In 1956, a British naval diver by the name of Lionel “Buster” Crabb went missing after a covert diving operation involving a visiting Soviet cruiser. The same year, 17-year old Robert “Bob” Kieran decided to take on a new sport - Scuba Diving. It did not take long for the rest of the world to join him - what with the launch of the Sea Hunt underwater adventure TV series in 1957 and the initial efforts of YMCA for a scuba certification course in 1959.

Bob, or more affectionately, Daddy Bob, is the Mermaid Dive Center’s Master Instructor and has been for just about a year now. And what a year it has been as seen in the barrage of beginner and advanced certifications and regular dives carried out by Mermaid in 2009. There’s certainly something about this pleasant character of a man who breathes out the best of Scuba learning to those who’ve had the honor of meeting him. I’ve had such an honor. The last time, I interviewed him for this piece.

I happened to know he is now based in Puerto Galera in Oriental Mindoro Island in the Philippines. He has a beautiful house built on top of a cliff overlooking Sabang and its waters. Indeed very fitting for an ocean lover. But I wanted to know more.

I wanted to know where he was based prior to his 9 years in Puerto Galera. “I’m from California, USA, a place called Ventura, California on the coast.” Bob says and continues, “Before there [Puerto Galera] Mexico, Baja California, and the Yucatan Peninsula.” Very fine and rich places to spend most of one’s 54 years in diving.

During one of our past conversations he mentioned he was once an underwater hunter. He explained, “Yes, that’s mostly what you did. In those years diving was all about hunting. It was hunting and gathering sea life.”

This has changed, though. Culling from a Green Diver article I wrote previously,

“I have seen the effects of pollution and abuse and have felt anger and sadness over the decline of such a wondrous resource.

All our divers receive a thorough briefing when they come to the dive shop initially. Among other things, they are briefed on diver etiquette. We talk about interaction with marine life and being aware of harming coral and other living things by touching or kicking. We encourage them to use the identification books we have available to become familiar with the abundant variety of sea life we are blessed with in this area. My feeling is that if we can encourage a close relationship between diver and animal, the diver becomes a champion of the environment.”

Now that’s a professional diver!

But what got him started in professional diving? Bob enlightens me with this bit of background. “When I first worked at diving would’ve been about 1968, ‘69. But that wasn’t my only job…I was an electrical contractor, construction contractor. [I] also spent 6 years in the military. The professional end of diving I got into in 1969 assisting as an instructor. And I didn’t become an instructor until 1999, about 11 years ago. Before that I was a Dive Master. ”

Basically, a whole lifetime of diving thus far, surely there are memorable experiences? “Oh, I have so many memorable diving experiences,” Bob exclaims with a smile reminiscent of, well, reminiscences. He goes on, “It depends on what you are talking about. I’ve had exciting experiences. I’ve had dangerous experiences. I’ve had beautiful experiences.”

He pauses for a short moment, a bit of a thrilled struggle to know exactly where to begin. In those brief seconds I saw his expression turn into mine when in front of a buffet table - there’s just so many! And he goes on, “Probably some of the best were with large animals - Whale Sharks in Baja, California, I’ve been cage diving, inside a cage, with Whitetip Sharks…, and that sort of thing. I’ve dove [sic] in with whales in Scammon’s Lagoon when they were breeding and giving birth, filming them.”

“…I’ve always been into underwater photography and videography for quite some time so I’ve done a lot of things with that. I’ve been to a lot of ship wrecks. I’ve assisted in some record-setting dives…as [part of] support teams.”

How about around here? I wanted to know if he had any exhilarating experience during a Philippine dive. “There’s Tubbataha Reef,” he says, “lots of large animals there. I had an Oceanic Whitetip encounter there which is kind of a frightening thing. But [it was] awesome! Awesome! And I survived it! That was where I had to make a decision. I saw this Oceanic Whitetip kind of napping in there - probably the apex predator in the ocean. I started getting fearful and I just said to myself, ‘Bob, there’s nothing you can do. If it wants to eat you, it’s going to eat you!’ [They eat] anything that looks like food. So I said ‘You might as well just enjoy this. Just relax and enjoy it because if it wants to eat you, it’s going to.’ It came in and turned and showed me its whole size and then just swam off. That was an adrenaline experience.”

*** Part 2 on Wednesday, January 20, 2010.