Pat Lynch is a special club member. He took time out of his personal life to contact three dive boat charters in Northern Washington and arranged with each of them to donate one 2 tank boat dive to our club fund raiser for the WSA buoy project. We would like to recognize Pat for his time spent and dedication to the club and our efforts to fund a second buoy for the WSA.
What made you want to be a diver?
My brother has a place in the Sea of Cortez in Baja. The first time I went down there with him he went diving and I got to snorkel above him watching his bubbles. I told myself next year I will be down there with him.
How long have you been diving?
About 6 years if I remember correctly
What is your level of certification?
PADI Dive Master. After about 60 dives I wanted to take classes that would make me a better diver. The DM program did that, however I would not recommend anyone go into that thinking they will make money doing it……unless you plan to move somewhere much warmer.
How did you hear about Oregon Scuba Club?
My dive buddy was much more into the social aspect of scuba diving than I was and I found out about you thru him. You would know him as Jeff Vance, last year’s Dive Coordinator.
What is your favorite cold water dive location?
This is a very tough question as I have several so I will qualify them by boat or by shore. Boat it would have to be The Pinnacle in Hood Canal off Don Coleman’s boat, the Down Time. Shore, it would be a tossup between Sund Rock in Hood Canal and Redondo Beach in Puget Sound. Sund Rock for it’s fantastic natural terrain filled with life and Redondo for its abundance of life.
What is your favorite warm water dive location?
Only real warm water destination I have been to is Bonaire as the water temps in the Sea of Cortez when I was there hovered in the low 60’s at depth.
What is the one piece of dive equipment you could not live without?
If this is meant literally, it is not 1 piece but 2. My HP 119 tanks filled with sweet nitrox from my own compressor and my ScubaPro MK25/S600 regulators, as without them, I would surely not be able to live underwater.
If meant figuratively I would have to say my Bare HD Trilam Tech.
Tell us your favorite dive story (the one that got away):
Okay so this is when diving for me almost completely got away. We were on our way down to my brother’s place in Baja and stopped in Ensenada to get some fireworks. We picked up some ½ sticks of dynamite and huge bottle rockets etc.. On that Tuesday night we decided to light some off. The first thing was a huge bottle rocket. My nephew was lighting it and I used my coat to block the wind. The bottle rocket fuse went off like a mortar fuse, (very fast) not canon fuse (nice and slow), it failed to launch and blew up in the tube about 2’-3’ from the right side of my face. The effect of this was it completely destroyed my right ear drum. When I got back home the ENT Dr. said it was equal to the worst ear injury he had ever seen as there was just a hole, no ear drum at all. He told me he could replace it and when I told him I dive and would like to continue to do so he said he could use a bit stronger cartilage material than normal that should allow me to do so as long as he got a perfect seal. After it was healed he said I would not know if he got a perfect seal until I dove for the first time. So about 6 months after the surgery I went to Clear Lake in Oregon and did my first dive. Surgery was a success and I now have about 450 dives on the new ear drum.
Non-dive related stuff about you (what you do for a living, how big is your family, pets, who is your hero)?
I am 46 and work for Nestle USA as an Analyst, Assortment Plan o Gram Specialist. (I make schematics for how the ice cream is arranged in the freezers). I have been in this business for the last 13 years after 15 years in the grocery business.
I am married to Nicole, my high school sweetheart. We have been together for the last 30 years and married for the last 23. We have no kids, only 2 very spoiled dogs that have the run of our 5+ acres. I have a paintball field that I run on Sunday’s and I dive on Saturdays.
My hero? That would undoubtedly be my father. My mother died when I was 4 years old and he raised me and my 4 brothers into fine adults that contribute to society, when at times, it appeared we could have all ended up in jail.
About the Member Spotlight:
Each month we will host a club member on the Member Spotlight page. Our idea is to get peoples names and faces out there for everyone to get to know each other, and potentially make new friends. We would like to post a picture of our ‘club member of the month’ along with a little bit of information they provide about themselves. This is one more way to make new friends and meet new people.