In Reply to: So what got you into diving? posted by JohnC on February 11, 2010 at 12:11:49:

I took the snorkeling class at my local JC when I was a kid. The friends and I got hooked on collecting tiny freshwater clam shells in Lake Castaic. I must have had a pound of those things sitting around! Friends visited Catalina with the Boy Scouts or parents but I had to wait till 15 to have my first ocean experience. (The parents never were beach goers. They like fresh water.) I don't remember the site but it must have been around Diver's Cove. Thirty Five foot visibility, a purple shag carpet, and swimming with a pair of three foot leopard sharks! One of the best days of my life. At 17 I found Dume Cove and began warming myself just out of reach of the moonlight on the waves. Had a real sweet girl to help... Fast forward ten years with my first car and my first real job. A friend and I took masks to Dume Cove. I saw the reefs from the stairs and dared to hope that I could relive the experience that I had when I was fifteen. My buddy got his toes wet and decided to sun himself instead. I went diving! Two hours later, a fossilized scallop shell that I still use as a soap dish, and almost entirely convinced that the shakes were not caused by Jaws waiting just offshore for me and I was hooked...

Craig