"Dive, Dive, Dive!” with Mary Lynn Berzett
Hallmark’s Favorite Type of Diving
EDITOR'S
NOTE: “I’ve been diving since Moby Dick
was a guppy,” says Dennis “Skinny”
Hallmark of Birmingham, Alabama. At the age of 15, Hallmark
made his first scuba dive with a friend in the quarry
near his home, and in his words, “I was hooked.”
Over the past 35 years, Hallmark has taught thousands
of first-time scuba divers and diving instructors and
owned dive shops in three Alabama cities in the 1980s.
Certified by the Professional Association of Diving
Instructors (PADI) and the National Association of Underwater
Instructors (NAUI), Hallmark also teaches
instructors how to teach firemen and police to perform
rescue dives. The International Diving Educators’
Association (IDEA) of Jacksonville, Florida, honored
Hallmark in 2002 as its Worldwide Instructor of the
Year.
Night Hawk: What aspect of diving do you like the most
and why?
Hallmark: Teaching. I like teaching all aspects of
diving, to anyone whether he or she is a beginner or
an instructor. I don’t do cave diving any more
due to the number of accidents involved and people getting
lost in underwater caves. I get excited seeing people
become as excited as I am about diving. Beginning students
don’t have any bad diving habits, and you can
play games with them to emphasize the safety part of
diving. Some instructors who have been diving for a
long time think they know everything. When I explain
something, from an instructor’s view, they often
gain a new perspective, and learn more detail than what
they’ve learned in the beginner’s class.
To
contact Skinny Hallmark for further information, call
him at home, (205) 980-0008, call his cell phone, (205)
907-0824 or contact him at skinnyhallmark@charter.net.
His website is currently being redone and is unavailable.
He also has a DVD that he’ll be glad to send out.
TOMORROW: AGES AND TYPES OF
FOLKS WHO SCUBA DIVE
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