I have a friend at GTMO who was slacking on finding dive buddies for me (she is not a diver) for my recent trip. Sooo, I used the search function here and hooked up with ChunksJR, who was a most gracious host.
Diving there is not exactly like vacation diving, there are a lot more rules & paperwork. He took care of all my dive paperwork before I arrived, usually handled by an office open 2 hours a day, every other day.
He worked nights and dove days with me, crimping his sleep schedule, I am sure.
Dive start/end times have to be called into dispatch, which he did on every dive, I wouldn't know where the phones were or who to call.
On my first giant stride, mask broke, he borrowed one onsite from another dive buddy which she graciously allowed me to borrow all week.
He loaned me his car to pick up gas while he worked overnight.
He navigated all the dives, without getting lost once, hell of a navigator for having only been certified 3 months.
He picked great dive sites!
I am not used to rocky shore entries and surface swims, he was patient and at times kept me from being swept away into the waves and rocks.
He coordinated a boat rental for some night dives and when the ladder was useless, hauled me back onto deck, which I could NOT have done myself.
He let me lead him around at night without lights to see my phosflourescence.
AND
he was a good buddy, no stress diving with a stranger, priceless.
I am mentioning this here because he will be deployed to Norfolk, VA in July and it would be great if someone could pay it forward, like he did for me, and show him the ropes of the local diving there, sites, equip config, boat etiquette, etc which is different from what he has experienced so far.
Donna
Diving there is not exactly like vacation diving, there are a lot more rules & paperwork. He took care of all my dive paperwork before I arrived, usually handled by an office open 2 hours a day, every other day.
He worked nights and dove days with me, crimping his sleep schedule, I am sure.
Dive start/end times have to be called into dispatch, which he did on every dive, I wouldn't know where the phones were or who to call.
On my first giant stride, mask broke, he borrowed one onsite from another dive buddy which she graciously allowed me to borrow all week.
He loaned me his car to pick up gas while he worked overnight.
He navigated all the dives, without getting lost once, hell of a navigator for having only been certified 3 months.
He picked great dive sites!
I am not used to rocky shore entries and surface swims, he was patient and at times kept me from being swept away into the waves and rocks.
He coordinated a boat rental for some night dives and when the ladder was useless, hauled me back onto deck, which I could NOT have done myself.
He let me lead him around at night without lights to see my phosflourescence.
AND
he was a good buddy, no stress diving with a stranger, priceless.
I am mentioning this here because he will be deployed to Norfolk, VA in July and it would be great if someone could pay it forward, like he did for me, and show him the ropes of the local diving there, sites, equip config, boat etiquette, etc which is different from what he has experienced so far.
Donna
