Hi guys,
I want to take a moment, say hello to everyone and introduce myself:
My name is Alfred and I live in Miami, FL. My love for the Ocean started before I can even remember. As a son of a commercial spear fisherman in the late 70s – mid 80s I was introduced to this passion at a very early age. I remember him and his spearo buddies making shafts for their guns out of old car trunk torsion bars before their multi day trips to Cay Sal. Unfortunately the 1980s drug wars put an end to it all as several of the boats he used to fish from got destroyed by US Customs in search of drugs. No drugs where ever found but the government didn’t repay the boat owners for the damages they caused not to mention how dangerous it was for a lone fishing boat hanging around Cay Sal was in those times. As a teenager I often found myself hanging out under a bridge (speargun in hand) waiting for something worth shooting to come by. I even remember going off Hollywood beach with an inflatable (no motor). Life sucked without a boat! When I turned 17 I got SCUBA certified and it gave me the chance to explore depths that I was unable reach on a single breath and I was hooked. Did my Advanced OW, then Nitrox, then Rescue Diver. I enjoyed several years after that diving non-stop with work buddies. I must have logged over 200 dives and spent $$$$ on equipment. We where cheating (breathing)!!!! LOL. Then life took that inevitable turn that catches every young man (well most anyways) by the balls and turns his world upside down for several years. That’s right, adulthood kicked in!!! I’m now married to a woman who loves the ocean and we have a 10 year old son who is having the time of his life with the Ocean. I just wish I could have exposed him earlier so he wouldn’t have memories without the Ocean as I do.
So what brings me to this forum is that as I now start to rekindle my romance with the Ocean it occurred to me one day while enjoying the warm waters of a little beach on the west side of Elliot key with the family I did an experiment… I didn’t know if that same adulthood that took me by the balls had affected my lungs so I cleared the mind, set my watch bezel and took a deep breath and put my face in the water. First minute went by like a breeze. As I got to about 1:45 I had not felt the urge to breathe so I started doubting in my mind whether I had relaxed so deeply that I had only dreamt to have reached my minute mark. I look again at my dive watch bezel and confirmed I was indeed reaching the 2 minute mark. I smiled and around 2:20 I started to feel the contractions. I was ecstatic as I had already beaten a breath hold time that won me a bet back in high school. But I still felt comfortable and continued to calm myself and to push those contractions out of my mind. I took another look at my watch 2:45!!! I starred at that minute hand with a big smile on my face all the way to the 3:00 minute mark and I said to myself “that’s good enough for now”!!! This old dude still has it and maybe it’s time for me to take life by the balls for a change!!!
I have been using an old set of Cressi Garas Campione Del Mondo I purchased from Sportsman’s Paradise (Coral Way and around 30th Ave.) over 20 years ago. So I decided to make the investment in something I can still enjoy. My hunt for new fins ended with a pair of c90s on Cressi Modular FPs yesterday. I’m anxiously waiting to use for the first time next week (weather permitting).
Hope that wasn’t to long of an intro. 
