Hey everyone,

I just thought I'd publicly post my sincere thanks for the honor of receiving your Lifetime Contribution Award.

I want to first say that Stuart, Ron, and the gang put on the BEST party I've ever attended at a DEMA show. All we needed was some DIR dudes to crash it and start pushing some CCR "strokes" around to make it more memorable...

As for DEMA itself, this was by far the most "interesting" for Rebreather Divers I've seen. There is still an awful lot of Vaporware floating about, but some very positive strides are clearly being made, with newcomers entering the market and giving divers choices. It can only strengthen the market, and (hopefully) result in even better, safer systems for all of us to use. Some of those "choices" I worry about, but that is not a subject for this forum right now (besides, as soon as someone buys any of the new rigs, the lions will begin to feast...)

I got a chance to have some good conversations with who I consider the "fathers" of the eCCR movement (at least manufacture-wise), including Martin Parker (who I congratulated at the show for nearly single-handedly creating this market in the first place), with Kevin Gurr (who revolutionized it by creating the VR series), Peter Readey (who was there before any of us KNEW what a rebreather was), and Leon Scamahorn (who brought high quality, rugged gear to the masses). Of course, me and Duffy are the "mothers" of the movement... heh, heh....

When I gave my speech, I mumbled something about how I started in my garage, and Pat Duffy started in my garage too - but had I been more cognizant, and had had a chance to prepare a speech, I'm sure I would have managed to mangle this:

((Kevin's Speech He Didn't Manage to Give))

Dear Friends,

Thank you for this grand award, an Honor that I truly appreciate.

Little did I know, a dozen years ago or so, when I started building electronics for myself and McKenney in my shop that it would culminate with our current position in the diving world.

I can recall going over to Peter Readey's place, which was a bit larger than my garage, but organized about the same, and talking about rebreathers. It was like a cult religion to us back then, and the "guru's" of the sport had names like Farb, Robinette, and King.

I remember spending hours in my shop with Pat Duffy, who was working for Atlantic Richfield in Alaska, trying to come up with adequate replacements for the sensors Mike Iswalt was hand-making for our Mark 15.5's. Who would have guessed that he would turn a small venture into such a giant, growing business like Oxycheq?

I remember when some English guy named Parker said he was going to start building rebreathers, and again, when another Englishman named Gurr said that he would build a deco computer for them. Everything seemed homemade back then. Everything was pitched together with glue and odd bits. Marco Flagg made the only Deco computer back then for rebreathers, and it weighed about 20 pounds, and Dick King was busy building the first of his many BMR-500's - a rig that was ahead of it's time, and sadly doomed to failure when Dick couldn't make enough money on them...

Peter Readey was building lots of Prism's back then too, but each of them looked different from one another, and Richard Pyle had already earned the nickname I eventually gave him, that of "Gumby"...

There is so much water under the bridge for us now, but not a day goes by that I don't think of the man who was like a brother to me, and, perhaps, the entire reason why I am where I am now - Will Smithers. It was he who urged me to change over to Digital, then showed me how fast it could be done. It was he who I spoke with every single day for years, laughing, joking, making up outrageous inventions which would never see the light of day (like a bailout reg for your cave diving Long Hose which had an "innovative" mouthpiece found at an adult toy store - which guaranteed that your dive buddy would never run out of air... or if he DID, would only do it once!!). He created Z-Plan when asked to pay an "upgrade" fee for another deco program, and lived his life like the rebel he was. He was a Geek, but he was a Cool Geek, and I loved him like he was my blood...

The market has grown so much over the years, and the foundation laid by us "old" timers still reverberates - you can see the innovations that survived trial and failure all around you - Bailout Bottles ported to the Diluent side of rigs, user definable Set Points, Gradient Factors, Heads Up Display's, Gordon Smith's KISS Valve - all are now commonplace, and considered "standard" for rebreathing systems.

It has been, and continues to be, a wild ride. All of us - all of YOU are the pioneers of a field which can only grow as newer, younger divers enter the fray.

It's a great time to be alive, and an even greater time to be in the Rebreather World.

I wish all of you Safety as you ply the ocean waves, Strength to get you through the difficult moments that our chosen sport somtimes entails, and the Peace that comes from being part of a family.

Thank you all so very, very much.

Kevin Juergensen
Juergensen Marine, Inc.