It has been said “that California divers can dive anywhere in the world” this is because of the adverse conditions that diver trainees must deal with on California beaches. In addition the California diver must deal with cold water and extra lead weight that is required to sink the extra neoprene or learn to dive with a dry suit. They must overcome currents and waves not to mention visibility that can be limited to substantially less than the worst day in the Caribbean. So sometimes it is adversity that is the best teacher, the hottest fire makes the best steel theory, which seems to prove itself true among the dive world. I have been in remote locations diving with strangers and have been budded with a dive that has identified himself or herself as a California diver and I am reassured of a good dive and dive buddy. This is not to say that other divers are not competent, but only to say over all the standardization and conditions consistently turn out competent divers. Other areas of the country just don’t have 1200 miles of shoreline with Kelp forests and Great Whites lurking just out of view in that 5ft visibility that can be common in some good hunting locations. A hundred California dives are equivalent to at least two hundred Caribbean dives not to mention a night dive into the Redondo Trench in the middle of winter to see squid span. Or a trip to the middle coast of the state to dive 49-degree water for Jade under Bull kelp that can blackout the little sun that filters from the foggy sky above the three hundred foot cliff you must climb. So some would ask why, why would we as divers put ourselves through this? It the adventure of course! The story, the excitement, the challenge, the fellowship, and all the curiosity that makes us divers and keeps us going back time and again to the other third of the Earth. My point is there are California divers and the rest of the world. Eureka is not just a saying on our state seal it is part of the California diver attitude.
Papa Bear
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