By Ron and Janice Menke

I have been diving since 1964 and have no plans to stop any time soon. However, at 70 years old I have limitations and just can’t do things the way I used to. My knee and both ankles have issues and don’t like carrying weight or bending too much. You can only imagine what it looks like to watch me try and climb a ladder with all the equipment on. So what can I do about it? Well, for one, I can hang up diving and just sit back and think about doing something else to spend my money on or I could continue to dive and do dive travel and not be afraid to ask the Dive Masters for some help. The Dive Masters get better tips, the store owners sell more trips and, of course, we will only buy the best equipment because it makes for easier breathing and the best floatation device is what I want if I’m going to have to wait for the boat to pick me up after the drift dives. 

I have worked hard for a lot of years and saved for the good times, which is right now and I’m not the only one. Just look at all the gray-haired divers when you travel to the dive resorts and now here come the Baby Boomers.

So what is with this Grumpy Old Diver thing? Several years ago, I and four other older divers went to West Palm Beach to do some diving. When we boarded the boat, the captain, who is a good friend, referred to us as the old guys. Curt, one of us old guys, promptly informed him we were the grumpy old guys. It didn’t take too long before this group of guys wanted a card stating they were grumpy old divers. The only thing I could think of was printing up some business style cards with the grumpy old divers’ title.

My friend Curt was not happy with the business card and wanted a real certification card. I am a NAUI instructor and I have a few specialty ratings so why not try. However, the specific specialties must be written up and justified by NAUI before they make it a certification. So my problem was trying to convince Curt that getting a certification for Grumpy Old Divers was nearly impossible. Curt, being the old codger he is, would not give up until I broke down and wrote up a refresher specialty for Grumpy Old Divers.

When I got a call from NAUI to justify it I explained that as older divers, we begin to have problems with the equipment weight and needed some instructor to show or give us advice on how to make diving easier. Just because we have some difficulty we don’t have to stop doing what we love to do.

I thought the certification card was the end but Curt decided a shirt with a logo was needed too, so off I went and designed a logo for the shirt. I was promptly informed the shirt was suppose to be a collared polo shirt and the logo needed to be embroidered.

The Grumpy Old Divers is not just a certification; we are a dive travel group. We love to travel and dive while having fun. The certification card is fun to show the resort when we check in. It doesn’t take long before they realize we are good divers wanting to enjoy life but need some assistance now and then. More than one Dive Master has told us after the first day they didn’t have to watch or worry about us and they could enjoy the dives themselves.

If you want to know more about the Grumpy Old Divers, check out the web site at www.grumpyolddiver.com. ■