New here (not really) old diver

[onokai]

Ok I've been registered here since 2003 and been diving Scuba since 1982 but I have not posted here in years so I'm New here I guess (this post is my 7th looks like). I do not feel new at this.Been raised in a waterman's family . My father dove a thin rubber green suit you entered from the belly and tied off with apiece of surgical tubing (the 1950's').We have some classic home movies of this My older brother was an early YMCA and Naui certified diver in early 60's. This was in So-cal back in the 50's and 60's. We spent tons of time at the beach-driving coastal Mexico for vacations. I leaned early to free dive and caught my 1st lobsters before 10.My family was making surfboards from balsa wood before foam (11 boards)-wish I had just one now.
I moved to extreme Nor-cal on the coast in 71 for collage and stayed.
I got Naui Certified in 82 and really dove hard thru the 80's and into the 90's-Got my dive master card back in middle 80's also got tank inspection certified in 1990-met Charlie back the early 80's as well-he is known here well as cnotthoff and have dove with him a fair amount over the years-He dives way more than me now.
Been around this planet warm and cold water diving in dry suits or no suits whatever. No need to go into details I feel you have enough all ready.
Now I'm in the geezer group-I have few compressors (Rix and Bauer) and a few boats.
I dive cold water more than warm
I have been taking underwater photos the whole time and been thru lots of housings and cameras -now I have a subal housing with Nikon digital setup.
Done lots of wreck diving and salvage work-I used to get game but now would rather take photos most of the time.

I go by onokai here and elsewhere which is the name of both my whalers (boats) and means sweet sea.

I have some vintage gear on the sale board and have sold a little to Dan the sites owner.
Well thats my story at least the dive side some may know of me more on Tuna fishing web sites where I have been more active
or on Pottery forums as thats my business.
Mark Cortright

[nikeajax]

Mark, welcome, I guess? Hopefully you'll be wanting to share a tale or two with us, or some insight you have gained through the years. Sometimes I feel much older than my actual years, both mentally and physically, but more so in all the interests I have. I have a habit of finding things and researching the ca-ca out of them. I use all the stuff I collect too: everything from antique firearms, snowshoes, 33-1/3 & 78-RPM recordings, fans, camping equipment, old cars, etc. but I really like old scuba gear. On a camp lantern and stove forum I use sometimes, I blew a lot of people's minds as having a more esoteric hobby than them... gosh, I just like to learn how things work, and I want to make them work myself. I've had more than a few people tell me I have a brain like a Mechanical Engineer, in that I will usually completely disassemble something before I'll repair it.

Anyway, I hope top hear more about you,
Jaybird

[Linda]

Hi, Mark, welcome (back)! Any friend of Charlie's is a friend of ours!

[sitkadiver]

I hope you will change your mind about sharing more details.... I'm wondering what the connection may be between pottery and a KM band mask..

Welcome back

[onokai]

The connection is I'm a potter for the past 40 years and what I mean is its not a hobby. I make a sell functional (everything one would use in the kitchen and home ) pottery at galleries and Art Shows in the western states.
so thats the ceramics side of that story.
The Kirby Morgan is my band mask and that photo was taken doing a tank mud sucking job with (surface supplied air) I helped Charlie (on this board cnotthoff) with as the third diver about 5-7 years ago.The other two divers have agfa masks-I use my band mask ( its Vintage) which Charlie maintains for me (sweet guy he is). I should add he loves this tank and had had an affair with it since early collage days. I on the other hand do not like the tank and an glad its no longer in use.(another story)
You may not like it either as you wear a tether while on top or a heavy belt while on the bottom and the laser is long with zero comfort-as a matter of fact there is NO comfort anywhere near this tank
I help out now and then when they need a 3rd guy on some crappy job in zero vis and when it does not interfere with my art show schedule.
You see in our neck of the woods there are very few divers who do not care if they can see anything or not vis wise and I happen to be one who has lots of experience with zero vis and work fine and feel fine with that as a diver. Seems most divers want to see underwater and get panicky when you cannot. I on the other hand toned up on this skill set diving shipwrecks in really bad vis for the past 30 some years. Thats because one of my favorite wrecks in in the surf and its always dirty -really dirty.
So heading into a steel tank or concrete tube or tank or whatever when the water is dark brown I'm ok with that-with a wrench or suction nozzle or whatever Charlie wants me to do-sometimes it just be topside ready to pull his ass out if needed. Sometimes its the other way around.Charlie trusts me and vice versa with our lives.
Maybe he has not mentioned any of this here -oops cats out of the bag .

Now the real story is that job which took about 3 weeks to do.
It was 10-12 feet of settled mud in a million something gallons of freshwater. The tank gets fills with muddy river water in winter.The tank is 40-50 foot high and 80 feet wide. We rotated one-two divers for an all day shift with two hoses. We three diver rotated and one guy on the ground for air supply and suction control .In the water or working the coms. The water was winter cold river water with ZERO vis. You went down a steel ladder and at 5 inches you lost all light and vis. You did not need a light as its no good-worked with eyes closed all day.You blindly by brail worked down the 6-8 inch suction hoses and started sucking mud. We had bail out bottles on our backs as backup and communication gear to the squeak box on tanks topside. It was a rainy cold April and everything about that job sucked.
We sucked mud every day except for a few really stormy ones-the river was runny brown and the water (they call it raw water) supplied a pulp mill. You can see that mill behind me in my aviator.
We worked off a bunch of large tanks as a air bank hooked to a large vintage 3-phase Rix compressor which was fed by a 3 phase generator( I wired it up-as I have been an electrician) Charlie worked his magic on the air system (he does that better than anyone I know) and we sucked mud in the dark.
we have some stories to tell about these types of things for me while I was sucking mud on my shift a contractor stopped by and showed the ground guy his New portable gas operated ground vibrating ground compactor and it was felt through the tanks floor and walls and thru my body-I asked what the H-ll was going on thru the com as it was very loud (next to tank) and it took a few minutes to get that dude to shut that puppy down seems no one thought that thru about the divers in the tank?. You never know what the next thing will be.
You get the picture crappy hard work in rubber suit with coveralls on over for protection on your wetsuit ( you can see this also in the aviator )
so there is the connection to Kirby and Pottery my friend-its all fits for me.Your quote says (but a life without risk is not worth living) and that tank job fits in that category .
My question to you is do you have any treasure ( brass/china) from Alaska shipwrecks? There are a bunch of them to dive and the brass/china on steam schooners is the best.
Mark

[JES]

Welcome back aboard! Thank you for sharing a little bit about your experiences with us.

[SeaRat]

Onokai,

'Good to see you here again. I've been on vacation for about 8 days, and got back in a blizzard here in Portland, Oregon area. So while I saw your posts, I did not do a lot of entries as I was monitoring the internet from my hotel room in Hong Kong. We were there for the Chinese New Year, as my wife is from Hong Kong, and is Chinese, and her family is there. So I wanted to take a few strokes here to welcome you here, and know that we enjoy your input.

That is quite an interesting story about mucking out the tank. I assume that you've now finished (along with Charlie and the other divers). 'Sounds like really challenging diving.

I once dove a garbage dump site to try to find a shotgun a fellow had lost. He was hunting ducks from a boat, and when the ducks flew directly over him he followed them, let loose a blast, and the recoil knocked him out of the boat. To not drown, he grabbed the gunnel, and lost the shotgun. We never did find it, and I went home with my wet suit on, got out of it in the shower, and scrubbed it and myself down with physohex (when we were still using it). Well, I"m glad I spent the hour or so decontaminating all my gear, as my buddy did not do that and came down with some boils. That was probably my most mucky, dirty dive. I did also dive a log pond to try finding a fellow's glasses that he lost from a boat he used to hook the logs. That one was also unsuccessful, and I used my double hose Dacor Dial-a-Breath regulator to keep from inhaling any of the water (it's a pretty dry breathing regulator).

But your dive in the tank kinda takes the cake for foul mucked up diving! What were you thinking when you heard that compactor while diving?

John