TSandM -- Her Greatest Posts

[RJP]

One of my favorite people on scubaboard. Does anyone know what her nickname stood for? TSandM?

She explained it recently...

TSandM stands for Tizzel, Squeeter and Mini, who were our three cats when we started our horse breeding operation. We were TSandM Associates, and I just used the name when I came here. I'm LCF on all other boards.

 

[SeaHorse81]

I always wanted to ask what TSandM stood for but never got around to that.

Me, too. Thanks for putting the question out there.

She explained it recently...

Thanks for answering it. It's silly how many times I wondered about that over the years and never got around to asking. When I learned she was gone, one of the many random things that crossed my mind was that now, I'd never get a chance to ask.

 

[Mike Boswell]

One of the things I liked best about TSandM was her analytic approach to diving. Not content to just watch the pretty fishes, she wanted to explore every aspect of scuba - even the social ones. Since my wife and I are dive buddies and have had the inevitable "friction" that goes with that, Lynne's observations on that subject are especially amusing and relevant to me.

From Sept 30, 2011:

Are you a sharer?

I was lucky enough to do a dive last night with my favorite dive buddy, who I rarely see these days. At the end of the dive, I told him that I had realized one of the reasons I enjoy diving with him so much is that it takes almost nothing to get his attention -- the minute I move my light, he's looking at me, and I can point out the cool critter I've found, or ask a question, or change directions, or whatever.

His response was, "Well, part of the fun of diving to me is sharing the dive. So staying in communication is something I WANT to do."

I talked to my husband this afternoon. We often have friction about how our dives together go, and mostly it's either separation or communication issues. He said, "When I dive, I'm in my head. I'm singing to myself, or thinking about something." And I thought about Rick Murcar's (GDI's) description of cave diving as a solo dive done as a social activity, and there is a lot of truth to that. In cave diving, unlike open water diving, one rarely points out anything of interest to the rest of the team. Everybody just dives and looks at whatever strikes them.

I'm a sharer. Spotting stuff and calling someone else over to see it, or flying over to see what my eagle-eyed buddy has found, is my idea of fun. But it clearly isn't universal.

What are you? Sharer, or mutual soloist?​

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I thought this one was interesting..

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ba...never-hurry-when-diving.html?highlight=skiles

 

[Mike Boswell]

DumsterDiver, that was a great story, and it prompted an interesting discussion.

BTW, for those who haven't used it, the Advanced Search function will find all of Lynne's posts for you with just a few seconds worth of effort. Just type "TSandM" in the User Name box and hit Search, and you'll have all of her posts to look over.

 

[shoredivr]

Not the exact post, but one that mentions it: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ad...d-like-some-lp85s-please-lessons-learned.html

 

[dgfishy]

It's not a post, but two fantastic quotes from a surface interval spent with Lynne... I wanted to put them somewhere while I still remembered them. This seemed like a fitting place.

"Every diver has their rattles, and the ocean is mercilessly persistent in uncovering and exploiting them."

"All dive gear breaks. It's merely a question of how often and how badly."

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

We had a brief message exchange where she was questioning my decision to dive sidemount. As a GUE diver she believed in the "right tool for the job" and thought sidemount made little sense in open water and should be used only in cave diving. At one point I thought she was actually scolding me when I tried to point out the benefits of sidemount for MY diving. I was just about to scold back when she said...."Although I should really try it some time, it does look like fun" I laughed aloud at home in front of the computer at her honesty and humour. I can't count the number of posts of hers that taught me something valuable even if it was just about attitude and discipline. She was one of a kind and will be sorely missed by anyone who's life she touched.

... we had several similar discussions over the past few years ... Lynne always found something positive to say, even about things she didn't agree with ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Kevrumbo]

Key tips and motivation for the novice diver: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/364930-how-have-great-dive.html#post5658613

--------
General lessons learned and advocacy on being quick & decisive to abort a dive in strong current conditions when necessary:

. . .Recognizing that conditions are beyond you early on means you're more likely to come up where the boat can see you.

Shooting a bag immediately on abandoning the dive also ensured that a) they'd know they had a team in trouble and b) they'd know where we were. . .

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/near-misses-and-lessons-learned/341902-kelp-should-vertical.html

 

[themagni]

I don't remember the post, but she offhandedly (and jokingly) said something like "on a shore dive, I keep my regs in my mouth until I'm back at the car". At the time, I'd take them out once I got to the surface, and maybe switch to snorkel if there was chop. But the point was made, until there's no chance of getting your face wet, make sure you have air getting into your air hole.

So the very first ocean dive with my new drysuit after that was at the local breakwater. It's a really easy dive site, and this one was decent but mostly unmemorable. I must have said something about keeping regs in to my buddy (an instabuddy from the local dive shop.) We surfaced, got onto the huge breakwater rocks (each is about 5 feet long, and 3 feet on each remaining side. They're big.) It was lowish tide, and we got onto a barnacle and seaweed covered layer to clamber back up and get to the staging area (read: parking lot) It's standard egress for the site.

This is where The Dive Became Memorable. I don't know what happened, wake from a container ship, meteor strike, but I got my a$$ handed to me by a huge wave, from behind, gooned down, cross-checking major plus misconduct suspension, face-down onto the rocks, underwater. I struggled with the 100# of gear to get up, got onto my knees, then it happened again. And again. And again. Over and over. It just didn't stop. I was face-down in the water, getting scraped along the barnacles and seaweed. This went on for more than a minute, and I couldn't get up. I found out my buddy couldn't help me because the waves kept him turtled.

Lucky my suit is a puncture-and abrasion-resistant style with Kevlar reinforcement, otherwise I would have had to replace it after one dive.

More importantly, lucky my buddy and I were still using regulated air. If we had switched to atmospheric, I don't know what would have happened. I'd likely have drowned.

That's how she saved my life, and hey, maybe my buddy's. Thanks, Lynne.

Does anyone know her preferred drink?