On Christmas day, you’ll find Ed Mascharka III in Lake Erie. Underwater. That’s the day he traditionally does an “ice dive.”

Mascharka, executive vice president and CFO of Janitors Supply Co., Inc., of Erie, Pa., is a scuba diver, and does the ice dive annually. According to Ed, “You go through a 3-foot hole in the ice and are guided by a rope. You can only be down 15 to 20 minutes. You just put on your wetsuit and jump in — there is nothing else you can do to prepare for that kind of cold.”

Ed has been a certified diver for about five years. He took a scuba class offered by the sheriff’s department dive team. Ed says that he learned to dive because his mother learned to scuba dive when she was 55. “Seeing my mom do it inspired me,” he said.

Ed says his favorite place to dive is the Bahamas. There, the water is warm, the visibility is great, and the coral and fish are beautiful. Sharks? Yes, they’re there. So are the big sea turtles, which you have to avoid. Ed says you don’t want to get too close to the turtles because their jaws are powerful enough to crush a human hand. Like sharks, if you see sea turtles in the open water, keep your distance.

About a year ago I swam close to a sea turtle while snorkeling. After talking with Ed, I’m done bragging about that turtle.

Ed sometimes dives with Mike De Boer, director of commercial sales for the Tennant Company, Holland, Mich. “Mike and I had a couple of encounters with sand sharks in Nassau,” Ed said. “Diving in the midst of a bunch of them was incredible. They’re very docile — we swam up behind them and were able to pet them on their backs.”

De Boer said the best dive he’s ever done was a night dive off the beach in Maui in late January, when whales were coming through. “We were about 50 yards out, and heard the whales singing and talking continuously under the water.”

Another memorable experience for Mike was a dive about 60 feet deep, in the Grand Caymans. He swam through caves and tunnels and saw lots of sea creatures, including a lobster that was, according to Mike, “the size of a small dog.”

After talking with Ed and Mike, I was all set to enroll in a diver’s certification course — until I interviewed Ailene Holtzman.

Ailene, general manager of SouthEast Link in Atlanta, who has had her diver’s certification since 1990, told me about a dive trip she made in Aruba. Specifically, the trip during which she was lost at sea.

Ailene and her father Larry embarked on a drift dive trip, halfway between Aruba and Venezuela. “We were supposed to pick up lobsters on a reef that went down about 50 feet,” she said. “As soon as the boat hit open water, we were in 7-foot seas. The group took a vote and decided to dive anyhow, because once you’re below the surface, you’re not affected by seasickness,” she said.

In a drift dive, there is a strong current, so a line guides you. Though this never should have happened, the dive master (the professional diver in charge of the expedition) left the group, because he thought the line was too short. The seven divers saw that the dive master was gone and surfaced. Not only did they miss the reef and the lobsters, they also saw that their boat was about a mile away, heading in the wrong direction.

“We tethered ourselves to each other and floated. The boat couldn’t see us, until we hit a high wave at the same time the boat did,” Ailene said. “My dad said that it was probably my best dive trip ever — the one I’ll always remember.”

After the experience in Aruba, could there possibly be any diving adventures left for Ailene? “Yes,” she said. “My dream is to dive on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia — to dive with the sharks.”

I think I’ll stick to swimming. Okay, maybe I’ll do a little snorkeling. But I’m going to avoid turtles, sharks, Lake Erie on Christmas Day, and most of all, 7-foot seas.

Gretchen Roufs, a 14-year janitorial supply industry veteran, owns Auxiliary Marketing Services of San Antonio, Texas. To suggest someone you think should be featured in “freetime,” contact her at (210) 601-4572.




POSTED ON: 5/1/2001