About the author…
I grew up in San Antonio, TX snorkeling the lakes and rivers of Central Texas.
What was I thinking about the hair!
I got certified in 1978 at age 15 and bought my first set of gear in 1979. It consisted of a tank, a reg, an SPG, harness, knife and capillary depth gauge all for $359.50. BCD jackets were already on the dive scene but outside the budget of a paperboy
In 1983, I took my first underwater photos using an Ikelite Trimcase housing a pocket instamatic camera.
Water snake on the bottom of the Rio Medina river in Central Texas 1983
By the late 1980’s buoyancy jackets were common but there were still horsecollar vests in the water.
Me, my dive buddy Russell Sloan and my Nikonos III
Canyon Lake, TX
In 1992 I became an open water scuba instructor in Houston, TX
Oil Platform thirty miles off the coast of Texas
In the early nineties sport divers began to venture beyond the “No Decompression Limits” to go deeper and stay longer. Advanced techniques were borrowed from military and commercial divers. At the same time cave divers were developing protocols to safely operate in overhead environments. A community of deep divers came together around a controversial magazine called “Aquacorps” and the term “technical diving” was coined for sport divers going beyond the range of normal scuba diving. Technical diving gave me a means to reach deep sites that were out of my reach as a kid.
My first decompression rig:
Vest style BCD w/ 60# redundant wing
Twin 80 cft tanks independently configured
Back mounted 30 cft pony with 50/50 nitrox homebrew
DCIEM Canadian Deco tables
In nineteen ninety-six I went to work for Sherwood/Genesis scuba doing sales and technical support.
My first year in scuba’s manufacturing sector.
Turks and Caicos Islands
After nine years with Sherwood/Genesis, I spent two years at Ocean Management Systems doing sales and technical developement. OMS builds advanced diving gear for cave divers, shipwreck divers and scientific research divers all over the world.
So now I’m all grown up…
Currently, I'm working for XS Scuba as an operations manager over two divisions.
Sea Pearls - For over 30 years, the premier manufacturer of diecast diving weights
Atlantic Diving Equipment - Making the most rugged and durable commercial diver harnessing in the water today