My main dive buddies were all off on family obligations this weekend or laid up with (fill in blank __________ - cold, bad back, recent surgery, etc...) so I headed on down to a local cove this morning in Laguna Beach with my quasi-vintage gear. I was using my recently restored '58 Mistral but added a pressure gauge with a banjo fitting to keep the local lifeguards happy. Of course I had great plans to take lots of photographs but after placing my car key in my bathing suit pocket and getting all geared up I realized I locked the camera in the car. Oh well, next time. I did manage to get a pic of my gear afterward so it is below. It's wet so that proves I went diving! Lots of dive classes on the beach and underwater at Shaw's Cove. I got the stink-eye from one instructor who launched into a long loud speech to his students (for my benefit I'm sure) about how only "macho idiots" dive without a B.C., without a safe-second, and without a dive computer. Oh yeah, and I didn't realize it but apparently diving without a backpack of some sort is bad for the spine. You learn stuff all the time. Underwater I got lots of sideways glances as I glided by with perfect buoyancy control while groups of students were trying to add a little air/dump a little air from their B.C.'s to get neutral. Back on the beach following the dive as I exited the water a guy comes running over to me all excited and has a hundred questions about double hose regulators, buoyancy control without a B.C., J-valves, etc..... Pretty soon a group of about 10 divers are gathered around as I gave a quick history lesson and practical theory lesson. Now here's the fun part, this group of students was the same group the instructor had been talking to earlier that had less than kind things to say about me. Apparently he had walked back up to the street to get something out of his car and left his students standing on the beach. Come to find out he had a ton of diving experience - yup, he had been diving a year and a half and had been an instructor for a year of that time period. Anyway, a good time had by all..... Safe diving. Mark.
P.S. Almost forgot the finale. Ran into the "instructor" back on the street near my car and he did ask about my Mistral (said his grandfather had one - at least it had a yellow label and yellow hoses so he figured that is what it was). No apologies or contriteness from him. So I told him the chicken joke. "Q: Why did the chicken cross the road? R: "Don't know". A: To visit the idiot." Then immediately I said, "Knock, Knock." He said, "Whose there?" I responded: "The chicken." Works every time!