STHS student in middle of shark documentary

By Sid Loomis

Last month I was proud to be apart of the 30-mile dive with the Undersea Voyager Project. I was stationed on my dad’s boat as a primary support diver.

As a primary support diver I was the one who would jump in the water at anytime if Scott Cassell, the diver, needed any help. I had to get in the water when Scott needed help to take his fins off, get a GoPro camera that had used all the battery, when his tow sled broke and when he needed to change from his rebreather to his double set of scuba tanks.

Sid Loomis and Scott Cassell

One of the things that most people don’t understand is that when you are making documentaries it’s definitely not as glamorous as the camera makes it look. On this mission the saying “if it can go wrong, it will go wrong” was just not a saying it became reality.

The mission was for Cassell to dive underwater the whole way from Catalina Island to San Pedro using a dive bell to help change out his tanks, but due to equipment malfunctions he had to surface and lose the world record.

But this mission was not about the record it was about the sharks. My dad was telling me that when he grew up that there were thousands of blue sharks everywhere.

Cassell was underwater for 11 hours and he saw no sharks at all. That is just amazing. What Cassell did for the sharks was the most inspiring thing I’ve ever seen a single human do. He faced black outs, low blood sugar and fatigue. Yet he still got back in for the sharks and finished the dive.

He is one the strongest people I have ever met. This was a wonderful experience for me and I cannot wait for our next mission.

Sid Loomis is a junior at South Tahoe High School.