Capt Jim Wyatt
Hanging at the 10 Foot Stop
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Tom Mount
Tom Mount was many things to many people. He was a mentor of cave diving and a friend to me since I was 18 years old.
When I met Tom, circa 1973 he had been out of the US Navy for a few years where he served as a UDT diver, basically a SEAL. I looked up to him for that because my Dad was a US Navy UDT diver also. At the time he was the Diving/Safety officer at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS). Tom was also the Training Director for the National Association for Cave Diving (NACD) and he was Instructor #1 for the NACD. At that time Tom was married to Zidi who was also a very accomplished cave diver.
Tom trained and certified me as a cave diver through the NACD in 1974. Tom was assisted by Rory Dickens, Ike Ikehara and Bill Schenck. We dived Little River, Peacock and Madison.
In those days it was OK to camp out at Little River as Tom knew and was friends with the owner of the land surrounding the spring. One of my most vivid memories of camping there with Tom was when he shot and killed a rattlesnake, skinned it and cooked it over charcoal fire.
We had no 7-foot hoses, our lights were powered by wet Nickle Cadmium cells which used Potassium Hydroxide as an electrolyte. Frank Martz built those lights and Bill Schenck reverse engineered them and built some too. These lights were charged off of our car batteries and we could tell when charged as they would bubble. Mine had a whopping 45 minutes burn time with the 100 watt aircraft landing light bulb.
Our tanks were US Navy aluminum 90’s with a manifold designed by Dr. George Benjamin, they looked much different than the manifolds of today. Dr. Benjamin was trained as a cave diver by Tom and they explored Andros Blue Hole #4 together along with the Cousteau team.
We dived on and decompressed on air; we had no dive computers as these were around 10 years away.
As TD for the NACD Tom setup an Instructor Institute for the NACD and had Sheck Exley run it. I was in that class along with John Zumrick. I was certified as an NACD instructor #28 and am proud to have Tom’s signature on this card.
Over the next couple of years, I was cave diving a lot in Florida and Tennessee. Tom helped us get permission to Explore The Lost Sea in Sweetwater, Tennessee. At that time the Lost Sea was in the Guiness book of world records as the largest underground lake in the world. We dived with Tom and others for a year or so exploring the passageways that ran off the lake. The Lost Sea to this day is still a major tourist destination in east Tennessee.
A couple of years later Tom helped me land a job as a boat captain/instructor on Grand Cayman with his friend Glenn Galtere who owned the diving concession at the Royal Palms Hotel on Seven Mile Beach.
Over the course of my life Tom Mount had a very positive influence on my professional diver life. I am quite sure there are many more people who were greatly influenced by Tom Mount.
Tom will be sorely missed.
Tom Mount was many things to many people. He was a mentor of cave diving and a friend to me since I was 18 years old.
When I met Tom, circa 1973 he had been out of the US Navy for a few years where he served as a UDT diver, basically a SEAL. I looked up to him for that because my Dad was a US Navy UDT diver also. At the time he was the Diving/Safety officer at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS). Tom was also the Training Director for the National Association for Cave Diving (NACD) and he was Instructor #1 for the NACD. At that time Tom was married to Zidi who was also a very accomplished cave diver.
Tom trained and certified me as a cave diver through the NACD in 1974. Tom was assisted by Rory Dickens, Ike Ikehara and Bill Schenck. We dived Little River, Peacock and Madison.
In those days it was OK to camp out at Little River as Tom knew and was friends with the owner of the land surrounding the spring. One of my most vivid memories of camping there with Tom was when he shot and killed a rattlesnake, skinned it and cooked it over charcoal fire.
We had no 7-foot hoses, our lights were powered by wet Nickle Cadmium cells which used Potassium Hydroxide as an electrolyte. Frank Martz built those lights and Bill Schenck reverse engineered them and built some too. These lights were charged off of our car batteries and we could tell when charged as they would bubble. Mine had a whopping 45 minutes burn time with the 100 watt aircraft landing light bulb.
Our tanks were US Navy aluminum 90’s with a manifold designed by Dr. George Benjamin, they looked much different than the manifolds of today. Dr. Benjamin was trained as a cave diver by Tom and they explored Andros Blue Hole #4 together along with the Cousteau team.
We dived on and decompressed on air; we had no dive computers as these were around 10 years away.
As TD for the NACD Tom setup an Instructor Institute for the NACD and had Sheck Exley run it. I was in that class along with John Zumrick. I was certified as an NACD instructor #28 and am proud to have Tom’s signature on this card.
Over the next couple of years, I was cave diving a lot in Florida and Tennessee. Tom helped us get permission to Explore The Lost Sea in Sweetwater, Tennessee. At that time the Lost Sea was in the Guiness book of world records as the largest underground lake in the world. We dived with Tom and others for a year or so exploring the passageways that ran off the lake. The Lost Sea to this day is still a major tourist destination in east Tennessee.
A couple of years later Tom helped me land a job as a boat captain/instructor on Grand Cayman with his friend Glenn Galtere who owned the diving concession at the Royal Palms Hotel on Seven Mile Beach.
Over the course of my life Tom Mount had a very positive influence on my professional diver life. I am quite sure there are many more people who were greatly influenced by Tom Mount.
Tom will be sorely missed.
