Sometime on January 16/17, 2003, my scuba diving instructor and budding friend, Far, died during a free-diving incident in Ginnie Springs, Florida. He had been teaching here in Olympia. Then after dating and marrying a girl that was in my dive class, he moved to San Diego where she went into medical residency.Far was a few years younger than me but I have to say was one of the most mature, well natured, smart, and funny individuals I've ever met. He had extreme patience with people in and out of the water. An absolute natural teacher.
There are several memories I'll always have of Far. One that stands out is of a dive that we did at Sunnyside beach in Steilecoom (WA). Just Far, me, and one other guy. I needed to check off a couple things for my PADI certification and Far invited me out to dive with them and we'd hit the skills, then just have some fun. A very cold December day. During one time that we surfaced, we popped up into a fog bank and snow was falling. The air temperature was colder than the water temp. Dry suits are wicked sweet! It was amazingly quiet and we just floated on our backs for a while chatting and enjoying a snowy day in the water. A very warming experience to think back on.
Far had a zest for life and that life was taken too soon. When Josh from the dive crew called me and told me he had died, I couldn't believe it. To this day I know he died doing something he absolutely loved and I'll always take comfort in that. I'm lucky to have known him and he will never be forgotten. Dive on my friend... -Eric
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