Photo by Tom Downey
California member LaVelle Kuykendall worked near the coast most of her life but never quite found the time to fulfill a longtime dream to become a certified scuba diver.
That changed two summers ago when Kuykendall, now 68, enrolled in diving classes near her summer home in North Bend, Oregon. After a training period, instructors took the class on two days of dives in the Puget Sound. The water was chilly, breathing was difficult, the equipment seemed to weigh a ton--and an exhausted Kuykendall thought she might have to give up. The next day, though, she finished her qualifying dives and was free to explore with her fellow divers. "As we looked at the huge sea anemones, gently picked up starfish, and examined rocks and crevices, breathing came more naturally and we wanted to stay forever," she remembers. "The sense of accomplishment was fantastic."
Since then, she's dived for lobsters near Long Beach, California, and from a cruise ship in Tahiti, in addition to dives in Hawaii, the Caribbean, and Mexico. This summer she plans to visit an old underwater friend. "There's a resident octopus in one of the underwater caves we've visited several times. You can watch him breathing and closely examine his tentacles. He seems to be getting bigger between visits!"
Kuykendall keeps busy these days with camping (she has a 31-foot camping trailer), enjoying her grandson, water skiing, and diving whenever she gets the chance. She's also going to train for the next highest level of scuba certification. "I just wish I'd started diving 30 years ago," she says. "We all need to keep working toward new goals."
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