- Messages
- 5,141
- Reaction score
- 4,136
- # of dives
- 5000 - ∞
This thread has a strong Arizona connection...Grand parent and great grand parents arrived in Arizona in a wagon train during the pre-statehood territorial days..settled a number of places in Arizona, several named after them in their honor
Father spent his USAF career as an officer at Luke AFB during the Korean War. Was a friend with Boris Inocenti who established the first dive shop in Phoenix. Had a dedicated dive column "Our Diving Heritage" In the defunct Arizona Diving News later changed to Southwest Diving news.
Dr. Sam IV often visited Arizona as a youth. He has spent 4 years in Kingman as an ER resident at the Kingman General Hospital. He will be leaving in June for a fellowship in San Diego.
Every parent should be proud of their children --I certainly am of my four off-springs. I will not bore you with accomplishments the three girls, Roni, Dr. Randi & Keni, who are all veteran divers in their own right, but rather will spend some time on Dr.Sam IV, who is also a veteran diver...
So if interested read on....
Sam IV was born into a pioneer Orange county, California dive family. He began his diving career as a toddler at about 2 years old in the bath tub sucking on a modified regulator, by 4 the "Do-boy" pool at 5 into the family pool and then the Pacific, in the beginning not to deep or too far from the beach, but he was underwater and he was a diver in his mind. He rapidly progressed in his diving skills and grew in stature.. Prior to reaching his 10 birthday he had logged 100+ open water dives, on his 12 birth day he dove to 130 ( oops! depth gauge was in error was to have been 100 feet)
At the ripe old age of 11 he also made his first dive in a Mark V helmet, the KM and Swindel hats at the Commercial Diving center in Wilmington-- he was large for his age and the ole dad was a personal friend of the school manager and of course also fibbed a bit!
During the summer of his 12th birthday he was accepted and successfully completed the five day US Divers Equipment repair course under Bryan Miller, now an east coast US Divers sales representative. Because of his youth and excitement for diving he became a favorite of John Cronin, US Divers president and founder of PADI who presented him with a new set of equipment and several US Divers shirts. A few weeks later JY Cousteau sent him a personally autographed book
In high school he was an outstanding student, campus leader and athlete. He was active in his church and scouting became an Eagle scout.
One of his biology classes required a human performance experiment. Sam IV chose Scuba diving fin performance. He contacted all of the manufactures who provided him with cases of fins. He went about developing a performance testing machine and establishing test criteria. He enlisted his youthful diving buddies and dad as test subjects. The fin that had the greatest overall performance was one that had been designed by a former student of his father, Herb Van der pol and the fin was a "Planar" which was a surprise to all. His 15 page evaluation report was given the grade of A+.
Concurrently he was active in SoCal diving circles; by his piers was considered a top hunter and spear fisherman ( free diving.) When he turned 18 he applied and after 18 months as a "provisional" was accepted as a full member of the famous Long Beach Neptunes Spear fishing club, the second oldest club and most restrictive membership diving club in US.
He was the youngest diver ever to be listed in "Whos who of SCUBA Diving." Only one other father/son was listed in Whos who.
At Long Beach State he studied biology. While at LBS he was a deck hand on the dive boat "Golden Doubloon" with Greg Elliot as the captain. In his spare time (?) made and sold custom wood spear guns. His ingenuity and skill was acknowledged in a Skin Diver Magazine article by his friend the late E.R. Cross.
At the insistance of his father he began his diving career with 2 hose regulators. Over the years has amassed a rather presentable collection of these antiques. Therefore, it was logical that he become a charter member and active in the Historical Diving Society when it was established over 10 years ago.
He also became a NAUI (Life) and taught SCUBA at one of the largest SoCal dive shops. His NAUI instructor/trainer was one of the best but even the best courses never fully developed a seasoned instructor . To insure he would develop into a top instructor his initial classes were monitored and later critiqued by some of the outstanding veteran instructors of Orange County and Southern California. He rapidly advanced as a top instructor
When the organization switched to PADI he became a PADI instructor
While employed as an Instructor he convinced the authorities of the corporation to donate 24 scuba units to established one of, if not the first, Scuba Boy Scout troops. He became and acted as a hands on scout master until he entered med school
As a NAUI instructor he was eligible for the NAUI scholarship for the 2 week long Catalina chamber course-- he applied and won the scholarship. He completed the internship and became chamber qualified. Several years later during the annual Catalina clean up there was an embolism. He was the inside tech and made a 14 hour chamber ride - the Catalina record.
While waiting to enter Med school he began Tec- Mixed Gas diving with his good friend Jeff Bozanic making 300 and 400 foot dives on a regular basis.
He enter Med school eight years ago. He was elected student body President.
While in med school he had a six week rotation in a small Mexican village on the mainland. He would treat patients in the morning an study and practice Spanish during the after noon. He now speaks presentable Spanish -- especially if related to medical.
He interned in Dayton Ohio and was appointed Chief intern--after one winter of snow and ice he discovered he was "a man of the west" so returned to Arizona for his 4 years of ER residency. His residency will be completed in June.
Several months ago he was advised by the hospital authorities that there was a vacancy for a one year fellowship for Diving med at San Diego State (AKA: Scripps Institute of Oceanography.) He applied.
Several days ago he was personally informed by the director that he had been granted the fellowship. The director indicated he had never had any applicant as qualified as Sam IV--He had the most experience, knowledge and best over all qualifications of any applicant that had ever applied..
SAM IV is not exactly a typical SoCal diver, or a typical recreational diver...And our family gatherings are not exactly typical family gatherings...we discuss the events of the underwater world rather than the lastest ball game or who won the last race..
So if you get twisted diving or cough up red stuff and end up in San Diego-- the big 6 foot 3 inch fellow in the white coat is a rather experienced diver who is certainly qualified to treat you...
An there is lot more ...but I have borrrred you enough...
sdm111
Father spent his USAF career as an officer at Luke AFB during the Korean War. Was a friend with Boris Inocenti who established the first dive shop in Phoenix. Had a dedicated dive column "Our Diving Heritage" In the defunct Arizona Diving News later changed to Southwest Diving news.
Dr. Sam IV often visited Arizona as a youth. He has spent 4 years in Kingman as an ER resident at the Kingman General Hospital. He will be leaving in June for a fellowship in San Diego.
Every parent should be proud of their children --I certainly am of my four off-springs. I will not bore you with accomplishments the three girls, Roni, Dr. Randi & Keni, who are all veteran divers in their own right, but rather will spend some time on Dr.Sam IV, who is also a veteran diver...
So if interested read on....
Sam IV was born into a pioneer Orange county, California dive family. He began his diving career as a toddler at about 2 years old in the bath tub sucking on a modified regulator, by 4 the "Do-boy" pool at 5 into the family pool and then the Pacific, in the beginning not to deep or too far from the beach, but he was underwater and he was a diver in his mind. He rapidly progressed in his diving skills and grew in stature.. Prior to reaching his 10 birthday he had logged 100+ open water dives, on his 12 birth day he dove to 130 ( oops! depth gauge was in error was to have been 100 feet)
At the ripe old age of 11 he also made his first dive in a Mark V helmet, the KM and Swindel hats at the Commercial Diving center in Wilmington-- he was large for his age and the ole dad was a personal friend of the school manager and of course also fibbed a bit!
During the summer of his 12th birthday he was accepted and successfully completed the five day US Divers Equipment repair course under Bryan Miller, now an east coast US Divers sales representative. Because of his youth and excitement for diving he became a favorite of John Cronin, US Divers president and founder of PADI who presented him with a new set of equipment and several US Divers shirts. A few weeks later JY Cousteau sent him a personally autographed book
In high school he was an outstanding student, campus leader and athlete. He was active in his church and scouting became an Eagle scout.
One of his biology classes required a human performance experiment. Sam IV chose Scuba diving fin performance. He contacted all of the manufactures who provided him with cases of fins. He went about developing a performance testing machine and establishing test criteria. He enlisted his youthful diving buddies and dad as test subjects. The fin that had the greatest overall performance was one that had been designed by a former student of his father, Herb Van der pol and the fin was a "Planar" which was a surprise to all. His 15 page evaluation report was given the grade of A+.
Concurrently he was active in SoCal diving circles; by his piers was considered a top hunter and spear fisherman ( free diving.) When he turned 18 he applied and after 18 months as a "provisional" was accepted as a full member of the famous Long Beach Neptunes Spear fishing club, the second oldest club and most restrictive membership diving club in US.
He was the youngest diver ever to be listed in "Whos who of SCUBA Diving." Only one other father/son was listed in Whos who.
At Long Beach State he studied biology. While at LBS he was a deck hand on the dive boat "Golden Doubloon" with Greg Elliot as the captain. In his spare time (?) made and sold custom wood spear guns. His ingenuity and skill was acknowledged in a Skin Diver Magazine article by his friend the late E.R. Cross.
At the insistance of his father he began his diving career with 2 hose regulators. Over the years has amassed a rather presentable collection of these antiques. Therefore, it was logical that he become a charter member and active in the Historical Diving Society when it was established over 10 years ago.
He also became a NAUI (Life) and taught SCUBA at one of the largest SoCal dive shops. His NAUI instructor/trainer was one of the best but even the best courses never fully developed a seasoned instructor . To insure he would develop into a top instructor his initial classes were monitored and later critiqued by some of the outstanding veteran instructors of Orange County and Southern California. He rapidly advanced as a top instructor
When the organization switched to PADI he became a PADI instructor
While employed as an Instructor he convinced the authorities of the corporation to donate 24 scuba units to established one of, if not the first, Scuba Boy Scout troops. He became and acted as a hands on scout master until he entered med school
As a NAUI instructor he was eligible for the NAUI scholarship for the 2 week long Catalina chamber course-- he applied and won the scholarship. He completed the internship and became chamber qualified. Several years later during the annual Catalina clean up there was an embolism. He was the inside tech and made a 14 hour chamber ride - the Catalina record.
While waiting to enter Med school he began Tec- Mixed Gas diving with his good friend Jeff Bozanic making 300 and 400 foot dives on a regular basis.
He enter Med school eight years ago. He was elected student body President.
While in med school he had a six week rotation in a small Mexican village on the mainland. He would treat patients in the morning an study and practice Spanish during the after noon. He now speaks presentable Spanish -- especially if related to medical.
He interned in Dayton Ohio and was appointed Chief intern--after one winter of snow and ice he discovered he was "a man of the west" so returned to Arizona for his 4 years of ER residency. His residency will be completed in June.
Several months ago he was advised by the hospital authorities that there was a vacancy for a one year fellowship for Diving med at San Diego State (AKA: Scripps Institute of Oceanography.) He applied.
Several days ago he was personally informed by the director that he had been granted the fellowship. The director indicated he had never had any applicant as qualified as Sam IV--He had the most experience, knowledge and best over all qualifications of any applicant that had ever applied..
SAM IV is not exactly a typical SoCal diver, or a typical recreational diver...And our family gatherings are not exactly typical family gatherings...we discuss the events of the underwater world rather than the lastest ball game or who won the last race..
So if you get twisted diving or cough up red stuff and end up in San Diego-- the big 6 foot 3 inch fellow in the white coat is a rather experienced diver who is certainly qualified to treat you...
An there is lot more ...but I have borrrred you enough...
sdm111
