"Goodbye, Victor"
On top of this year being one of fear, disappointment and adjustment, I have had some very bad news that my longtime diving partner, Victor, passed away earlier this month.
With all the naysayers on traveling, I bit the bullet and flew from Orlando, Florida to Cleveland, Ohio in order to attend Victor's funeral and wish him God's Speed in the afterlife of diving. I did manage to return home without contracting the virus even though my initial return flight couldn't land in Atlanta and had to divert to North Carolina to wait out the storm. After finally getting back to Atlanta for my connecting flight it was too late to continue on to Orlando so I had to get a hotel and stay the night in order to continue the next day. It was a hectic trip but for Victor it was all worthwhile.
Victor and I were dedicated buddies underwater. We watched over one another as if our lives depended on it, because it did.
Victor was not only a proficient diver but a really funny guy. When we first met he was a member of the Euclid, Ohio little theater group. His attributes were his quick thinking and unlimited wit.
In the early days we were hooked on the television program Sea Hunt to the point that whenever we would be getting ready to enter the water, while putting on our wet suit hoods, we would hum the starting theme of the program that started out with Lloyd Bridges, the star, putting on his hood to start the show with the theme song in the background.
There was a small plane airport on the lake front where planes would be landing and taking off during the time when we were diving off shore. Between dives Victor would be standing on the bow of the boat when a plane was coming in to land and he would say "Look sir I think they're ours". Following this statement he would make the sound of machine guns and go flying off the front of the boat as though he was shot.
Victor also went so far as to imitate a UDT diver sneaking up on an unsuspecting foe and in the process put the blade of his dive knife in his mouth. Little did he realize that the knife was a double edge version and proceeded to cut the corners of his mouth.
One day when the lake proved too rough to go out, we were trying to decide an alternative dive site when Victor picked up a branch and pretended to use it as a divining rod. Walking over to a large puddle he splashed the stick into the water and called out "Here, over here is our next dive.".
I always said it was just as much fun to be with Vic on shore as in the water because he was always adding some form of entertainment to our adventures.
Victor (left) with me somewhere off Cleveland.
In the beginning, we would dive almost every Saturday and Sunday during the Summer months and try to do some form of diving, such as quarries or inland lakes during the winter. This routine began to be cut back some when we both got married. It was necessary for both of us to pay attention to our spouses so diving was curtailed to Sundays only during the Summer.
It wasn't that we were deaf to our wives feelings because they understood what diving meant to us, prior to marriage, so to keep us from the sport was not the best way to have a happy home life. After all, we did give up our Saturdays.
Gradually we did cut down on the frequency of our diving to everyone's benefit. After all, we couldn't keep going to the same places over and over so we tended to pick and choose the locations that were new and different by traveling to other areas of Ohio, or neighboring states, that offered a change of pace as well as a change of scenery.
We continued to dive for almost twenty years together until the company I was working for transferred me to the Orlando, Florida area. This kind of put a damper on us diving together however my son Gary, who was now 14, was diving for two years already so we started to buddy together around Florida.
Whenever we got the chance Gary and I would travel up to Ohio to dive with Victor or we would schedule a dive somewhere at a dive resort or a live aboard boat and dive for a week together.
This continued up until that fateful day in October when Victor passed away and I lost my long time dive buddy. He was funny, sincere, responsible and loyal in everything we did.
I'll miss you Victor and hope you find a diving paradise wherever you may be.
George