Roy Smith, of Dad's Dive Den, alias Poppa Smurf, with Chuck Mills and Lynn Gaffey…..best scuba instructor ever.
NAUI Junior divers are aged 12 up to their 15th birthday and will fulfill all requirements of a NAUI Scuba Diver course, including self and buddy rescue techniques. Nekton Associates fits these younger students with gear sized properly for them
Completion of five open water dives builds on confined water skills and leads to a tremendous sense of accomplishment…pilot Larry Lambert adds scuba diving to his list.
Surgeon Wan-Jer Shen had to decide between flying and diving lessons at the end of his residency. We were glad he chose diving!
Gordon Phelps was tired of paying for introductory scuba experiences every time he went on vacation and decided to go ahead and take a course. It's much better too, as one becomes accustomed to the local dive environment and can keep skills current.
Former Old Dominion University course director Gery Putnam headed up this Tennessee Instructor Training Course, with Linda as one of the Instructor Trainers to help Carol Walker, Richard Mampe, and Dennis Geiser earn their NAUI Instructor cards.
Heidi Achenbach first dived at Florida's Ginnie Springs, starting with several Scuba Passport dives.
Valley Pool and Spa's Service Director Jamie Hodge was in water all the time anyway, so learning to scuba dive was a logical extension of work. A number of Valley Pool employees have learned to dive, starting their training right in the warm, clear water of their demo pool at the store in Waynesboro.
Couldn't decide whether to use the photo of Norma on her live-aboard, spear fishing adventure, or this magnificent end-of-class empowerment triumph. They both are great!
Dave Detrick and Connie Rossini are ok to go! Dave has just completed a refresher in prep for a combination cruise/dive vacation and Connie is pursuing a medical degree in Norfolk and confers with the marine biologists down there.
Anne Pitkaranta, an ear, nose, and throat surgeon from Helsinki, Finland, is representative of the fascinating students who have studied with us…how lucky we've been to benefit from her experience with treating ear injuries and preventive care! Here she poses in front of the Bauer compressor and cascade fill system that keep Nekton students in pure and ready air supply.
One of the terrific things about teaching scuba has been the quality of students, like Valley Pool employees Curtis Sheets and Alan Quimby already being rescue squad- trained people who took the safety issues with diving very seriously.
Gery Donowitz knew that Jeff would be taking off for the Great Barrier Reef to visit his girlfriend, so together they took a Rescue course, a great way to hone skills and learn some new techniques.
Kids are such fun! NAUI offers a course in skin diving for the eight to eleven-year-old set. Lectures, research, confined and open water experiences prepare these students for safe water exploration and marine study.
Ah yes…..I remember an Instructor Training Course back in 1990, Marathon, FL. A highly saline 25' salt water quarry where we had to jump in with our gear in hand (weight belts, masks, and fins over one arm; cylinder and reg and b/c together but air turned off in the other), sink to the bottom, turn on the air and start donning everything. Take too big a breath, and you'd end up floating to the surface and would have to start all over again….remember how much more buoyant you are in salt water?
Linda's brother-in-law, David Yarashes is delighted to be joining the ranks of NAUI-certified scuba divers.
The question every NAUI instructor must ask before he certifies a new scuba diver is "Would I be comfortable if this person were a loved one's buddy?" I've always wanted to be sure each of my students would be a good candidate as buddy for our daughters Beth and Anne.