I had a hard time deciding which forum to post this in, or if I should post it at all. My diving has included periods of spearing, shell collecting, photography and sight seeing, but it started with spearfishing and ended with it, so it's in the Spearo Board.
I started diving when I was maybe 13 in Florida and am 85 now, so I guess that's about 72 years. After I graduated from college I spent 20 years as a USMC pilot and that gave me the opportunity to dive in the Philippines, Wake Island, Guam, Hawaii, Okinawa, California, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Mexico, and even Guantanamo Bay Cuba once. I was also stationed in places like Mississippi and Vietnam where diving was not possible but those periods were blessedly short. Since retiring from the USMC I've lived in California.
It's not easy deciding when to quit but it had to be sometimes so it's now. My buddies have had to help me get into my booties and wet suit for three years. I had four injections to my spine recently and they didn't help. If there is much current, I have to choose between swimming against it or diving, but not both. I could keep diving a bit, but I don't want to put some guys the age of my grandsons in the position of having to save my old ass. I just spent two weeks selling every bit of my diving gear, so now it's too late to go back. I still have to find a buyer for the boat, but I won't be tempted to use it without any diving gear. I've been diving, thinking about diving, reading about diving, etc. for so long that it's going to be hard to figure out what to do when I grow up. I'll still be checking this place every day out of habit and will probably post now and then, but I'm not a spearo. I'm a has been spearo.
I started diving when I was maybe 13 in Florida and am 85 now, so I guess that's about 72 years. After I graduated from college I spent 20 years as a USMC pilot and that gave me the opportunity to dive in the Philippines, Wake Island, Guam, Hawaii, Okinawa, California, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Mexico, and even Guantanamo Bay Cuba once. I was also stationed in places like Mississippi and Vietnam where diving was not possible but those periods were blessedly short. Since retiring from the USMC I've lived in California.
It's not easy deciding when to quit but it had to be sometimes so it's now. My buddies have had to help me get into my booties and wet suit for three years. I had four injections to my spine recently and they didn't help. If there is much current, I have to choose between swimming against it or diving, but not both. I could keep diving a bit, but I don't want to put some guys the age of my grandsons in the position of having to save my old ass. I just spent two weeks selling every bit of my diving gear, so now it's too late to go back. I still have to find a buyer for the boat, but I won't be tempted to use it without any diving gear. I've been diving, thinking about diving, reading about diving, etc. for so long that it's going to be hard to figure out what to do when I grow up. I'll still be checking this place every day out of habit and will probably post now and then, but I'm not a spearo. I'm a has been spearo.
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