reflections from my underwater world
I was working as the diving supervisor on a job under the World Financial Center, across West St. from the World Trade Center. When they built the World Trade Center, instead of trucking the fill from the excavation to Jersey, they used it to make more Manhattan. Back in the 70's when they built Battery Park City they used the fill from the WTC excavations.
A few years ago, my friend Richie organized a trip to the Andrea Doria. This infamous Northeast wreck is a challenging dive by any standard you might apply, and the number of accumulated diving fatalities are in the double digits. It is not for everyone.
My friend Nick called me up the other day and told me about how he was out diving on the Hydro, and had a serious issue with narcosis? The Hydro Atlantic is a beautiful local wreck, 180' to the sand, but only about 130' to the main deck. Nick is a solid diver, and works as a Divemaster and boat crew, and the Hydro is a place he has been to numerous times. Nick went down to a modest depth, tied in, and was stupid narked almost immediately. He did not recover until he came up. He asked, why?
I was talking to Dr. Nick, and he starts to talk about something serious, an unnamed diver who suffered an "unearned hit". An "unearned hit" is one of those politically correct terms now used to describe a decompression sickness (DCS) event where the diver has supposedly followed all the rules, and done absolutely nothing wrong, but still ends up bent for reasons that remain a total mystery???
Once upon a time, I was working as a commercial diver on a job in Newark Bay, in New Jersey. The company I was working for was an established heavy construction company, but this was their first marine construction project.
Years ago, when I was crewing on the Seeker, I had the opportunity to dive with some really skilled and talented wreck divers. Much of what I now know, I learned from them. On the other hand, I would occasionally come across divers like Ed, who was an extremely Accomplished Bad Diver.
I was talking to my friend Captain Rick a few weeks ago, and he tells me about a group of college students from FAU that he took out diving. They went out on the reefs to collect trash, and get it out of the ocean.
Many years ago, around the dawn of Technical Diving, divers started to use internet forums to exchange information. The potential was huge, especially for the new discipline of Tech diving. You had small groups of divers all around the world, each trying new things, exploring new ideas, and sharing what worked and what didn't work.
Recently, I posted on YouTube some old video I shot inside the Andrea Doria, from 1991. More than one person commented to me that they were surprised I was diving solo? At that time in my diving career, like my diving peers, I was spending a lot of time on the Doria. Many of those dives were spent exploring new areas of the wreck ...
