I'm not a resident, but I do come up for at least a week of diving and a couple of long weekends every year. We've been doing this for 5 year now. Since you mentioned old laws being enforced, I wanted to remark about something that happened a couple of weeks ago....
I was on a SI at Plum Cove and my 8 year old son had been wading around the shallows with his younger brother around for about 20 minutes. I guess he got bored harassing the hermit crabs, so he ran up to our gear and got his mask, fins, and snorkel to go exploring. As he was getting into the water, the Lifeguard approached him and said that he couldnt use his snorkel. Liam, my son, came back to drop his snorkel back off and relayed what the Lifeguard had told him.
I walked over to the Lifeguard and asked what was going on. He explained to me that the City had a rule that you had to be certified to snorkel. I related that this hadnt been in effect during the last 4 years we had visited and he informed me that it was an old rule that they had been directed to start enforcing. I didnt want to harass the kid and ask why he had not asked me to see my c-card. I like Cape Ann diving and didnt want to give the residents fuel for disliking us. Anyway, I didnt ask what prompted this snorkeling crackdown, but went over to Liam and explained the issue to him. He was having fun, so it didnt really matter in the grand scheme of things.
Lesson learned, next year Ill run him through the Skin Diver course and have a card ready for the Lifeguards.
Dave
I forgot.:blinking:
