True ghost story...
When Chris Brown from England owned Silent World dive center in Key Largo, he and I were both teaching similar classes. He was teaching NAUI Triox and Advanced Wreck Penetration and I was teaching PSAI Advanced Nitrox and Advanced Wreck Penetration.
It was our last day of training, and my student and I were burned out from 12-hour days that began two weeks prior with cavern and cave training at the intro level. Our plan was to penetrate the engine room of the Spiegel Grove.
Once on the wreck, Milo, my student, didn't feel that motivated. Neither did I. When we woke up that morning, neither one of us wanted to go to school. I even called the president of PSAI to ask if we could use the last dive as a non-dive to teach the lesson "Anyone can call a dive at any time for any reason," even an instructor without punishing the student. Gary Taylor said he would consider it but to do our best to finish the final dive to meet standards. We decided to just take one step at a time to the point we managed to be gearing up on the boat. We felt better and decided to make it an interesting dive.
Milo pulled out his notes after he placed the primary tie and wrote he didn't want to go to the engine room. I suggested we just go to the bow and run line inside at 90 feet. We pulled the reel and headed to the bow.
Meanwhile, Chris and his student had reached the engine room which had also been their goal. When Chris saw an HID light heading their way, he thought, Here comes Trace and Milo, and decided to play a prank on us. They shut off their lights and waited in the dark. When a diver appeared, Chris pounced on him like a ghost.
The diver, a recreational diver with an HID Light Canon, screamed into his regulator in fright and proceeded to swim for the exit flutter kicking as fast as he could.
Back on board, Milo and I had surfaced first. Chris and his student soon returned and were laughing about the dive as they climbed the ladder. Chris related how they scared the life out of the recreational diver thinking he was us. "Oh, F---! I hope he made it," Chris said, laughing.
The boat captain looked puzzled.
"Yeah, but, where did he come from?" the captain asked. He went on to say that no other boats had been on the site. No dive boats. No private boats. Not even a dinghy. There hadn't been a single thing in the area or tied up to any mooring ball the whole time we had been on-site and underwater.
It seemed Chris scared a ghost.
When Chris Brown from England owned Silent World dive center in Key Largo, he and I were both teaching similar classes. He was teaching NAUI Triox and Advanced Wreck Penetration and I was teaching PSAI Advanced Nitrox and Advanced Wreck Penetration.
It was our last day of training, and my student and I were burned out from 12-hour days that began two weeks prior with cavern and cave training at the intro level. Our plan was to penetrate the engine room of the Spiegel Grove.
Once on the wreck, Milo, my student, didn't feel that motivated. Neither did I. When we woke up that morning, neither one of us wanted to go to school. I even called the president of PSAI to ask if we could use the last dive as a non-dive to teach the lesson "Anyone can call a dive at any time for any reason," even an instructor without punishing the student. Gary Taylor said he would consider it but to do our best to finish the final dive to meet standards. We decided to just take one step at a time to the point we managed to be gearing up on the boat. We felt better and decided to make it an interesting dive.
Milo pulled out his notes after he placed the primary tie and wrote he didn't want to go to the engine room. I suggested we just go to the bow and run line inside at 90 feet. We pulled the reel and headed to the bow.
Meanwhile, Chris and his student had reached the engine room which had also been their goal. When Chris saw an HID light heading their way, he thought, Here comes Trace and Milo, and decided to play a prank on us. They shut off their lights and waited in the dark. When a diver appeared, Chris pounced on him like a ghost.
The diver, a recreational diver with an HID Light Canon, screamed into his regulator in fright and proceeded to swim for the exit flutter kicking as fast as he could.
Back on board, Milo and I had surfaced first. Chris and his student soon returned and were laughing about the dive as they climbed the ladder. Chris related how they scared the life out of the recreational diver thinking he was us. "Oh, F---! I hope he made it," Chris said, laughing.
The boat captain looked puzzled.
"Yeah, but, where did he come from?" the captain asked. He went on to say that no other boats had been on the site. No dive boats. No private boats. Not even a dinghy. There hadn't been a single thing in the area or tied up to any mooring ball the whole time we had been on-site and underwater.
It seemed Chris scared a ghost.
