I have so many great memories of Bill that I will always treasure. He was a true pioneer of the sport, a fantastic instructor and a friend to all. I first met Bill in the 90?s and learned more from his wisdom than anyone else in the cave diving community. You will always hold a special place in my life.
Until we meet again.
Dave Grimm
Now there was only me and this timeless, eternal cave. I felt part of things, a tolerant guest.
by Rob Palmer from "Deep Into Blue Holes"
Originally Posted by tbone1004
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
roadkill
RIP Mr Bill
Sorry to hear that he was a good man and mentor to us for more than 20 years.
Georges Gawinowski
www.cavedivertraining.com
Barbara/San Francisco
I missed this sad news. Bill represented North Florida cave diving better than anyone.
I recall stopping at his shop several times before I actually met him. I had never encountered banked Nitrox before and certainly not self service like was at times back then. Determine how much you used and leave the money. O2 and air also. I am sure there were some people who took advantage of that but most people left extra. It was a ground breaking setup.
I would go out of my way to get fills and buy equipment from him.
His trimix prices kept it reasonable for many divers. Bringing in the liquid O2, truck fills, scooter rentals, trailer rentals,so many things he did to make CE a destination.
The people that came there and who hung out there were a who's who of cave diving across the world. The opportunity to meet them, hear their stories and even dive with some of them was life changing.
Bill and Rick were invaluable to me starting out my cave diving journey, especially when I started side mounting so early after full cave, back when it was rare and even controversial in mixed teams and such.
Then Bill had his own incredible stories. Who survives a heart attack while diving? I built up enough trust with him to learn about hidden spots in known caves and even about some not known caves. I hope he recorded all those leads he received (and dove) from all the log and artifact divers he supplied. Many times when I was solo diving I would stop and spend way too much time chatting with just him and Pat before she passed.
He was an amazing man and CE was amazing place There will never be another like him.
"Is this thing on?"
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