{"id":4187,"date":"2016-03-22T23:51:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T06:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=4187"},"modified":"2016-03-22T23:51:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T06:51:00","slug":"what-televisions-sea-hunt-taught-me-about-scuba-diving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=4187","title":{"rendered":"What Television’s Sea Hunt Taught Me About SCUBA Diving"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Conditions
\nLobster season has come and gone, and El Nino has been pounding the coast for the last couple of months.<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, to get my diving fix, I have been catching up on the old Sea Hunt<\/em><\/a> series with Lloyd Bridges<\/a>…<\/p>\n

\"Lloyd<\/p>\n

For my readers who do not have a television, Sea Hunt<\/em> was an extremely popular action and adventure series about an ex-Navy Frog Man named Mike Nelson, played by Lloyd Bridges.<\/p>\n

The production was made between 1958 to 1961 and was shot in many locations<\/a>, including the Marineland of the Pacific, Catalina Island, Florida and the Bahamas. <\/p>\n

\"Sea
\nSea Hunt<\/em> was the first television series to bring SCUBA diving to the public’s attention, and even though new episodes haven’t been made in 55 years, through television re-runs and DVD collections, the show still remains very popular and influential.<\/p>\n

Many divers I have met became divers because of watching Sea Hunt<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Many non-divers I have met never wanted to become divers, because of watching Sea Hunt<\/em>.<\/p>\n

To help with the plot, the show explained the science of diving – the dangers of coming up too quickly, the dangers and causes of decompression sickness, etc. <\/p>\n

It is interesting to note, that “SCUBA diving” was referred to as “skin diving” on the show.<\/p>\n

\"Sea<\/p>\n

Sea Hunt<\/em> was very influential in my desire to become a SCUBA diver.<\/p>\n

However, on a lighter side, here are some things I learned about SCUBA diving growing up watching Sea Hunt<\/em>.<\/p>\n

…and no, I haven’t seen every single episode, so I may be wrong on some things.<\/p>\n

Solo Diving Is Fine And Perfectly Safe<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Mike<\/p>\n

Solo diving wasn’t even mentioned as a more hazardous option to buddy diving – at least that’s what they teach you now.<\/p>\n

When Mike Nelson was hired to do a job, unless he was teaching or part of a team, he just geared up and went over, leaving everyone else waiting on the boat.<\/p>\n

He dove in open water, wrecks, caves, mines and did search and recovery alone many times.<\/p>\n

SCUBA Divers Get The Women<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Women<\/p>\n

This part convinced me to become a diver.<\/p>\n

Mike Nelson never had any problems getting women; he could take his pick, and even steal women away from their boyfriends.<\/p>\n

SCUBA Diving Is A Means Of Transportation<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"SCUBA<\/p>\n

In “The Meet,” Season 4, Episode 26, Mike Nelson follows a couple with a suspicious package to a remote island.<\/p>\n

It turns out, they are teenagers who have SCUBA dove to the island from shore, and their package is their lunch.<\/p>\n

This feat was possible because it seemed that the air tanks on the show lasted a long, long time, unless running low or out was part of the plot.<\/p>\n

Also to note, that particular episode showed a rare look inside Mike Nelson’s bachelor apartment. <\/p>\n

Other Divers Are Spying On You, And May Jack You<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Lying<\/p>\n

Visibility is never a concern, unless a silt out during a cave dive adds to the suspense.<\/p>\n

Therefore, other divers can be watching your every move.<\/p>\n

SCUBA Divers Carry Knives And Know How To Fight For Self Defense<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Sea<\/p>\n

Before I learned to SCUBA dive, I never had any idea that the dive knife had any practical purpose except to fight off sharks and other divers.<\/p>\n

I mean, the guys who are watching you, just may want to “jack your shit,” as they say in the ghetto.<\/p>\n

\"Sea<\/p>\n

\"Sea<\/p>\n

\"Sea<\/p>\n

\"Sea<\/p>\n

Knife skills were a must, but to be a good diver, you also had to know wresting and Jujitsu.<\/p>\n

The More Tanks You Have, The More Macho You Are<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Everyone has heard of single tanks and double tanks – but in Sea Hunt<\/em>, for ultra-macho dives, Mike would break out his triples!<\/p>\n

I asked another Mike at a dive shop if the three tank set-up had any practical purpose. <\/p>\n

He said, “It was just for looks.”<\/p>\n

Sea Hunt<\/em> will always be one of my favorite shows.<\/p>\n

It surprises me that some people under 30 don’t know who Lloyd Bridges was, and then I explain, “He’s the guy who played the boozing, glue sniffing and drug addicted control tower supervisor in the 1980 film, Airplane!<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Lloyd<\/p>\n

Then, they know who I’m talking about!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lobster season has come and gone, and El Nino has been pounding the coast for the last couple of months. Well, to get my diving fix, I have been catching up on the old Sea Hunt series with Lloyd Bridges… For my readers who do not have a television, Sea Hunt was an extremely popular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,19,25,29,9,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4187"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4225,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187\/revisions\/4225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}