Whoops, went back to my logs and I was off, it was 1998 that I got re-upped, so 502 dives in 8 years; still not too bad. I'll correct the blog.
I actually have been certified since 1969 and dive quite a bit on into college, then sold my gear when I moved up to Seattle. I got back into it when I went on a sailing trip to Thailand. The 502 dives are since then as I never logged any of my early dives.