Scuba Diving for Middle Aged Woodworkers

 

At the ripe old age of 50, I decided to take up scuba diving. I was certified as an Open Water Diver in the Dominican Republic in 1999 and became completely hooked. Upon returning to New Jersey, I began exploring the dark, murky, cold and thrilling waters off the Joizey Shore and completed my Advanced Open Water certification. By the end of 2001, I'd completed 120+ dives and received certifications in Wreck Diving, Dry Suit Diving, Nitrox, Night Diving, and Underwater Navigation. In 2002 I took my Medic First Aid and Rescue Diver courses and received the PADI "Master Scuba Diver" rating while still feeling like I had an awful lot to learn. After a lot work, in the fall of 2002 I became a PADI Divemaster and had logged over 200 open water dives. Most of my diving has been in the ocean off the Jersey coast or at Dutch Springs in Pennsylvania, but I've managed to squeeze in a couple of trips to the St. Lawrence River and one to Key Largo.

In the spring of 2003, I made a big career change in my "day" job, that offered me the opportunity to become a full instructor. I began my IDC (Instructor Development Course) in late May at the Blue Horizons Dive Center in Philadelphia. It was a very hectic, stressful, and at the same time rewarding and fun experience. On June 8th, at Dutch Springs, PA, I completed my instructors exam and so became PADI OWSI #183701. That's Open Water Scuba Instructor.

A few weeks later I completed Specialty Instructor Training in a number of diving specialty courses.

I did some teaching and interning over the summer and found that I really enjoying teaching diving. The downside is that I have less time to dive for pure enjoyment. I view this as the beginning of a new side career and hope to find the happy mix of teaching and diving for pleasure. I plan on doing this for many years to come.

I'm a staff instructor with Divers Two dive shop in Avon, NJ. If you're interested in quality scuba instruction (references available) in the Jersey Shore area contact the shop or send me some email and I'll quickly get back to you.

An update after a long layoff from the webpage:

I find it ironic that I'm employed at a dive shop and as a scuba instructor but now have very little time to work on my web site. Anyway, I call myself "semi-retired, working part time - 40-60 hours a week" at Divers Two. I'm now a PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer and TDI Nitrox instructor. In 2005, I became certified on the Azimuth Semi-Closed Rebreather with Dan Crowell as my instructor. I soon fell in love with rebreather diving, and a year later became certified on the KISS Classic rebreather. I followed this up with a mixed gas diluent (trimix) certification on the KISS - all with Dan as my instructor.

I did many of my rebreather training dives down in Pompano Beach, FL. As of February, 2008 I've got about 50 dives each on the Azimuth and KISS rebreathers, and have logged a total of about 550 open water dives. I love diving as much as ever.

I very much enjoy the variety of working in a dive shop and teaching diving. I'm approaching 200 certified students, many of whom I hope will enjoy diving as much as I do.

Here are some of my dive tales, guaranteed to be mostly true.

Please let me know what you think of them.

Carl

The latest report after several years:

Pompano Beach , Florida

The "Classic" stories:

Photo Gallery

Why Dive?

Open Water Certification in the Dominican Republic

A "Joizey" Wreck Dive

Night Diving in the Belmar Back Bay

Another Wreck Dive

St. Lawrence River "Expedition"

A Mid-Winter Day's Dive in the Shark River Inlet

The Western World (Spring Lake Wreck)

Dutch Springs, Pennsylvania

SpiegelGrove/Key Largo

Copyright 2008 Carl Muhlhausen

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