2003 Dive Season Goals

[Gramps]

The "Fall apart after the Mission from God" analogy is so true! I can relate!
Summer of 02, I was up on Superior with some buds for a weekend of typical Madeira dives. My Harvey's full neoprene Drysuit, which had served me so well over the past 2-21/2 years had become leaky all over, had a cranky zipper, and was basically heading for the scrap heap. I had just barely managed it through a week of diving up on Royale. Ken Merryman, Capt. of the HeyBoy, started jokingly referring to it as my glorified wet suit. I fully agreed and had been planning to replace it with the DUI CF200 once the '02 season came to a close. So, my fingers were quietly crossed it'd pull through for the Madeira fun dive weekend. We were gearing up in the parking lot at the Madeira site and, being the suit is rear entry, I ask one of my friends for a zip. A few stiff tugs are given and suddenly I hear "clink, clink, clink" as some things went scattering all over the lot behind me. The next sound I hear was my friend very quietly behind me say "oh, sh*t". I knew in an instant what those "clinking" sounds were and the "oh, sh*t" simply confirmed it...the zipper on the suit completely blew apart. It was only a matter of time till something went kaplooey, just wasn't expecting it to happen prior to the first dive of a fun weekend with friends. Well, everyone was a complete troop and I was able to swap dives with someone for their suit. Good dive buddies always got yer back! Ordered the CF200 right when I got home and now I'm happy as a clam. My old Harvey's "Mission from God" suit quietly hangs in the garage now...it's not worth the dough to fix the zipper on it and somehow I can't bring myself to simply toss it in the trash. So, it's gonna make a really interesting Halloween git up someday!

Definitely not a '03 goal of mine and apologies for deviating the thread topic. Couldn't resist sharing the story of my poor old suit. Maybe some of you can relate...or at least can have a good laugh on me. ;D