uh Doc I guess I am speaking for you....:no
Feel free.
That picture is of
the real deal,
Doc Radawski. Throw
that name into GOOGLE.
Talk about a
been there, done that kind of guy in the dive world.
He was one of the first adopters of the Force Fin.
Doc Radawski Testimonial
Read more stuff like this:
James "Doc" Radawski sat at a table in the open-air bar at the Coco View, a diving lodge nestled at the jungle's edge on the remote Honduran island of Roatan, and contemplated a bottle of Port Royal. On Roatan, Doc's home for the previous 20 years, one of two beers can be ordered: brown or green. Port Royal is the green beer.
"When you start believing your own press," he said, "you're in trouble." He meant the title of living legend, awarded him by various travel writers who cover the Caribbean for the scuba diving trade. "However," the marine archeologist admitted, "it is, of course, vastly preferable to being a deceased legend."
at
Doc of the Bay
In 1983 he was hired on as a compressor fixer guy, then his job evolved to the first dive Guide at CoCoView with Bill Evans and Calvin (of Calvin's Crack fame).
Many years ago, during a time that
Mary's Place was closed to tourism, Doc had they keys to the place. He was living in the house you might see just North of the dive site towards land. Not only a well educated man, but also pretty good with a .22 rifle, see?
On the selection of dive companions
I was on the island, called him up and asked if he needed any assist in doing an "counts" to document the regrowth. The time and date was arranged and I arrived with my stuff. He looked at my bulky self and squinted, wondering what kind of trouble he was in for. When my gear was set up and placed in the microscopic dinghy, he relaxed a bit and asked, "
They still make parts for that stuff?"
He used a 50, and while I sucked the 80 to dust, he exited with 1500 psi. His hair is rather abundant so it does obscure the gills.
If you die first, we're splitting up your gear
I had only met Doc once before, back in 1984 when we were night diving off of Roatan and Alan from Ohio sucked a Sea Wasp into his snorkel and also squeezed one between his inner thighs. Alan didn't know what had hit him and wondered aloud if he was having a coronary. We had him on his back on a tiny bench when Doc Radawski came out of the dark bush and said, "
Hit by Jellies. Got some Adolf's Meat tenderizer... that'll do it." As it was applied, Doc looked at Alan's Nikonos and commented that it was a
real nice camera. I made mention of Alan's Rolex. We then began dividing up Alan's gear... just in case.
On expert opinions
Doc was sitting in the bar (imagine that?) after we returned from our night dive. I had logged about 400 night dives in the Caribbean and we had just seen a huge ribbon worm (something that was noted as a new discovery in the Natl Geographic Magazine some 9 years later!). We excitedly described it to Doc. He listened, sipped more Salva Vida and answered our
whatzit question with, "
It's a big ocean out there."
The island vagabond returns
He left Roatan 2000 or so, he moved to New Orleans where he was in his groove, was in New Orleans for Katrina, he then went to Maine (?) and did regulator/compressor work, and now he'll be back to where he belongs on June 21st~ back home at CoCoView.
Consider it a treat to dive with him. Consider it an honor to sit and drink Port Royal beers with him.
I took my 11year old nephew 
