Newly Certified 79 Year Old Diver !!!

Here are a couple of photos from my father's open water checkout dives yesterday in West Palm with me and my kids.

He turns 80 this December but is not your usual octogenarian. He's been windsurfing since the early 1980's, has been known to rollerblade with our kids, and learned to snow ski at age 75.

Not the greatest photos but how many of us have photos of our fathers with our children underwater!

Danny at Breaker's Reef -- SSI's newest (and maybe oldest getting certified) Open Water Diver

Danny with grandchildren Kimberly (age 17, 250 logged dives) and Eric (age 13, 100 logged dives)

Thanks for humoring me, but I'm pretty proud of him.

Doug

What a great story.

Alex

Thanks for sharing! What an inspiration and positive influence he must be on those around him. Kudos to him!

Gary

great stuff Doug, congrats to him!

Good stuff ... is he going to do an 80ft dive in December for his 80th ? and get his advanced at the same time ?

If I can still dive when I get to that age then I will have drastically changed my lifestyle at some point !

Thats cool...and he even has more hair than me still

Thanks for all of the kind words everyone! It's really been a great weekend of diving with whole family.

Last night we had another special occasion. We all had dinner with Jim Abernethy and he surprised my daughter, Kimberly, with two posters and a CD of photos of a new Tiger Shark "player" at Tiger Beach he has decided to name "Kimberly" in my daughter's honor.

Some of you may know my Kimberly was the youngest tiger shark diver a couple of years ago on Eric's first Wetpixel Bahamas trip at age 15 (then surpassed by my son last summer who was 12 at the time). She also celebrated her 200th dive on that trip with Eric and me hanging her upside down from Shear Water with a bait crate:

.

Then last summer she was by far the youngest woman to do the “night tigersâ€. Jim said that all of this together justified the new tiger shark being named “Kimberlyâ€. As you can imagine, my Kimberly was ecstatic. She can’t wait to frame the photos and put them up in her bedroom.

Thanks again, everyone. Our family leaves tomorrow for Nassau so my dad can log some dives in preparation for his advanced open water certification !!!!

Doug

Congratulations Doug - that's a great story! Have fun in Nassau.

If you ever come to Cayman, give us a shout. Great stuff.

I always say there is not limit to the age at which you should start diving. It's great to see divers this age, it's really an inspiration to us all, I certainly hope that I am still able to dive at that age!

On my first dive trip in Grand Cayman I had the privilege of diving with Ms. Wilma. She was in her mid seventies at the time and she was puttering around the reef with the divemasters a third of her age and having a grand ole time. Should we all be so lucky to be so vibrant and well aged!

One of my besdt days of diving was with an 82 year old gentleman I met at Catalina Island. He'd been diving since the 1950's. I was so proud of him and envious that I had my picture taken with him. He was just like anyone else...sipped on a Tecate on our ride home.

Congrats to your dad. My dad died last Mother's Day, so believe me, enjoy the time you have NOW.