|
TRES DUNLAP |
||
|
Dan - As you asked, here is some of my history in Aruba. |
||
| Was born in Aruba on June 5, 1942. Graduated from Lago High in 1960. Went to UNC in Chapel Hill, NC then FSU for MBA. Left Aruba in 1963 after my father, “Cornie” retired. Worked in Saudi Arabia for ARAMCO for 22 years. Continued diving in the Red Sea. | ||
|
Last house in colony was 1554 – near to Steve Ballard and Garth Fuller. Married Sandra F. Evans in 1964. Her father, Walter R. Evans was an engineer with Lago – not Reverend Evans. She actually worked for my father during one of the summers as his secretary. Joe Van Ogtrop and I were SCUBA instructors in the Summer Program under Jim Downey. |
||
| Started spear fishing when I was 10 years old – used straightened coat hanger shafts which were propelled from a sleeve of bamboo with inner tube tire rubber attached. Victims at the “Baby Lagoon” were usually sardines and a small black fish that populated everything (doctor fish, I think). | ||
| The largest fish I ever speared was the Jew Fish that Joe and I speared – interesting story: We were down with tanks at the very tip of the cross currents at Colorado Point in about 100+ water. I saw the Jew Fish in the distance and tried to point him out to Joe, but he was so large that Joe couldn’t differentiate him from the huge boulders in the area. I finally swam over to him and shot him - all hell broke loose – he broke my spear right at the head which turned out to be very useful later. He swam into a cave where we repeatedly shot him with the headless spear until both Joe and I ran out of air. We went back to shore and retrieved new tanks and went back out to the cave, halfway expecting the Jew Fish to be gone. But, he wasn’t. In fact, he was partially floating on his side bumping the top of the cave. We shot him and hauled him into shore where we placed him on top of Downey’s jeep and paraded him around town. Wish we had saved his jaw | ||
| Next “biggie” was a 16 pound spiny lobster – most will say I am full of it, but it was that big, and if I can find the picture, I will send it to you later. | ||
| The dumbest thing I ever did was retrieving a spear off the Colorado Point. Ed Gruenberg and I were diving with twin steel tanks (the kind with strap-in harnesses and corrugated rubber hoses on the regulators). I shot at a snapper that was way back under a rock shelf. To get a grip on the spear which was stuck, I had to squeeze into the crevasse. Unfortunately, my tanks were running out, and the bottom of the tanks, while sliding forward past the ceiling easily, got stuck while attempting to back out - couldn’t turn – was stuck. We usually communicated with each other by rapping on our tanks with our speargun handles, then continue to communicate with crude hand signs. I rapped for Ed to come to my rescue, but no response, and time was of the essence. I had to unstrap my harness in order to back out, all the time being worried about my air. Fortunately, I heard the “clank clank” from Ed’s signal and his hands on my ankles pulling me out (Dumb! – really don’t know how some of us survived). | ||
| The second dumbest thing I ever did was to string a triggerfish around my waist by running the wire through his eyes since I couldn’t find his small gill splits – he latched onto my side with a very painful furry. Third – shot a huge leopard ray at the second dropoff – went for the “kill shot” which resulted in a lost speargun. Wanted to display my overall stupidity. Have thought about it many times since – what if it was a kill shot – what was I going to do with a giant leopard ray anyway. | ||
| The most captivating memory was a blacktip shark that zoomed within inches of Joe Van Ogtrop, taking a snapper that Joe speared. The snapper was thrashing between Joe’s gun and his spear which was stuck in the coral. Joe was attempting to dislodge his spear at the time and did not see the shark. It happened so fast. | ||
| The most unusual fish I speared was a Tarpon – never saw one again in all the years of spearfishing in Aruba. Saw a ling once, but couldn’t get near it to take a shot. | ||
| The biggest thing I saw was a hammerhead shark – again at Colorado Point. I would estimate it to be 15 ft. It just swam by and never deviated from its course, which was a good thing because towards the end of our spearfishing careers in Aruba, sharks at Colorado point were starting to take some of our fish. The interesting tactic was their coming to the surface and circling closer and closer; some even seemed to arch up and scoot in as if attacking. | ||
| Tres Dunlap, December 17, 2005 | ||
|