I was told about a thread here with this title so I thought I should introduce myself:
I was born in the middle of the 20th Century.
I started my career, cutting the throats of innocent young men who were merely doing the bidding of their own government. We quietly won that war while the Americans noisily lost another nearby.
I then lived through the '70s and '80s like King Farouk. I started as a glamour photographer for a well-known magazine, then became an advertising photographer, and even directed a few films in that famous suburb of Los Angeles. I met some very interesting people during this time and still see their names come up in credits and have even spent time with a guy who lives in a very big house in The Mall. (My son thought I was a rock n roll star!)
Lt.Commander David Sisman intriduced me to diving. He warned me that the Royal Navy recruited divers from among men who proved incompetent pushing mops. Nevertheless I got hooked. That was in the late '70s and I joined the BSAC in the mid-'80s.
My diving hero is Stan Waterman. I nearly have as many anecdotes as he does. When I recently witnessed a young diver telling him where he was going wrong he kindly replied, "Good for You!"
That is the only problem with diving.Tomorrow someone will try on a mask for the first time. They will see their first glimpse of the underwater world, and within a couple of years will be an expert who will tell YOU where you are going wrong.
Peter Readey introduced me to rebreathers. When I last met him, he remarked that few of our group (those who went 'technical' in early days) are still around. I count Bret Gilliam as a friend. We meet at least once a year and have dinner. He pays. Alas, Rob Palmer let the new divers get to him and he paid the price.
As Barry Kinsman (another successful flm director) said, He just gets fed up with having to convince boys fresh out of school that he is good enough to shoot their crappy idea for a commercial. I understand Ridley Scott felt the same way when he upped and walked from a pre-production meeting for a recent Guinness commercial.
Years ago I knew Claude Levec. He was one of Omar Bradley's adjutants. Alas, most people saw him just as a silly old man with lots of stories about the War. Old age is never kind.
So enjoy diving. Enjoy being an expert. Just remember that as you get older and more experienced you will apparently know less and less. I have a nine-year-old and a six-year-old who already think they know a lot more than all of us. I took my nine-year-old scuba-diving in the Maldives in January. After about half-an-hour she signalled up. We went to the surface, where she asked, "Can we go and make sandcastles now?"
Thanks for reading this rambling post. I just want to spend my life being on holiday. What is wrong with that? Remember Hugh Hefner has had a much better time than any of us. ...and he never used a rebreather!
