Jim Recalls: “You have to remember, there were very few divers in those days. Sooner or later you would meet other divers on the beach. Eventually, five of us got together and formed a small diving club. You might think that the name of the club is Mickey Mouse. Believe me, to dive back then, with the available equipment and lack of knowledge, was a long way from Mickey Mouse.
State of the art in the late 1960s – Underwater photographer Odd Henrik Johnsen
We finally decided on the unlikely name of Carmel Bathing Association! The president’s nickname was Monk as he had a ring of thin hair around his bald head. Then there was Crusher, who was a big man, 6 foot 2 inches tall, weighing 220 pounds. The only woman in the club lived 100 miles north, in San Francisco. She would fly down to Carmel about twice a month. Because her luggage on the plane was limited to only a few pounds, she would wear her weight belt under her coat, to avoid paying the extra cost. We called her GG after the shabby character in the Dick Tracey series. When GG was combing her hair, and ran into a knot, she would take scissors from her pocket and cut it out! Lest we forget, Godzilla. He was movie star handsome (and knew it), weighed in around 275 pounds and was 6 foot 4 inches tall. Nobody messed with Godzilla! My nickname was Santiago, as I spoke fluent Spanish.”
“One of our favorite dive spots was a deserted beach south of Carmel. The biggest drawback was that you had to park your vehicle up on the highway, then walk quite a distance to the beach. We had just finished a great dive, with clear water, a big kelp bed, and lots of marine life. As we swam underwater back to the beach, Monk spotted a large sunflower star. These are the largest sea stars in the world. They grow to one meter across, and have 20-24 arms. Monk picked up this huge, bright orange monster and put it on his head. The arms draped over his head down to his shoulders, and over his mask. When we got into shallow water, we all stood up.”
“We left nothing of ours on the deserted beach, as we had put on our diving gear up at the car. Monk still has the sunflower star draped over his head and we all had pole spears. Please remember that divers were rarely seen in those days. As we all stood up in the shallow water, believe it or not, two nuns were walking along the beach right in front of us. Well……Monk, our president, ran towards them with his pole spear in his hand and the bright orange sea star on his head. As he approached them, he hollered “Take me to your leader!”
The last we saw of the nuns were two black robes flapping in the wind and a female voice praying loudly “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death……”.
“I will never forget the memorable times I had with the Carmel Bathing Association.”
By Jim Willoughby