Will Dive for Love

Time Frame 1998/1999

Andy I were spending alot of time diving and not much time doing anything else.  While I enjoyed diving, I didn't feel like I needed to do it every weekend, but Andy did, and he would make plans with our friends without me and just expect me to go along, which I did for quite some time.  We would drive up to the Tacoma Narrows for boat diving, we would dive in some of the lakes in Oregon, and sometimes we would go out to the coast and dive in small coves.

Me doing a dive off a boat in the Tacoma Narrows

I did more classes and got my Dry Suit training and certification as well as Advanced Diver certification, and I was really enjoying diving.

During this time I also bought all of the dive equipment needed so that I would have my own gear and not have to rent or borrow from others.  By the end of 1998, I was starting to back off on the diving a little bit, and letting Andy go ahead and dive with his friends while I found other things to do.  I would still dive with Andy and his friends occasionally, just not EVERY time.  This seemed to bother Andy, and we started arguing about little things.  I decided for various reasons, this was a relationship that wasn't going to last and broke it off.  Andy was pretty upset about it, but I think he understood.

So, there I was, with all of this new dive gear, and no dive buddy.  Shortly after Christmas 1998, I decided I needed to keep diving on my own once in a while to keep up on my skills, so I scheduled a boat dive on the Tacoma Narrows.  On the boats, they always make sure everyone has a dive buddy so I figured I would be safe.  Turns out, there was a guy on the boat who was also alone, so they paired us up.  I learned his name was Keith and he was a Major in the Air Force.. a Bioenvironmental Engineer.  We discussed the water conditions, since there was a heavy rain the night before.  A good deal of silt had been washed into the Sound and the water was very muddy.  We knew the visibility would be very minimal, but the people running the dive said their experience was that usually the vis cleared up around 20 feet or so.  Keith and I decided to make the dive, but we would hold hands on the decent so we didn't lose each other.

When the boat stopped at the dropoff point, Keith and I finalized getting our gear on and jumped in.  When we were both in, we held hands and began our descent.  I could not see anything in front of me.  I put my free hand in front of my face and could not see it until I touched my mask, that's how muddy the water was.  I was really hoping that the guys on the boat were right and that the vis would clear as we descended.  Sure enough, right about 25 feet, it all cleared up and we could see each other.  We took off and had a really good dive.  We swam along the wall and saw some Wolf Eels poking their heads out, and even saw a couple small octopus.  When it was time to ascend and get back to the boat, we held hands again, and surfaced through the muddy water.  We did a second dive the same way.  In between dives and after the dives we chatted a bit, and I found Keith to be very easy to talk with.  He had a good sense of humor, held a good conversation and was very interesting.  When we parted we exchanged numbers and he said that if I ever wanted to dive up there, he had plenty of room in his apartment for a guest so I was welcome any time.

We stayed in touch and a couple weeks later, we actually arranged to have Keith come down to Vancouver and visit with me.  We drove out to the coast and I showed him one of the coves where Andy and I had dove in the past.  We had dive gear with us, but didn't attempt to dive.  The tides are very strong and you have to make sure you dive during "slack" meaning between the times when the tides are coming in or going out.  There have been many times when divers dive at the wrong time and get pulled out to the ocean and since neither of us had tide tables for that area, we decided to be safe and not dive.  We just enjoyed the coast and the scenery, then drove back to Vancouver.  We went out for dinner, enjoyed more great conversation, and turned in for the night.

A couple weeks later, I drove up to Gig Harbor, which is where Keith lived, and we dove some near his apartment.  We did a dive where we had to walk quite a ways from where we could park, to get to the water.  It was pretty strenuous with all of our gear on, but we made it.  Once in the water, we could relax some, and we swam out for a bit on the surface.  When we swam out far enough, we began our descent and for some reason, my mask started flooding and I couldn't clear it, similar to what happened during my checkout dives.  It flooded bad enough that I couldn't see, and I thought I would be okay because surely Keith was keeping an eye on me.  I just folded my legs underneath me and waited as I descended, with my eyes closed, hoping that soon I would be kneeling on the bottom.  I finally felt my knees touch bottom, and I was able to clear my mask.  When I looked around, Keith was nowhere in sight, so I waited a bit, thinking he would show up soon.  After a few minutes, when I still didn't see him, I decided to ascend back to the surface so we could find each other.  The vis was only about 10 feet, so he could have been close and we just couldn't see each other.  When I got to the surface, I looked around and still didn't see him.  I figured I would just wait and eventually he would show up, but I was starting to get worried in case he was having trouble and I wasn't there to help him.  Finally after a few minutes, I saw him surface a long way away from me.  We yelled to each other and he told me to stay where I was, he would swim to me, which he did.  We decided to end the dive and head back in.

Once we got back to his Jeep, and got our gear off, I told him what happened, and he apologized for not staying with me.  Turns out, he looked away for a minute then back and kept diving with me... or so he thought.  After a few minutes, he realized there was a third person on the other side of the person he thought was me.  By the time he realized he had picked up with a couple other divers it had been a few minutes so he immediately surfaced.  I again apologized for ruining his dive and he said, "Oh, I had a great dive, it just wasn't with you."  We laughed and that was the end of that.  That evening we went to a local bar/grill for dinner and watched some people play pool, and we played a couple rounds.  At one point when we were waiting for a table, he was sitting on a stool, and I was leaned up against him.  Some guy walked by, stopped right in front of us, looked Keith right in the eye and said, "You are a great looking couple.  You better hold onto her, I can tell she's a keeper."  I think it was in that moment, that I really felt myself falling for Keith...