Overview

My background is a bit professionally schizophrenic. I grew up in Spain and later studied Romance Philology at UC Berkeley (that s the study of the origins of Romance Languages, for you engineering types), but took a lot of Marine Biology courses as well. When I graduated, I went in search of the perfect career through which I could use my knowledge of the Spanish language and its roots, together with my love of all things water related. I certified as a SCUBA diving instructor, opened a shop with a partner, and started an underwater cinematography and commercial diving business. In 1980, we purchased a business in Saint Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles to use as a base of operations for the work we were doing in that part of the world. The business as a whole did well for quite a few years from 1979 until 1981, actually until my partner and I decided to go our separate ways. So I folded the corporation, resigned as president, and went off in search of a job. I sort of had to hurry because I was scheduled to marry Sabine not long thereafter, and it just wouldn t do to be unemployed while getting married.

Dive shops are pretty cool places to hang out in, and they attract their fair share of groupies. One of the people who was a regular at our dive shop was a fellow named Jack Garrett. Jack was in the first SCUBA class I taught at Sea Hut, and...