George, forgive my ramblings, but your question triggered a bunch of memories of diving in the 70's for me. I worked for Art Travers at Poseidon Ventures Dive Travel in Newport for a short while. I dove Truk in the 70's too. I recall most every dive to the deeper wrecks were deco dives. The San Francisco Maru at 175' on deck comes to mind. We dove the I-169 quite a bit. Back then you could penetrate the sub as far as you wanted. I have some great Truk and Palau stories I'll tell one day. Just have to make sure the applicable statutes of limitations from the scuba-police have passed. In 1981 I spent a week or so diving with Clark Graham out of his shop at the Truk Inter-Continental. On the way back from one of those trips I met a guy waiting for his bags at LAX Airport. He saw all my dive travel stickers on my luggage and he told me about his love of diving and that he lived in North Laguna and maybe we should get together sometime. He handed me his card: "Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin" - engineer. Yes, the second man on the moon "Buzz." We spoke once after that about doing a beach dive at Shaws Cove but it was all blown-out weatherwise the day we had picked and I don't think we ever got together. In 1988 I moved to Guam for a year, took Japanese tourists diving, and dove Truk whenever I could.georgeaustin wrote:
Mark - In about 1974 I had a little Chevy LUV pick up truck that I would hire out to move furniture and stuff around for people in Newport Beach, Laguna, CDM - etc. One call out was to a travel agency on PCH in CDM.
I showed up to the office that Saturday and the owner had tons of dive photos spread out all over the office, dive gear on desks and chairs - - as I remember it, we got to talking, I told him I had been certified down at LSS a couple years ago and I was saving up for a Scubapro regulator and my own dive tank. I think I remember him telling me that he was a photo editor for Skin Diver mag and he had just returned from Truk and from one of the first photo surveys of some of the deeper wrecks. wow. Well, I always loved the artifacts and stories of the War in the Pacific. I think he and his crew were doing deco dives which may have been not a regular thing at the time for us sport /recreational divers and that his deco stops became a little "sharky" a few times. wow. He had been back the better of a week and was still quite excited.
Anyway - just wondering if that's the travel agency you're referring to.
WWII Pacific Theater history, and especially Truk, held great interest for me. My father was a B-24 pilot who’s group was set to bomb Truk toward the end of Operation Hailstone. Fortunately for him his group was told to stand down at the last minute as the damage needed to be done was deemed accomplished. He passed away a year ago at age 90. I was always fascinated by his Pacific Theater flying stories. He also taught me to dive.
The travel agency Sam is referring to was one I worked at for about 4 years. It was right on Pacific Coast Highway between Oak Street and Brooks Street in Laguna Beach. We packaged land-based and ultimately live-aboard trips to Micronesia, Red Sea, throughout the Caribbean, British Columbia, etc... It was called "Come 'N Go Travel". The former owners also owned a bedroom and bathroom store of the same name (get it?).
I worked for Coralee LaFresnaye who bought Come N Go. At the time Coralee was roommates with Jeanie Bear Sleeper of NAUI fame. Coralee knew everyone in diving. She introduced me to Sam. We did dive trips for Ron Kipp out of (I think Ohio) before he quit IBM and bought Bob Soto’s in Grand Cayman. Jack McKenney stopped in once. Jon Hardy was General Manager of NAUI and he would stop in. Jon invited me to stay with him in Avalon in Catalina a few times and he showed me a number of his “secret” dive spots. I had known Ron Merker already through the Aquatic Center in Newport. We did some dive trips for his shop.
My friends and I taught ourselves decompression diving with an old copy of a Navy handbook. I recall walking into the Aquatic Center one day and mentioning to Ron Merker I had just done a180' dive in La Jolla Canyon, San Diego, the day before, had about a two hour surface interval and then did another 150' dive. I showed him my residual bottom time, group calculations and deco schedule. When I asked him if he thought I had read the tables and done the math correctly. He just kind of looked at me funny. I didn’t see the problem.
I led 7 or 8 trips to Bonaire back then. We always stayed at Captain Don’s Habitat (wasn’t a lot of choices at the time). It never failed, the good Captain banging on all the doors at 3:00 a.m. yelling it was time for the naked 3 AM Klein Bonaire night dive: “bring out your women!” I think there was tequila involved but its all a blur now. I just know I had more fun than a guy is permitted in one lifetime.
I seem to recall Bay Travel was taken over by Nancy and Bob French, but I could be wrong about that. Later I started Spencer Expeditions, Inc. and did a whole bunch of week long trips out of La Paz, Mexico on the old Baja Explorador. Beans, rice and tortillas three meals a day. Dives at Las Animas, Los Islotes, El Bajo Seamount, etc... Beer and Fanta to wash it down. Ah, the good old days! But I have rambled on enough. Thanks for triggering the memories. Mark.
