Who The Hell Is Gary?
or Who The Hell Does Gary Think He Is?
For years this page started with a statement that said I wouldn't subject you to a picture of myself. Generally I don't like to have pics taken of me, but friends finally convinced me that I should post something. This is the only one of me I have that's diving-related. This is a post-dive shot as I was cleaning my gear. Notice the nice hood-head I got going on.
In case you're wondering who I think I am to believe that I have anything useful to say about diving around Monterey,or diving in general, well MY answer is "nobody special, in particular....", but I do have some experience from which to draw.
Oh. You want to know what it is. Well here you go:
I started diving when I was just a little guy living on the island of Okinawa, where my father was stationed in the early '70s. At that time, during Vietnam and before the island reverted to Japanese possession, there were a lot of American military guys on the island, including a lot of Special Forces/Force Recon/SEAL types. It was easy to get someone to teach me how to dive. I didn't do much diving back then, but I was hooked.
I finally got certified in 1988, and since then I've been doing it fairly regularly, like about 300 dives a year on average.
Most of my diving over the last 10 years has been around the Monterey area. I've gotten to visit most of the sites in the area many times, and I've had a chance to do it under ALL kinds of conditions, from spectacular to abysmal.
Some of my other experience includes serving for a time as the acting Diving Safety Officer for Stanford University, and 2 years working as a feeding-show diver for the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
In addition, I received my Ph. D. in Biological Sciences, specializing in marine and molecular biology, from Stanford University in 1998, and have been a lecturer in marine biology at the University of California at Irvine. I am presently teaching at Florida Atlantic University.