Your personal evolution in diving, and an etiquette question

[The Chairman]

A buddy got a Mae West. We all thought it was cool, but he snagged it on something in the river and it self inflated. Tommy was there and then he wasn't. We didn't think it was so cool after that.

 

[seeker242]

For those of us who spend a fair amount of time in SE Florida, slow is not always an option. Fast can be fun

Yes, but it’s not forced nor a march! You are still just chilling out while going fast.

 

[fsardone]

As for buoyancy issues, you would have loved diving back in the 60s when we didn't use BCDs and relied on proper weighting for the depth we planned to be at and the use of our lung capacity to make adjustments.

My father was diving in the mid/late 50 and my mother in the mid 60. Neither ever used a BCD.
I saw my father coming back from a -70 (mt) on air coming back up and using a few plastic shoppers to start the ascent (released mid water when the non lined closed cell neoprene suit expanded enough for him to manage his buoyancy).

I started diving with him in the late 70 and I too started without BCD (and without any cert card that: came in 93 or 94) and solo diving was kind of the norm. At that time to start the dive you would fully exhale and do a dive-roll (the kind a free/skin diver would do, apologies if it is not the correct word but I am a non native speaker ...) in order to overcome your positive buoyancy on the surface. The first time I went diving with my father and showed up with a collar BCD (the old orange scubapro) he mocked me for a few weeks after. Same when I installed an SPG.