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Not sure which Steve is wondering what happened to me. I did get decompression sickness in Australia and had to leave as my visa was expiring and I had some medical things to deal with. Lucky to leave walking. I do miss the diving and Australia. It was a good life.

Ended up in Seattle, with my brother Joe, his wife Anne and my niece Casey, and have been here exactly 13 years this month. Longest of any place since Garmisch. Managed a brew pub here for about 2 1/2 years and been working in the coffee business now just over 10 years. You know Seattle, it's either Boeing, Microsoft or Starbucks. Starbucks bought out the company I worked for, Seattle's Best Coffee and Torrefazione Italia Coffee, about 1 1/2 years ago. They have been great to work for.

 Still single, wouldn't wish myself on any poor woman. We have a few Garmischmers around here; Ralph Widman ('75-'78, '81-'90), Chris Meier ('87-'89), Trish Pilchar ('87-'89), Carlo Carotti ('82-'84), Joe Roby ('77-'79), Dave Clark ('80-'86), Karen Soderholm ('80-'90), Tim Soderholm ('83-'90) and Big Bill in Spokane. Still stay in touch with a BUNCH of GAPPERS from different time periods and a few still in Garmisch; Shred and Fred Ishizuka.

Don't get out on the road as much these days, but have managed about 3 trips to Hawaii, one to Mexico and one to Costa Rica. Spend most of my time these days fly fishing in Montana. Get in around 45-60 a year over there. Just got a Harley and am heading down for Daytona Bike Week in a couple of weeks for a little craziness. Should be fun. Plan on visiting The Chief (Ted Kastanes) while I'm down there.

Guess that pretty well covers it.

John

Hi John, Sorry to hear about your decompression sickness, did you surface too quickly? I go diving in Bali every year, so any tips are always appreciated. Have you dived in Bali? There is a terrific wreck, the USS Liberty that was torpedoed by the Japanese in 1944, & limped tp the coast, then during the huge volcanic eruption in 61 it was thrown back into the ocean & now lies at an angle between 10 metres & 45 metres deep. I love diving there. Hope you have recovered,

best wishes,

Drew(Andy) Failes.

Hi John, Jeez, that sounds pretty frightening,  and you did everything right. Did the doctors ever figure out why it would happen? Is this something that has happened to other divers you know? I have never been that deep, in Bali the dive instructors generally dont want to go much deeper than 50 metres, & that is fine with me, since mostly with its abundance of fish, manta rays, coral etc. it is deep enough. The only problem I have had is an ear infection when my whole face swelled up, & I think it may have given me vertigo, because I never had any problem looking down from steep heights but now I get dizzy. Anyway I am glad to know you have recovered, I dont think I have seen you since we were in the Pschorr Quelle in the late 70s. We were a lot in the Pschorr quelle in the late 70s. I see Horizontal Bob occasionally, & Steve & Rita Dwight, who live in Cape Hatteras. Thanks for the letter,

All the best,

Drew

I didn't surface to fast. I was diving with 5 other people, all of us Divemasters or Instructors, came up in the middle of the group, stopped at about 4 different depths and my dive computer said we could have surfaced 5 minutes early than we did. We were diving on this wreck outside of Sydney Harbor at a depth of around 60 meters. We had dove on this wreck about a year earlier and I had no problems. I ended up going to the hospital about 5 or 6 hours after we surfaced, if I remember correctly (it's been a while, 13 years this month) and they put me straight in a recompression chamber for 7 hours the first day. I came out paralyzed from about the middle of my chest down. I got a spinal hit and it blocked my spinal artery and did permanent nerve damage there. They put me on steriods and put me back in the chamber for 2 hours each day for the next two weeks. I stayed paralyzed for the first 4 days and then slowly I started getting feeling back and was able to walk. I still only have about 50% feeling in my legs, but they work great. Makes it nice in the winter as my toes never get cold! Talked to a bunch of doctors at Duke University (they were doing a lot of research on diving at that time) and 1/2 said go ahead and dive, as my chances were no higher than anyone else getting “bent“ again. The other half said I would be nuts to dive again, because normally people who get “bent' once normally do again and quite often in the same area. Since I already had permanent damage in my spinal artery, they figured the next time I probably wouldn't be able to walk. Obviously, I didn't like the odds and gave it up and took up fly fishing instead. Not a bad trade off. Got in over 60 days last year in Montana.

John