Wednesday, April 2, 2014

There We Were ...

Years ago, I was making a solo dive at Folly Cove.  It was mid-week, early in the spring, and I had the place to myself.  As I recall, it was mid-tide and there were some decent rollers hitting the beach – more than enough to stir up the bottom.  And sure enough, on the way in, I couldn’t see the rocks I was stepping on, got caught in an awkward position, got hit by a wave, and went down like Joe Frazier after taking a right hand from George Foreman (in a Howard Cosell voice, think, “Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!”).

As luck would have it, I was wearing doubles that day.  And so there I lay on my back, turtle-like, fins in one hand, a few thousand dollars worth of camera gear in the other, getting pounded by the surf.  And every time I almost made it back to my feet, I’d get hit by another wave, slip on another rock, and go splashing down again.

The one thing I had going for me was that no one was up in the parking lot watching and laughing their ass off.  And then it occurred to me – maybe there was.  Someone could have pulled in right after I had walked down to the water.
As much as I didn’t want to look up, I had to know.  And so from a lying position, I craned my neck back as far as I could and got a clear, albeit nearly upside-down, view of the parking lot.  It was empty except for my car – on which the passenger side door was wide open! 

That did it.  In a fury, I made it back to my feet, turned around and – waves, slippery rocks, and double tanks be damned – humped it back up the beach.  The memory of the day still causes me to grind my teeth.
My point?  Diving’s a lot more fun with buddies than it is by yourself. 

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying a buddy could have helped me out of the above debacle.  But if any of my usual buddies had been there, the moment would have lived on in comedic infamy (friends laughing at you is different than strangers).  Damn, it would have been funny!  All right, it was funny but with a friend or two around, I could have appreciated the humor, too!

Obviously, it’s important to dive with people who take care underwater.  But it’s just as important to dive with people who have a good time and don’t take themselves too seriously (which is why I don’t dive with Joe George any more – hee, hee).  There’s just no reason to ever leave a dive without having had at least one good laugh.   

3 comments:

  1. And even better, laugh underwater, so your mask floods!

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