A Passion for Porsches

Being a diver, in some ways, is indicative of one's nature, one's outlook on life, maybe even how we make our living. My son is a chip off the old block, so to speak, and when I look at him, I see characteristics of myself. One of those characteristics, good or bad, is that we both appear to be "risk takers". This shows up not only in the fact that we are willing to enter an environment made for creatures with gills, needing specially designed equipment allowing us to imitate them and keep breathing, but also in other aspects of our lives.

I used to be the Director of a large, Arizona County Planning Department, a government agency responsible for planning and guiding the growth and development of one of the fastest growing counties in the fastest growing state in America. I lasted 5 years and took an offer to be Project Manager of a Master Planned Community; private industry vs. government service. I have been working without a security net ever since.

Part of that risk taking personality causes us to look beyond the generic, commuter car, the van or econo car for transportation. My eyes jerk sideways every time a hot looking set of wheels slips into my periferal vision. The Porsche Boxster causes the most violent reaction for me. I have always liked the Porsche and until 1997, the 911 was first choice. However, when Porsche revealed the "survival" inspired commemoration of the famous 550 racing Porsche Spyder of the 1950's and named it the Boxster, my passion flared. What a beautiful, inspiring "topless" ride with balance, power, sophistication and style. And plenty of room front and back to carry the gear. Made for the heart of a diver. Take a look at another brother's blog; .porschephile.com. Maybe it'll be a test of your personality; are you a "risk taker"?

This is not just about me.

This site is supposed to be about diving as a passion, a curiosity for the unknown, a desire to see another scene unfold below the reflection of the sun off the water. There are ship and plane wrecks, odd but beautifully colored marine creatures, strange coral reef formations with other-worldly looking plants like fans, human brains and elk horns. These blogs have talked a lot about me and what dives "I" have made, but my desire was to hear from you; to share your experiences and love of diving. I (?can't seem to get rid of that pronoun) have enjoyed chatting with divers from many different parts of the world and backgrounds. You all have stories and experiences and they are worthy of being shared.

On a dive off California (my wife was back in Arizona) I hooked up with another lone diver. He was a nice guy with a big bushy mustache that he struggled to tuck into his mask, and a little portly. However, he was well experienced and we jumped in for a swim. He took off in the lead like he was on a scooter and I have never had to fin so hard to keep up with anyone else in my life. He must have been doing 2 knots at least and I could barely keep up through a kelp forest we entered. I nearly lost him a few times and when I caught him once, I signaled to him to calm down, slow down and enjoy the trip. I like to take my time, look around, follow the terrain, explore, use all my time and air, and see what's down there. In twenty minutes, he was out of air and we surfaced quite a ways from the boat and paddled back on the surface having seen little of interest.

When we got back to the boat, he said, "Sorry. I'm just an air sucking dog." I told him, "If you'd slow down and not act like you're trying to outrun a shark, you might even enjoy it." The next dives were taken more leisurely; we watched for marine life, looked for coral and rock formations, explored the geology off the back side of Catalina Island and had a great time. I've never dived with him since, but hope he takes a little more time to see what's going on around him and appreciates the beauty of the world he enters by just jumping off a boat.

Following diving rules

Diving was a new experience for Louie and I in our fifties. Our son, Patrick, invited us to take instruction because he wanted to learn to dive, and thought we could spend some time together traveling and diving. We literally jumped into the pool and got certified before he did. I was concerned about Louie on our certification dives in the cold Pacific Ocean off the coast of Long Beach, CA. We had spent a lot of time at Lake Powell riding waverunners with several couples as friends. We tried to splash each other and sometimes carving a fast, sharp turn to spray another couple, ended up with Louie and I in the drink. She used to warn me, "Don't turn us over"! Lake Powell is muddy brown run-off water, and I thought maybe she was a little frightened by the unseen lurking beneath. When we were told to jump off the boat into the bottomless, briny deep, on our first open water dive, there was no hesitation. Louie went in like it was the backyard pool. No big deal.

Later, I voiced my puzzlement to her that I thought she might be apprehensive jumping off a dive boat in the deep, bottomless ocean with no visible shoreline because of her previous concern at Lake Powell. She said, "Nope. I just didn't want to get my hair wet." So much for female trepidation.

There are a lot of crazy people that just like getting wet. I've met a number of them and they're often on crowded dive boats. Diving is somewhat like flying; there are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots. There are old divers that go by the book, and bold divers that fly by the seat of their pants, and sometimes suffer the consequences. More than a few famous, experienced divers break a rule and end up in the chamber, or worse. Me, I love the buddy system and I want to come up every time to share the experience and go back and do it again and again. Following the rules in the sea-down-under increases the chance to become an old diver.

Getting Started

Just posted some notes of gratitude about me as I continue this blogging experience (just for introduction and to let you all know how truly blessed I am). I have to talk about my family from time to time as they are the greatest part of my life; the source of my joy. Some of my most enjoyable times, and favorite memories, have been dive trips; vacations with a twist of lime. My wife being a flight attendant has given us the opportunity to travel to places we have enjoyed together so much and would not otherwise have happened.

Our last dive trip was to the Bahamas where we dove "Shark Alley", with vicious, man-eating, gray Caribbean reef sharks. Well maybe not, but raises the heart rate and anticipation level a bit anyway. The regular dive boat was "down-for-repairs" so we had to pile 7 divers, a guide and boat Captain in a small, Moby Dick-like, 17 foot open fishing boat. At least it was motorized.
When we got to the site, trying to get dressed in a huddle is not my idea of fun, so I rolled out of the boat and asked the guide to lower my tanks to me and I put the gear on in the water. When I turned over to cinch my waist belt, I was looking down about 60 feet to a welcoming group of circling sharks. Makes one pucker and think about the stories you hear on the dive boats at night.

I had my expensive new, handy-dandy dive camera with me and tried to load the film as we raced to the site from shore through some fairly rough seas. Bouncing along, I didn't get the end of the film caught into the camera advancing rachet, and when I got to the bottom, realized the film was not advancing. However, being the clever, Clive Cussler diver I am, I continued to act like I was snapping National Geographic Award Winning photos so my dive companions wouldn't know what a novice dunce they were diving with. The sight of Porsche-928-shaped sharks swimming right at you, turning away inches from your nose, is etched into my memory forever, but alas, no photographic evidence to prove my manhood. Another interesting learning dive. Still trying to get it right.

My hope is to have others share their experiences, tersely, to enjoy conversation of that which we love.