Equipment

Chairperson: Beth Shaffer

Duties: I maintain and provide rental or disbursement services to club members of the 10 tanks and 3 regulators that the club owns.

Most important aspect of committee: The services of the Equipment committee are a valuable incentive for club membership.

Club member since: 1990

SCUBA certification: Open Water Certification

Specialty certifications: Nitrox

Most memorable diving experience: In the over 20 years that my husband and I have been diving, we've had many memorable experiences. The one that always comes to mind for me, however, is amazingly, my checkout dive. I began diving when we were living in Bradenton, Florida. We did most of the water experiences in a motel swimming pool, and a few snorkel and initial dive trials in the usually warm, calm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The day I was to do that final qualifying dive, a storm had stirred up the seas and we had to do a textbook shore entry which left the store of confidence I had built up very shaky. At any rate, the target of this dive was an old molasses barge that is on the sandy bottom about 100 yards offshore of LongBoat Key. We swam out to the piling that marked the barge and prepared to settle on the ocean floor the water beside it-with 7 foot visibility. After the swim, I was slightly out of breath, but prepared to go through the required steps. All went well at first, as I cleared my mask and did the buddy breathing thing, but when the dive instructor turned off my air, I was sure I was going to drown. Instead of making the required free ascent to the surface that was 20 feet above me, I pulled his regulator out of his mouth and took a breath. I still remember the surprised look on his face and how his eyes filled his mask. We surfaced together and I asked him if I would have to do that part over again. He replied, "Hell, no, I'm not going down there with you again!" The outcome was that he certified me as an open water diver, and with the exception of a few incidents that Lenny can tell you about, I think I'm fairly proficient at the sport.