Safe Diving

I just heard about another diving fatality in the area. Although I don't personally know this diver, my heart goes out to her family and friends.

It is always in the back of my mind when I head out for another dive that something could happen that would result in an injury or even a fatality. However, I have been diving for a very long time and I contribute my diving safety to various things but one of them is they way I was taught to dive.

A majority of my training was taught by Gene Peterson whom is one of most experienced divers I know. He taught me to dive "clean" and not to carry too much unnecessary equipment that could get in the way in the event an emergency happened. He also taught me to stop, slow down and think before I act. I often stop on descent or as soon as I get to the bottom to regroup, calm myself and to rethink of my objectives for the dive. I am the first person that if I don't feel comfortable before a dive or on descent I will turn around and get back on the boat and try it again another day. You don't always feel 100% every day and there are always other days to revisit a wreck. Gene also taught me to take my time at reaching my goals, you should work up to a really deep dive and get lots of practice in on shallow dives. For these things that he taught me among many other things, I believe have kept me diving safely all of these years.

I therefore, dedicate my recent accomplishments to Gene for teaching me to dive safely. I will carry these lessons with me as my diving progresses into the future! I will also continue to look for new ways to dive safer so that I will have many many more dives. Please be safe!!