, over the past couple years I have been going through a series of retina detachments and because of the multiple surgeries, 9 now including 2 recent glaucoma surgeries , I have lost most the sight in one eye.
Is there anyone else out there with sight in just one eye who dives? Glaucoma can be a contraindication to diving, I hope you have covered this with your ophthalmologist. Messages Reaction score 62 Location Sydney of dives - I have a severe squint in my right eye, it's pretty much only good for some peripheral vision but is devoid of any actual focus or detail. Never been an issue for me when diving, but then again it's been from birth so I know no different.
It's only recently become annoying from a dive perspective because most of the new 'heads up' computer displays are configured for use over the right eye so for me totally useless. Probably saved me a couple of grand to be honest. ScubaBoard Supporter. My good friend dives with one eye, depth perception a challenge but he is a far better diver than I am regardless Also he has one leg amputed. I've had a bad eye infection and dove with a patch inside my mask It isn't a very challenging adjustment.
I imagine if you're already familiar with life in monocular vision it won't bother your diving at all. Do, however, clear yourself with a doctor who knows your file. There might be medical complications. Cheers, Cameron. Messages Reaction score 56 Location underwater of dives - I have been legally blind in my left eye for a number of years. And as I was born with a lazy left eye in the days before it was commonly known how to treat this condition, I've never had good sight in that eye.
I have been diving for many years from tropical reefs to deep shipwrecks and even caves. My advice is,if you really want to be a scuba diver, don't let anything stop you, and do it while you can. Good luck!
We are not their natural prey. If we were, no person could enter the ocean with safety. Eventually, the boat reached Tiger Beach, a seemingly unremarkable shallow-water sandbank a few miles from Grand Bahama Island. The scent of all that fish carried over the bank and along with the current flow, drawing in all manner of investigative sharks, though the first and most numerous to arrive were the lemon sharks.
Within a few hours, 25 or more lemon sharks — each a couple of metres long — swirled and cruised beneath the Shear Water, nuzzling the bait crates but unable to get a taste at the attractant fish bits inside. Divers went in to watch the swirling mass of yellow-brown lemon sharks. Every now and then, a larger piece of fish fillet or skin would work its way out of one of the plastic crates and float free of its enclosure.
The shark nearest that could detect the sudden presence of something edible, would come alive as if charged with electricity, and quickly snap the bit up, sending nearby sharks into a briefly frenetic hustle.
The septuagenarians and octogenarian joined the other divers on the bottom. All the participants were under orders to wear all-black covering on every part of their bodies, from hoods and gloves to wetsuits and dive gear, yet individual personalities were easy to discern by their individual still and video cameras and the irregularities of diving fin manufacturers. Stan settled to the bottom, hefted a large black Gates video housing and pressed it to his facemask and one good eye.
Also, they wear blue Cressi Rondine fins from the s and move about the water with the same grace as the sharks they film. A favoured tiger shark — named Emma after a Shear Water client — appeared from the distance and approached, attracted by the scent of the bait and, no doubt, conditioned by the hundreds of baited dives carried out by the Shear Water over the past decade.
Emma, who is more than 4m in length, approached slowly and was concerned only with the aromas of the bait crate. She tolerated the hyperkinetic swirl of the lemon sharks; she was oblivious to the flashes of light from photographers flash guns.
Her eyes looked over the divers as she passed, but her teeth remained hidden beneath her large but tightly closed mouth. Again and again, Emma approached the divers and bait crates. She was photographed and filmed and photographed and filmed again and again. Not once was there an anxious moment for a diver or for a shark. The three old friends, who have made a life of experiencing sharks, had another adventure that was as fulfilling as their first shark encounters.
That raised another point: that their memories of shark encounters past were still so vivid. The ocean and its inhabitants have a remarkable power to alter our perception of time and to experience beauty in a way that is, for some reason, impossible on land.
To know one in the wild is a privilege that I wish more people could experience. My fear is that we will have hunted them into extinction before their importance in the balance of life is realised. The tiger shark experiences in the Bahamas trip are absolutely delightful, especially Emma, who is a sweet-natured fish with incredible charm and knows exactly how to perform for the cameras.
Our host, Jimmy Abernethy, has known Emma for a long time and, I feel, loves her very much, probably in the same way that dog owners love their dogs.
As for Stan Waterman, the presence of large sharks in the Bahamas was especially pleasing.
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