The Helldivers' Rodeo: A Deadly, X-Treme, Scuba-Diving, Spearfishing, Adventure Amid the Off Shore Oil Platforms in the Murky Waters of the Gulf of Mexico by Humberto Fontova

Author:Humberto Fontova
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: M. Evans & Company
Published: 2001-06-24T22:00:00+00:00

Gerry's son, thirty-two, another Sea Tiger, was suiting up alongside his Dad and chuckled when he heard the "Pops" line. Darren "Gumby" Bourgeois owns Aquatic Technologies, a dive shop in suburban New Orleans. On his office wall hangs a gold plaque from JBL, the nation's biggest spear gun manufacturer. The award heralds the most spear guns sold in one year. A little dive shop right here in New Orleans sells more spear guns than any other dive shop in the U.S.

The Sea Tigers, like other dive clubs, often charter big (sixty to ninety feet) shrimp or crew boats and spend several days rig hopping. "Shoot, we might dive ten, fifteen rigs in one day," says Gerry.

Gerry, son Darren, and those guest divers who graciously assured "Pops" they'd watch out for him walked to the side of the big trawler and hopped in. This was a Rodeo, so they were going for big fish or nothing. And that meant going deep. "The water was beautiful," says Darren. "You could see across the whole rig and down forever." It's easy to descend in those conditions; also easy to lose track of your depth.

But "Gumbo" was distracted midway down. "That sucker came straight at me!" he chuckles. "He was about an eight-foot sand tiger, nothing huge. But he caught me off guard. I'd seen my share of them, knew they got ornery at times. But we had great visibility that day-probably one hundred feet. So he wasn't mistaking me for a fish."

But something about Darren interested him. " I don't think that he'd completely made up his mind that I wasn't lunch, either." He says. "I mean, he was coming straight at me ... okay, he'll turn away any second now, I'm thinking-Okay ... Okay ... Any time now! Okay ... come on now! I'm a diver! A human! LOOK!

"WHACK! I raised my gun and smacked his nose. He swerved off. That's better, I thought ... but I'm still watching him-then he turns around. And comes back!-Oh shit! I thought. Never seen them do this before. Usually one whack on the nose does the trick out here. So now he's coming straight at me again.

"POP! And I poked him with the tip-he swerves off again. Great, I thought. So I start swimming off, a nice snapper was under me. I was going after him. I look behind me-and here he comes again! So I turn around to face him. Now he's coming a little faster ... closer ... closer-JAB! I really poke him in the nose with the gun-I mean hard, felt the point sinking in-Now he jerked away and darted off-for good. That's better, I thought."

Darren looked around to make sure the shark had no buddies around and continued the descent. "Dad was always down below me. He knew where he had to go to find the big fish in this area. He was after amberjack. And they were descending steadily in front of us, down into the dark depths. He was following.

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