james croft
Contributor
Influenced by watching Sea Hunt I began diving in 1967 with a Voit double hose reg, a j-valve 72, Voit Viking fins, Sea Hawk knife, a round mask and a depth guage. I wore a pair of cut-off jeans when I dove. I speared fish and brought up brass from WW2 wrecks in the Philippines. I was 12 years old at the time.
Beginning in the 70's I began diving with a couple of public safety diving teams. I began diving with no certifications and continued like that for 20 years. I got my first open water card by trading a pony bottle and five bucks to an instructor friend who needed a bail-out bottle for his commercial diving. He just asked me to take the final written exam which I passed, missing only one question.
Since then I have gotten dozens of certifications with many agencies including Dive Rescue International, TDI, SSI, PADI, PSI, etc. And I actually took that training...
Over the years I have seen a whole lot of changes in training, gear and procedures. Most of them were for the best.
Over the years I have been involved in recovering a lot of victims, a lot of stolen evidence and many dozens of crime guns. My gear got more sophisticated as time went by with drysuits, computers, full face mask with comm, and side-scan sonar. I helped get my current team get started and had a lot of fun doing so. We mainly did underwater criminal investigations.
Half the fun was scrounging the gear when we got started. We got a lot of navy surplus equipment. Once in a while before we got a dedicated dive team budget a friendly captain would find a few bucks to purchase an AGA mask for an officer. Over the years I built up a bunch of good gear that was dependable and met my needs.
A couple of months ago I gave up my supervisor's position to another diver as my current position is keeping me traveling and I could not devote the time to it or be available as necessary. Due to structured training days I knew with my uncertain schedule I would most likely not be able to meet them.
Last week I decided I had had a pretty good run with the dive team and decided to retire from it. I have had my fun and felt a lot of satisfaction seeing that the dive team is in good hands. l turned in my gear in with mixed feelings but I am glad someone else will be using it for good things.
I will still be diving as much as I can. The only difference will be that the sites I pick will be clearer and warmer and the things I find now I will be able to keep. Even more satisfying will be that the gear I will be diving will be my lovingly restored Voit double hose reg, j-valved 72 or triple tank set up, Sea Hawk and my big old depth guage. I just need to find a larger set of cut-off blue jeans.
I wish you all as much satisfaction from public safety diving as I have gotten out of it.
Dive safe !
Jim Croft
Beginning in the 70's I began diving with a couple of public safety diving teams. I began diving with no certifications and continued like that for 20 years. I got my first open water card by trading a pony bottle and five bucks to an instructor friend who needed a bail-out bottle for his commercial diving. He just asked me to take the final written exam which I passed, missing only one question.
Since then I have gotten dozens of certifications with many agencies including Dive Rescue International, TDI, SSI, PADI, PSI, etc. And I actually took that training...
Over the years I have seen a whole lot of changes in training, gear and procedures. Most of them were for the best.
Over the years I have been involved in recovering a lot of victims, a lot of stolen evidence and many dozens of crime guns. My gear got more sophisticated as time went by with drysuits, computers, full face mask with comm, and side-scan sonar. I helped get my current team get started and had a lot of fun doing so. We mainly did underwater criminal investigations.
Half the fun was scrounging the gear when we got started. We got a lot of navy surplus equipment. Once in a while before we got a dedicated dive team budget a friendly captain would find a few bucks to purchase an AGA mask for an officer. Over the years I built up a bunch of good gear that was dependable and met my needs.
A couple of months ago I gave up my supervisor's position to another diver as my current position is keeping me traveling and I could not devote the time to it or be available as necessary. Due to structured training days I knew with my uncertain schedule I would most likely not be able to meet them.
Last week I decided I had had a pretty good run with the dive team and decided to retire from it. I have had my fun and felt a lot of satisfaction seeing that the dive team is in good hands. l turned in my gear in with mixed feelings but I am glad someone else will be using it for good things.
I will still be diving as much as I can. The only difference will be that the sites I pick will be clearer and warmer and the things I find now I will be able to keep. Even more satisfying will be that the gear I will be diving will be my lovingly restored Voit double hose reg, j-valved 72 or triple tank set up, Sea Hawk and my big old depth guage. I just need to find a larger set of cut-off blue jeans.
I wish you all as much satisfaction from public safety diving as I have gotten out of it.
Dive safe !
Jim Croft