Having been a skin diver for a year it was time to join the college skin diving club (a misnomer since it included scuba diving). It was impossible to get air unless you were in a club.  There was no such thing as certification in 1957.  It was 12 years after the war and scuba diving was in its infancy.  With the money earned from skin diving for sea urchins I bought a single tank, regulator, and depth gage (worn on the wrist).  Multiple tanks were not popular yet.  The television program 'Sea Hunt' with Lloyd Bridges helped make the sport popular.   

Now to get trained on scuba diving! Swim laps in the college pool and stay underwater for a minute or more.  These were basic requirements.  Then, with the scuba gear on in the pool - go underwater, take the mask off, put the mask on and clear it (get the water out).  Then jumping off a boat with scuba gear on, going down 50 feet with a buddy, and taking the mask off and putting it back on again several times.  Now take the mask off and go to the surface.  Next was going thru the surf when 'the surf was up.'  If you did all of this, without panicking, you could get free air.  One scuba trainee froze in the surf waves and we had to pull him out.  Needless to say he was not accepted into the club.

It was great not coming up for air.  One tank would last about an hour, depending on how fast you sucked air.  There were two types of tanks-one with a five minute reserve and the other harder to breathe when you're running out of air so it forced you to the

surface.  With the five minute reserve and you were chasing a big fish at 100 feet of water and you forgot about the air you could be in big trouble.  I had a harder to breathe tank.  In any case you always dived with a buddy close at hand.

The big thrill was going after grouper.  They were a large fish, weighing up to 600 pounds, that inhabited the gulfs of California and Mexico.  You fired a CO2 powered spear gun at them, a line about 75 feet long came out, and marker buoy came out to slow the fish down and to mark where the fish was on the surface.  You then followed the buoy on the surface until the fish wore itself out or you did.  Needless to say, most of the time the fish got away.

I was diving from a boat off the Santa Barbara Islands when I spied the biggest fish I had ever seen - a giant sea bass weighing about 300 pounds.  You had to put both arms together around the head and your fingertips would not touch.  The depth of the water was about 150 feet and I was at 125 feet.  I tried catching and shooting him but he was too fast.  That was the one that got away!!