As you know most of my diving has involved free diving and spearfishing. But I've also done my fair share of SCUBA beginning a long time ago before one needed to be "certified" (back in the 50s). I was taught by my best friends brother a UDT instructor (now today's Navy Seals) off the coast of Malibu-where we would wear 1/2 hr bottles with J valves. You needed to begin coming up when your breathing became less easy. You pulled on the J valve and you had around 5-8 minutes of air left-depending on how deep you were. Long story short-I never became certified since all my "tank diving" was on private boats or off shore with friends-until one fateful day ! Just before leaving on an excursion to the Corral Sea I was told there would be a "dive master" on board and if we wanted to go diving with a breathing apparatus we better be certified. So I enrolled in a pool lesson thingy. Keep in mind when I originally learned it was at the bottom of a Malibu reef where we had to exchange everything (mask, weights, tank/regulators), with another diver in cold murky waters with a current running. And Steve, this was even before wetsuits were around. So I thought this pool thing was pretty elementary-which it was. So comes our first ocean dive and the guy who is to certify you knows my background and assigns a "buddy" to me who was 14 yrs old with limited experience in the ocean. We go to Catalina Island off Ship Rock and the two of us jump in. After a few minutes I am filming a small harbor seal that is darting in and out of the kelp. I get so engrossed in the seal that I lose track of my 14 yr old "buddy". Get back to the boat and do I hear it from not only the dive master but also the kids parents. The dive master makes me the subject of a long lecturer to everyone on board and threatened not to certify me. Later he apologized to me in person saying he had to use me as an example. And yes he did certify me, notwithstanding.
BTW: the corral sea was unbelievable clear water. Often well over 150 ft and suffice it to say I did more "tank diving" than free diving on that and on subsequent trips to the same area. Your photography skills would go insane there-sunken warships (battle of the Corral Sea) and all.
