SCUBA DIVING

My maternal grandmother taught me to swim in the ocean when I was only 4 years old.  That sparked the passion that has kept me close to the ocean my entire life.  Besides living and playing near the beach my entire childhood, I spent practically every summer in my aunt's swimming pool.

That love of the water got me fascinated with marine life - I remember waiting in anticipation each Sunday night for that week's episode of the Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau and re-runs of Lloyd Bridges in Sea Hunt.

When I was in the eighth grade I completed a course in skin diving at the local public pool in Torrance, California.  I used to go snorkeling in Palos Verdes every weekend but I knew I wanted more.

The summer of my freshman year in High School I begged my parents for SCUBA lessons at the local dive shop.  At the young age of 14 I became a certified Scuba diver with NAUI.  At the time that was the youngest age you could be. I was hooked!  The very next year I got my Advanced Scuba certification at the age of 15 and I started helping with basic classes as what was called a "safety" diver.  That was a technical term for the person that stood in the surf zone being pummeled by waves making sure new students didn't fall down in the surf.

I loved scuba diving and I loved helping with classes.  Weekends I would work as a deckhand on several of the local dive boats just to be out on the water and in my element.  I got to dive all the Southern California Channel Islands before I even graduated high school.  By the time I turned 18, I became an Assistant Instructor with NAUI, a pretty big accomplishment at time and continued to teach Scuba under the supervision of a full-fledged Scuba Instructor. 

As an adult my passion for scuba diving grew and grew.  Although I maintained my certification as an Assistant Instructor with NAUI continued, I found myself on new diving adventures throughout the Hawaiian Islands, Mexico, South America and all over the Caribbean. I had always had an eye for photography, especially when it involved landscapes and nature.

As technology advanced, I took my photographic skills underwater and that became a major focus of all my diving trips and adventures. I eventually took up underwater videography as a logical progression of creative skills.

I had always intended on becoming a full fledged Scuba Instructor but school, work and life got in the way.  In the early 2000s I was on a dive vacation in the U.S. Virgin Islands.  I had been diving with a specific dive operator for the better part of 10 days.  Remind you, at the time I still held an active Assistant Instructor rating with NAUI, and still helped with classes now and then.

On this particular trip I became friends with the dive staff that operated the charter.  Although I was on vacation doing underwater photography, I often assisted the dive leader with other divers that sometimes struggled in the water.  Towards the end of the trip this particular Instructor asked me why I never became an Instructor myself.  I told him it had been a dream of mine, but like I mentioned previously, life got in the way.

What he said next, changed my life forever - I just didn't know it yet.  I remember him saying to me "you are a natural in the water and you are so good helping others.  It's a shame you never chased that dream.  I hope you don't regret that later in life".  Those words burned into my thoughts on the long flight home.

The very next week I made some calls and signed up and completed a NAUI Divemaster course to prepare me for the Instructor Training Course (ITC) with both NAUI and the prestigious LA County Underwater Unit (UICC).  I completed the course in 4 months and was offered a teaching position with the LA County Underwater unit, which eventually turned into a staff instructor position training other instructor candidates for both NAUI and LA County.