RIP Steve Gamble

[ARY]

It was a privilege to see and talk to Steve. In our last conversations he said that he could not fix my suit anymore because to do so he would need to order a gallon of Aquaseal. I still have that stupid suit. I liked Steve a lot. RIP.

[cavediver256]

Sad news indeed. Rest easy my friend.

[cavekrazi]

Thanks for keeping all of us warm and dry...for the most part. Rest in peace Steve.

[Jay]

What a great guy! He repaired many dry suits for me but he also customized several dry suits for me. I would take my suits to him and we would find the perfect boots that fit my feet like a glove.
What a difference having perfect fitting boots on every suit!
RIP Steve, you will be sorely missed!

[oceancurrent]

Steve was the most talented drysuit repairman that I had the pleasure of knowing. May he rest in peace.

[Rick Palm]

Sorry to hear that news. A visit to Steve's shop was always more of an experience than a mere service call. It was always a pleasure, and I always learned something. He'll remain a legend.

[Dave Lizdas]

He fitted my first drysuit in 2004. I was super excited - after saving for a year, I finally got an appointment with this Gamble character for a tailored suit. I felt like I had arrived! I was a little uncomfortable about the shorts issue, but I really wanted a Gamble suit, so I managed! My suit was absolutely perfect.

I copied that PVC dryer thing he had in the back and stored the suit in AC like the told me to. That suit lasted me 10 years. When I asked Gamble for another one exactly like it, he pulls a handwritten spiral notebook out of a stack and in a minute finds the record of the measurements he sent to the manufacturer a decade earlier. What a pro.

Having a leak or a torn wrist seal simply meant you had an excuse to go bug Gamble and hang out for a bit. It never dull. I liked him a lot too.

[cmck1]

Steve Gamble 1954-2022
Steve Gamble was born in Los Angeles, California on September 17, 1954. In 1962 Steve and his family moved to Oregon. Athletics were a big part of Steves life. In high school, Steve was a pole vaulter and played basketball. As a young adult, Steve worked in a lumber mill. He took trips to Florida to visit his sister Stephanie including his first visit to Key West. The Key West trip was an eye-opener for Steve and he started to think about a life outside the lumber mills of Oregon. In the late 80s Steve went to the local pool to take scuba diving lessons and he continued his diving pursuits mostly on the Oregon coast, spending nearly every weekend diving. In 1990 he quit the lumber mill, bought a dive boat and trailered it to Key West where he would spend several years working for Captain Billy Deans and Key West Diver. He was a dive boat captain, an instructor and started dabbling in suit and scooter repairs. It was in Key West that he met Maryann, a cave diver from North Florida. In the mid 90s he moved with Maryann to North Florida where they were married at Ginnie Springs. He started cave diving and started his repair business, Gamble Scuba. Gamble Scuba, at first, was located in his garage. After he and Maryann divorced, he bought a warehouse in NE Gainesville and moved Gamble Scuba out of his garage. In 2018 Steve sold the business to D3 Diving in Newberry, FL and managed suit repairs until his retirement in the fall of 2020.

Most of you will remember Steve or Gamble as the all-knowing, all-powerful Greatest Drysuit Repairer in the World. You will remember that no matter what he was doing, if you called or dropped by his shop, he would stop working and clear a table to assess your suit. He was respectful, helpful and friendly to anyone who came to his door or rang his phone. Steve did not care if you were DIR, DIW or DIY and there was rarely a repair job he couldn't conquer. Steve was a first-class guy, successful business owner and made everyone feel that their suit was his #1 priority.

According to Steve, there were only 2 ways to repair a drysuit, the Gamble way or the wrong way. Steve was a master at drysuit repair and he took meticulous care to make sure that your suit was done perfectly. He was not only focused on making sure it was dry, he wanted it to look good too. His unique method of leak testing included becoming intimately familiar with your drysuit and surely caught the attention of anyone driving by the back door of the warehouse as he danced around with inflated suits throughout the day. Steve's attention to detail and ability to resolve complicated repair and design issues earned him the respect of many including the US Navy, Public Safety teams throughout the USA and drysuit manufacturers who valued Steve's advice and insight for testing new materials and designs. Shortly before his retirement in 2020, Steve completed more than 30 hours of detailed suit repair videos for D3 Diving so the Gamble way would be captured forever. The Gamble way is the only way.

It will be hard to think of Steve and not think about his endless wardrobe of gym shorts and knee socks. It didn't seem to matter if it was 35 degrees outside, he loved his shorty shorts and gym socks. His Gamble-isms will go down in history. How many divers heard him say "the best place for that suit is the dumpster" or "this suit has more holes than Carter has pills." He remained 100% committed to his customers up to and beyond his retirement and insisted on working Saturdays during the busy seasons to complete the rush jobs for visiting divers as long as he could listen to his classic rock station.
Steve went above and beyond for everyone including his dealers, instructors, public safety teams, the military, tech divers and of course all the North Florida Cave Divers. Steve was an accomplished cave diver for many years and there are likely Gamble cave diving stories if you ask around. With North Florida being the cave diving capital of the world, divers from across the globe would arrive to dive and teach and well, not all of them were able to avoid a suit mishap. Gamble would do all he could to accommodate a traveling diver. He worked late, came in on the weekends and would do his best to get their suit repaired so they could continue their adventures.

Gamble also went above and beyond for the cave explorers. Whether it was fitting the seals of a new suit, repairing counterlungs, rebuilding exhaust valves, installing a last-minute p-valve or heating port or unique finishing touches like a custom fit neck seal or Kevlar patches on the boot heels, Gamble wanted to be sure you were 100%. "I likely speak on behalf of many that had absolute confidence in Steve being able to correctly assess and fix an exploration suit in time for a big dive. There was never any doubt when Steve said it was good-to-go and being a cave diver himself, he understood the potential implications of getting it wrong. Steve's customer list included many, if not all of the most accomplished technical and cave divers. For more than 20 years, Steve took care of the WKPP team including service and repair past retirement. We will never forget Gamble's support, contributions and friendship" - Casey McKinlay.

In early 2020, Steve began to experience some health issues as he started planning the details of his retirement. COVID did not help matters as he delayed some of his plans and focused on building his machine shop and remodeling his home in NW Gainesville. He planned to kayak throughout the Pacific NW and spend time with his sister. He was diagnosed with cancer and successfully completed an initial round of treatment. Unfortunately, the cancer returned, was very aggressive and despite efforts to fight it again Steve passed away, in the arms of his sister, Stephanie, on Saturday, August 6, 2022.

For sure, we lost our friend too soon. He will be loved, remembered and missed by many.
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Images:
Steve - Yucatan and Key West

[bob1577]

Very sad to hear of his passing, I remember going to his house & shop with TJ many times and he was so funny telling TJ dump those suits for Gods sake. He was so pleasant and very nice guy. I remember the first time I met him he said if your Irish can you tell me how to find that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow ��. You leprechauns know the secret LOL.
RIP Steve, till we meet again.

[Fridaysniper]

I only met Steve once and he made a great impression on me. I don?t easily take to people but I could see he was a cut above the rest. Met him when I took a dry suit with a zipper issue to him and his advice was to throw it in the dumpster! He wasn?t wrong either. That dry suit was rubbish. He was very professional about it though. Great guy and a great loss to cave diving, that?s for sure.


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