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Ellan Swartz I
have been trying to write this story for some time now, and finally got to do
it. My story starts, I think, with birth. I was always around water
and learned to swim at 2 yrs old. My summers were spent water skiing and
swimming. I joined a swim team and swam AAU in the summers and for high
school during the school year. When I was old enough I became a lifeguard,
and worked at a local club. My
father became interested in scuba diving in the mid 60’s and got his
certification then. It was so interesting to me I decided to get my
certification in 1969. It was a new
world for me! Underwater - “WOW”!!! I
had, until this point, spent all my life on the surface, now getting to see what
was underwater first hand - I was hooked. Growing up watching Sea Hunt I
had always wanted to experience life underwater like Mike Nelson and now I
could. The
group I dove with were cave divers, which was what most divers did then.
There weren’t many operators doing ocean diving like there are now. So,
I traveled many weekends to the springs of North Central Florida. During
that time, I was fortunate to dive most of the springs in the area. The
divers, that were my dive buddies, were very experienced cave divers and they
let me tag along…it was a very incredible time in my life. I learned so
much from them and will treasure that time of my life. When I graduated
high school I moved to The Blue Grotto, outside of Williston, Florida. One
of my buddies had the lease on that spring and needed someone to live there and
run the shop…how lucky for me!! That was my big introduction to the dive
world…it was the best summer of my life. After
that until the early 80’s I didn’t get to dive much but picked it back up
when my brother became interested in diving and we did some dives in Mexico.
He, like me, loved it and went on to become a PADI Instructor. I have never
wanted to be an instructor but have always wanted to share my love of diving.
When I met Susan on a dive trip to Florida, we became fast friends. I will
always remember her because she gave me some Dramamine when I was feeling
seasick on the boat. We went through our PADI Divemaster training together and she
went on to PADI Instructor school and I worked my way through PADI Assistant
Instructor. I have loved being an Assistant Instructor; it lets me share
my lifetime love of diving with people. I will always be thankful for
Susan and Blue Meridian Dive Center to let me have this outlet. Diving is such
an incredible experience I hope to continue assisting future divers in loving it
like I do. The world is full of great things and being able to share the
underwater world is truly one of them. I hope that “My Fins” story will
continue on for many more years to come, since I feel I have just gotten
started!! |
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