Buddy Longevity — George Landgrabe

Buddy Longevity

Now that you have completed your certification for being a scuba diver and have purchased all the necessary equipment to hit the water, you now need that one extra item that is not in your dive bag...........a buddy.

If you belong to a club or frequent a dive shop, you may go along with a group of divers and pair up at the dive site. This sometimes can be just one diver or sometimes three or four. This works for group dives but what about when you get the urge to break out of the crowd and explore some remote island or even some local site that the club may not consider worthy enough to look into? This may be a quarry, river, lake or pond. This is where you need that buddy who shares your like interests, capability and desire for adventure.

Where do you find this person, you don't, sometimes they find you or it becomes a mutual connection. By this I mean during your extensive participation in various routine dives with a club or dive shop outings, you will begin to frequent diving with one or two particular individuals. These are folks who you feel comfortable with, observe having like skills and like to participate in the same type of diving.

Why do I spend this time going over the importance of selecting a buddy? Because when you do finally link up with that person that shares your passion for the sport, you will enjoy diving to the fullest and experience more locations and adventures than you can imagine.

That being said I now want to step back from the limelight and introduce you to three of my diving buddies that have been diving almost as long as I have. I would like them to explain just how they got into diving and how it was that they eventually became acquainted with the diving buddies they have to date.

The first one is Walt who now resides in Florida but originally is from Cleveland, Ohio. Tell it like it was and/or still is Walt!

The Cleveland, Ohio area was where I grew up. I should consider that statement a series of fortunate events seeing I was a risk taker every step of the way.

Around the age of 11 the family went to a public pool and most of the kids were having fun swimming while none of my relatives knew how to swim. When we moved to another location there was a YMCA across the street from our house. Seeing I had missed out on a lot of fun at our last location, I decided to learn to swim. I got a paper route and earned enough to join the Y. Swimming wasn't easy for me but once I got the hang of it I quickly moved up to the YMCA shark level swimmer.

A year later we moved again to the outskirts of Cleveland. I continued to earn what I could doing the paper route plus any odd job's neighbors wanted done. I became friends with three other guys Dennis, Greg and Jim. Around 1965 we decided to make our own scuba gear. This became sort of a joke in that we never were as successful as Jacques Cousteau. We advanced as far as getting a couple of breaths out of a homemade device that we thought was going to allow us to stay underwater a lot longer. It's a miracle that any of us are here as a result our desire to live with the fishes.

By 1967 I had saved enough money and decided to really get into scuba diving. At that time the local K-Mart carried a limited amount of scuba gear, of which I bought. I purchased a Healthway's regulator and a steel 72 cu. ft. tank with a reserve valve and a rubber wet suit. I didn't know of any close dive shops that were available, so we had to go to a welding supply shop in order to have our tanks filled. They said their air was OK to breath.

Greg also bought scuba gear and his brother was a boat owner. We took the boat, without permission, giving us the ability to go out further in Lake Erie to test out our newly acquired equipment. You would weight yourself just enough to float and still get down. Then swim like hell to get deeper. Once you were deeper you began to lose buoyancy and eventually became a rock on the bottom. The early single hose regulators were not balanced as the regulators on the market today so it seemed to become harder breathing the deeper you went.

We saw large rocks and silt, nothing of interest. Without an air gauge it became harder to breath which signaled us to pull our reserve valves giving us 200 psi of air to get to the surface. There was no way to control your assent, you just popped to the surface. Upon reaching the surface the boat was pretty far away so with the weights it was a rough swim. After this bad experience we didn't do much boat diving just a little shore diving.

Two years later, in 1969, my car was stolen with the scuba gear in the trunk. This may be why I'm still alive today also in January of 1970 I was on my way to Navy boot camp. My job was aviation fuels and I was stationed aboard the USS Juneau LPD 10. We could carry 900 Marines, three helicopters and landing craft as well as all the necessary equipment for an amphibious assault if needed. Ironically in 2002 the state of Florida sunk a similar ship off its East Coast called The Spiegel Grove.

Juneau Spiegel Grove On Bottom

I made arrangements to dive he Spiegel Grove in 2003. I had flash backs of he Juneau because she looked very similar but didn't have a flight deck. We dropped into the lower deck but no penetration diving. Great wreck if you get a chance to dive it.

I got out of the Navy four years later with a wife, daughter and no money. We were barely surviving on an apprentice meat cutter salary so in 1978 I saw a sign by the fire station indicating they needed part time firefighters so I took the test and joined.

We got a call about a small boy that was missing and possibly drowned. Only one fireman was a certified diver but they wouldn't allow him to dive alone or let me go in. The boy was found a day later floating along the bank of the river. After that heart breaking experience another fireman, Mike and I, decided to get certified. We paid for the class ourselves and were surprised when the city reimbursed us the $50 once we finished the YMCA course. We were the beginning of one of the first organized dive teams.

In 1983 I had my garage door open and a fellow came by that was teaching his little girl to ride a bike. She got tired so they both stopped to rest in my front yard. That is when she saw my dive equipment and showed it to her father. My car was gone at that time so later on her father saw my car was in the garage and knocked on the door. That's how I met my long-term diving partner John which started a whole new diving chapter in my life.

Because I had two jobs and John was working full time, it wasn't easy to find dive time. We did get away to make a first dive together near a break wall in Lake Erie. We would dive anywhere, later we got the bright idea to dive around the water intake channel for the local power plant. We would throw some silt up to determine the current. When we turned a corner, it was a fight for our lives. We were being sucked in and couldn't stop. We pulled out our knives and dug them into the bottom but that wasn't enough. Then we came across a two-inch-thick stick that allowed us to both put a hand on it, along with the knives and managed to work out of the heavy current. Only did that once!

We did dive the discharge channel a few times. It was the opposite; we would work our way up to the discharge pipes and ride the current out. Our big finds were a newer outboard motor, which I think we sold for $75 and a $100 bill. Eventually security was tightened and the party was over.

John and I started a company around 1985 we called Divers Down.

We had one steady customer Chase Brass and Copper that needed a marker buoy put on their water intake. I would charge them to put it in and again to take it out for the winter. By winter the buoy was pretty much destroyed so we always needed a new one. After a couple of years, they caught on and didn't pay us to take it out anymore. The company didn't go very far, we did find a gas cap for a guy at a gas dock and not much else.

John introduced me to a dive club he belonged to by the name of the Aqua Amigos.

The Amigos widened my diving experience to include quarries and some boat diving in Lake Erie. They also had longer trips to Tobermory Canada, the Niagara River, St. Clare River and boat diving wrecks from New York. They also introduced us to North Carolina wreck diving. My first salt water dive was on the German Submarine, the U352. Off the coast of North Carolina is the premier wreck diving for WWI and WWII ships sunk by German Submarines.

Spoons and Key Brass Rail Mount

At the club I met Victor, who was a close friend of George, the author of the book "Scuba Pioneer", whom he had been diving with now for about 25 years. George's job had transferred him to Florida but later on John and I connected with him to dive together off the coast of North Carolina where we dove the area's wrecks a number of times.

Early on long distance travel was not always practical money wise, so in order to satisfy our appetite for more frequent dives we would look closer to home which is where the St. Claire River filled the gap. The river has a ripping current and is just wide enough for two freighters to pass each other. When you hear them coming you have to find a spot to hang on until they pass. Because the visibility was not conducive to spearfishing or photography, we would concentrate on what we could pull off a sunken wreck.

Pulley Small Port Hole

Like I said earlier, John and I would dive anywhere. We actually dove under a docked coast guard cutter in the St. Clair River and found a heavy chain. John went back to our van and got a rope. The bystanders helped us pull it out. Once we were out of the water John and I put the chain over our shoulders and took it to the van and drove off.

There was also a Model A Ford in the St. Clair sticking upright, half buried in a clay bank. The front wheel still turned so I stuck my pry bar into the radiator fill to stop from the current. The top moved and is now in my collection.

Model A Ford Top Tank

On a trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan I had a dive scheduled in the Mackinaw Straights but the guy never showed. While waiting I saw a dive flag on a boat with a couple of guys in it, I introduced myself and they invited me to dive with them. The water was very cold even though I was wearing a dry suit.

Location of the Mackinaw Straights

There were four wrecks sitting upright in the shipping channel. Keep in mind that all of the great lakes contain fresh water, for this reason wrecks, especially wooden wrecks, do not deteriorate the way ones do in the oceans consisting of salt water. It is very forgiving also to steel wrecks. For this reason, to explore wrecks in fresh water is much more rewarding being able to view a ship much like the day it went down.

The Sandusky 1856 It's 81 feet. The Minneapolis 1873, 106 feet deep deep, intact, a nice carving on the bow. with dead eyes, anchor and more.

The Cedarville 1975 70 feet deep heavy surface current, lying on side.

Most of the wreck diving up till now was a location we could drive to but we still longed for that holy grail of wreck spots so In 1985 John, George, Victor and I planned a trip to Truk Lagoon in the Pacific. The trip was three years in the planning, due to the cost of spending two weeks at the location. If we were going that far we were going to make it worthwhile. This had to be the ultimate in wreck diving due to the US Navy pulling a day and a half raid on the Japanese supply ships in 1944. They sunk over 65 ships during the raid. We arrived only to find George had been delayed a day on-route as well as Victor had to cancel due to some necessary surgery but what's a day in a two-week excursion.

Walt and John over a Japanese Submarine

To this day, we will all recall as it being the best dive trip any of us had ever taken. All in all, we dove 45 times over the two weeks to maximum depths of 180 feet. We even met Kimiuo Aisek, who was an island teenager and witnessed the raid. Because of all the divers who wanted to view the wrecks, Kimiuo started Blue Lagoon Dive Shop that is still in operation today. He signed our books "Hailstorm over Truk" which was a detailed account of the raid.

I never wrote my history down before, now I see I did a lot of diving in my 72 years. Each dive has a story so the best thing is remembering the good and sometimes bad times.

I now live in Florida with a back yard 11-acre manmade pond about 12 feet deep. I had to explore what this body of water contained until I came across a 6-foot alligator floating on the surface only a few feet away. Never came across anything like that in Ohio and don't plan on it again.

At this writing John and I plan on diving on one of the Aggressor boats out of Nassau while George and his son are headed for Bonaire. As long as we have the desire and physical capability the water is where we want to be.

The next buddy to tell his story of getting into diving is John. Let us know just how the diving bug bit and what adventures it led you to.

My mom always would tell everyone that when I went swimming that I would spend more time underwater than above it. She bought me a Voit dive mask equipped with twin snorkels with ping pong balls mounted in the ends. When we went to the reservoir to swim, I would dive under the water to see what was there. I was so surprised to see rocks, sand and an occasional fish. I just couldn't get enough of it.

One day, a buddy of mine stopped at my house and said "Let's do an adventure, like scuba diving or skydiving". Seeing we lived on the East side of Cleveland and near the South Shore of Lake Erie, I felt we had more access to water than an airplane, and so it began.

I went in to Midwest Underwater School of Scuba Diving, located in Wickliffe, Ohio and received my NASDS Certification Card in June of 1975. The shop was a ScubaPro Dealer, so mask, snorkel, fins, regulator and gauges were all that brand. All except the backpack that was made by WaterGill, that went by the name of AtPac. It was just the precursor to the backpack mounts now but they were just ahead of their time.

The tanks were Aqualung aluminum 80s, I bought two that had to come from another dealer because, at that time, if you were a ScubaPro dealer the manufacturer would not allow you to carry a competitive brand.

I met Victor at the Aqua Amigos dive club meeting in early 1981 and he in turn eventually led me to begin diving with George & Gary.

I met Walt in September of 1983, my youngest daughter was learning to ride a bike without training wheels and we were going around our block, which was pretty long. By the time we came back toward our house her legs had become tired and she wanted to rest. We were only five houses away from our house but she was so tired she just went up to the front steps of Walt's house and sat on the front steps. We were looking around and noticed dive gear in the garage where there was no car. I went back after supper and knocked on the door and Walt answered. We immediately shared our desires to explore as much underwater as we could so we made our first dive together on the 26th of that same month.

Walt and I dived the break walls from Cleveland to Fairport Harbor looking for lost anchors, fishing tackle and anything we could discover. We also dove Punderson State Park and the abandon Euclid Beach Amusement Park's Pier.

When the weather wouldn't allow diving in Lake Erie, we would visit one of the many quarries that dotted the landscape in Northern Ohio.
They were like a swimming pool just made for scuba divers.

I take the high road while Walt takes the low

Like Walt, I was on a quest to see just what you could bring up from a dive to document you were there. Probably the most lucrative area for this type of discover was off North Carolina where the area is termed The Ghost Fleet of the Outer Banks. There have been so many sinkings in this area both from weather related disasters to WWI and WWII ships that were sunk by German Submarines that were patrolling our shores.

In the early years we had a contact who would take us out to the supply ships that the submarines were particular fond of sinking due to their importance to the war effort. These ships were hauling ammunition, replacement parts and additional supplies.

WW I and WW II Munitions Yale Lock and Grenade

Yes, the grenade has been neutralized, my wife wouldn't let me bring it in the house until it was.

A particularly notable wreck was the HMS Bedfordshire, an English ship that was sent over to assist the United States in protecting its shores from the increased activity of German U Boats.

HMS Bedfordshire

Unfortunately, even though the Bedfordshire did assist in chasing submarines with its one 4" gun, a machine gun and depth charges, fate caught up with her in May of 1942 when U558 scored a direct hit.

We had the opportunity to dive this ship and while swimming over the remains, I noticed what looked like a piece of cloth sticking out of the sand. Walt was with me so we both began to fan away the sand to uncover what appears to be a signal flag. I proudly have it today as one of my most memorable finds.

Signal Flag from the HMS Bedfordshire

We all had a great time on our dives off the coast of North Carolina. On one outing it was a real family gathering. Walt, George and his son Gary, Victor, Al and his daughter Jenny and my daughter Kasey. Yes, my daughter who got her certification in 1986 at age 12. She has about 130 dives logged in and now her 16-year-old son recently became certified.

Like Walt, I think being primarily a wreck diver, that the best trip we had as a threesome was Truk Lagoon. It didn't look promising when you arrived at the airport, if you could call it that.

Waiting for our luggage at the Truk Airport

Realizing the remoteness of this island we weren't really surprised that a full-scale facility didn't greet us. From there we were shuttled out to our first week's accommodations the Thorfin, which was a liveaboard operating in the area.

Thorfin Livaboard John & Walt with New York Diver

The second week we had scheduled to stay at the island hotel and dive with the land-based dive operation Blue Lagoon.

Our dive guides from Blue Lagoon Dive Shop

Both weeks proved adventuresome and we were all in our fantasy land being able to dive the maximum of dives every day. Weather was beautiful for the entire two weeks. We even took some land excursions when the deeper dives required that we stay on the surface for a period of off gassing or a lunch break.

John with Cargo of Mines John and Walt with Tank

I have to give a nod of credit to George who brought his camera to document most of the dives.

Coming back home with broad smiles on our faces we all felt it was money well spent and maybe our wives were glad to have us out of the house for two weeks also. For a number of months afterward if someone came by and asked if I wanted to dive it took awhile to come down from my rush and agree to tag along.

I did manage to squeeze in a few more certifications along the way like Advanced Open Water, SLAM (scuba lifesaving and accident management put on by the YMCA), Ice Diver and Nitrox.

Currently I have logged over 1,500 dives and I'm hoping to reach 1,600 this year which is partially filled with ice diving seeing I still live in Ohio.

Now that we have dispensed with the old guys' I wanted to hear from this next buddy who happens to be my son. Don't pull any punches Gary, tell us just how you got the diving bug.

I remember sitting in my bedroom looking out the window watching my dad loading his boat and leave early in the morning.

I asked Mom where he was going and she said diving. After seeing this a few weekends in a row, I wanted to see what this was all about because he seemed to be having a lot of fun. Eventually my dad took me with him along with another by the name of Victor to hunt for anchors off one of the Cleveland break walls. Upon their return they had a lift bag that had a bunch of anchors tied to it.

Lift Bag to Raise Anchors Days Find

Wanting to learn more I told my dad I would like to try diving. His reply was great but you have to take the course in order to be certified. Once more, if you pass, I'll pay for the course but if you flunk you pay. I was 13 years old in 1973.

The course was offered by the local YMCA and a friend of his was the instructor. He no longer was able to teach me seeing his certification had expired. He did make most of the sessions to check on me and give what encouragement he could. The class was taught on a Friday night, during the winter, and consisted of two hours in the class room and two hours in the pool.

I passed the course and was ready for the open water check-out dive which took place at a local quarry. I remember being excited and nervous, but the chill of the water took most of that away.

My dad dove with twin 72 cu. ft. tanks but being 13 they were way too much for me to handle so he acquired a set of twin 40 cu tanks with custom harness and bands to hold them together. I was off and running. He was using a double hose regulator and they were still popular at that time so he managed to find a good used one for me. Added to this was a set of rocket fins, and an oval mask which configuration I still dive with today.

Getting Certified at the Quarry

Diving in Lake Erie was different than the quarry or pool. One, the lake was warmer and there were more fish. Two, the visibility was nowhere near as clear. Finally, I did like the fact that we were looking for anchors. What the local fishermen didn't seem to take into consideration was that the break wall was built like a pyramid where what you saw on the surface was just the tip of the overall wall that extended out underneath their boat.

Break Wall on Surface

When they threw their anchor, it would go down between the individual rocks and open up to the point where they could not get it out. Most of the time they would just have to cut the line and buy another anchor. It was like a scavenger hunt, you would look for a piece of rope sticking out of the rocks and pull on it to see which direction was stuck. Then it became a matter of just reaching down and working the anchor out. Sometimes we would find a nice Danforth and other time a homemade hunk of concrete.

Shortly after my parents planned a trip to Florida in 1974. We went in the summer and flew into Orlando, then drove down to the keys. While in the keys my dad and I would rent tanks and dive from shore. Man, many creatures I'd only seen in books were right in front of my eyes. Close to shore, starfish, sea urchins and many small fish. Visibility was great, water warm and a whole new world. We also took a local charter for a couple of drift dives. Those were very relaxing and interesting to just go with the current and follow the fish.

Back to Ohio and reality, I always looked forward to the summer as my dad and I would make weekend trips to Buffalo, NY to dive the Coin Pile. On the way we would pick up his long-time buddy Victor who had been diving this area for some time together. Of course, we would be trailering our boat in order to get out to the area which was just outside a break wall.

The Coin Pile Location

The area was originally located by the local dive club members and was definitely a wreck site where they found a large anchor along with a lot of debris such as forks, spoons, clay pipes, a lot of square iron nails etc. Of course, the most sought-after prize were the many coins that have been taken mostly dating back to before the 1850s.

Bottom Conditions at the Coin Pile

In order that my dad and I could hunt by ourselves, he equipped us with what is known as a buddy line. This was a 15-foot length of line that connected us allowing each of us to search an area without not wandering too far away. Depth was only about 20 feet so you could spend a good amount of time looking. This was the best as it took scavenger hunting to a whole new level.

For the three-our ride home, going through the finds of the weekend were exhilarating. From clay pipes, to a rusted pistol, iron nails and of course coins. My highlight was a 5 Franc's piece dated 1834. It was large and very good condition being that it was made of silver, there was no tarnish at all. I remember Victor offering me money for it but this was not for sale as it was my "best" find from the dives.

The Famous Five Franc's Piece

Ironically my dad's company offered him a transfer to where else, Florida in 1975 then the diving really took off. Shortly after we arrived my dad tried to sign us up for a trip with a local dive shop. Unfortunately, we were still diving with double hose regulators and the shop would not take us out using that type of equipment. For the type of diving we did in Ohio, there was no need for some of the attachments that were necessary in ocean diving. So, dad had to order two new single hose regulators and some additional accessories we had never used before.

We joined a local dive club and dove with many different dive charters up and down the East and West Coasts. When I graduated high school, my dad offered me a trip to dive Grand Cayman Island in the Caribbean. Wow, more fish, different corals, swim throughs, huge drop offs and a wreck in visibility as far as you could see. The Caribbean was going to see more of me.

As time went on my skill level increased as well as my diving locations. We dived the many locations off North Carolina where my favorite wreck was the German Submarine the U352.

In addition, we dove Bimini, Turks and Caicos, Roatan, and Exuma Islands. Mexico was also interesting diving Cancun, the Cenote's, a Whale Shark encounter and the Socorro Islands off Cabo San Lucas. We even dove the Bonne Terre Mine in Missouri.

Along the way I was fortunate to have a son and daughter who both swim but only my son developed an interest in diving. He was certified in Florida and accompanied my dad and me to a number of locations off Florida.

Dad, Me and Another George

My son eventually moved to North Carolina and has not pursued the sport as heavily as I have but getting married and having a demanding job cuts into your dive time.

As my dad gets up in years, it's more difficult for him to handle the weight of the tanks and other additional equipment. I try to help him to the point of sometimes being annoying but I remember how he protected me and I feel that now it's my duty to assist him whenever needed.

Well thanks guys for your individual input on letting us all know how diving began for each of you as well as some of the highlights following your mastering of the underwater world. I'm sure you all have some more diving adventures ahead of you and I personally wish you the best in whatever that is.

In case you're wondering, it's Dr. Pepper

I will never forget those times when we all managed to get together for memorable dives, to share not only our past adventures but the thrill of experiencing the current one. We were all buddies and relied on each other because we knew we could.

George