#195
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Gale - gale68
 Sonoma CAFemale
56 years old
Joined On: 12/31/2007
Last Login: 1/05/2010
Experience: Expert
Looking For: Dive buddy - just friends
Habits: Private
Relationship: Divorced
Children At Home: No
Company: Napa Dive & Sport
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I started diving as a small child, under my mom`s watchful eye, and eventually got NAUI certified at 14 when my mom cautioned me that =sooner or later= I might run into a dive operator that might =care= whether or not I had a certification card. Hah! Those were the days! Now it seems you can`t sneeze unless you have a specialty card to prove you`re qualified to do so.
I dove fairly often growing up, but during college I was too busy, and after college I married a non-diver who didn`t want to learn and didn`t want me to go without him. Pbbbt!!! So dry-rot set it, and I was 29 and divorced before I got back into it. I was lucky to have as my mentor Dick (DUI) Long, who taught me how to dive dry, opening the wonderful world of kelp to a California diving neophyte, and also turning me on to Force Fins, which I still love.
Then came a peculiar interlude of a few years when I was diving both recreationally and in the line of duty on a research project that gave me a chance to learn how to pilot a one-person, untethered submersible to depths up to 1,700 feet, and to shoot video underwater. Some unbelievable experiences came out of that phase of my life!
After that ended, I still dove frequently, with a focus on shooting UW video, until about two years ago, when a variety of things in my life conspired to keep me out of the water for awhile. I finally got back in the water this past week, and had a great time.
I`ve been back in the SF bay area the whole time I was out of the water, but I have yet to connect with the local diving community. I`m eager to find compatible diving companions for both CA and non-local diving trips. I`d love to hear from divers in my area -- especially, but by no means exclusively, singles in the neighborhood of 40.
What constitutes a "compatible" diving partner? Hard to say. I don`t adhere to rigid rules as dictated by certain organizations, but I`m a cautious diver, and aware of my limitations. Not much into overhead environments or the tech orientation that goes with them, but accepting of people who are. Under certain circumstances I`m comfortable diving solo, but it`s so much more satisfying to share the experience with a good diving partner....