“You have to remember, there were very few divers in those days”, Jim Willoughby recalls. “Sooner or later you would meet other divers on the beach. Eventually, five of us got together and formed a small diving club. You might think that the name of the club is Mickey Mouse. Believe me, to dive back then, with the available equipment and lack of knowledge, was a long way from Mickey Mouse.”
Jim in 1949 at Pacific Grove, CA
“You have to remember, there were very few divers in those days”, Jim Willoughby recalls. “Sooner or later you would meet other divers on the beach. Eventually, five of us got together and formed a small diving club. You might think that the name of the club is Mickey Mouse. Believe me, to dive back then, with the available equipment and lack of knowledge, was a long way from Mickey Mouse.”
Jim continues: “We finally decided on the unlikely name of Carmel Bathing Association! The president’s nickname was Monk, as he had a ring of thin hair around his bald head. Then there was Crusher, who was a big man, 6 foot 2 inches tall, weighing 220 pounds. The only woman in the club lived 100 miles north, in San Francisco. She would fly down to Carmel about twice a month. Because her luggage on the plane was limited to only a few pounds, she would wear her weight belt under her coat, to avoid paying the extra cost. We called her GG, after the shabby character in the Dick Tracey series. When GG was combing her hair, and ran into a knot, she would take scissors from her pocket and cut it out! Lest we forget, Godzilla. He was movie star handsome (and knew it), weighed in around 275 pounds and was 6 foot 4 inches tall. Nobody messed with Godzilla! My nickname was Santiago, as I spoke fluent Spanish.”
im with Jean Michelle Cousteau in Chicago
“One of our favorite dive spots was a deserted beach south of Carmel. The biggest drawback was that you had to park your vehicle up on the highway, then walk quite a distance to the beach. We had just finished a great dive, with clear water, a big kelp bed, and lots of marine life. As we swam underwater back to the beach, Monk spotted a large sunflower star. These are the largest sea stars in the world. They grow to one meter across, and have 20-24 arms. Monk picked up this huge, bright orange monster and put it on his head. The arms draped over his head down to his shoulders, and over his mask. When we got into shallow water, we all stood up.”
“We left nothing of ours on the deserted beach, as we had put on our diving gear up at the car. Monk still has the sunflower star draped over his head and we all had pole spears. Please remember that divers were rarely seen in those days. As we all stood up in the shallow water, believe it or not, two nuns were walking along the beach right in front of us. Well……Monk, our president, ran towards them with his pole spear in his hand and the bright orange sea star on his head. As he approached them, he hollered “Take me to your leader!”
The last we saw of the nuns were two black robes flapping in the wind and a female voice praying loudly “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death……”.
“ I will never forget the memorable times I had with the Carmel Bathing Association.”
May 13, 1995 – receiving Ocean Pioneer award from Phil Nuytten
About Jim Willoughby
Jim did grow up in California, and then he discovered the terrific diving and friendly people in British Columbia, Canada. He eventually moved to Canada in the late 50s and became very involved with the commercial and recreational diving community. Over the years, Jim trained and mentored thousands of divers and was very involved with the Canadian Government and the diving community all across Canada.
When the Northwest Diving History Association was started, Jim was supportive and became one of the first founding charter members.
Jim passed away earlier this year (2015) at the age of 85. Fortunately he provided us with some great stories and photos so we will be able to continue to share his memory.
The Northwest Diving History Association awarded Jim with the Northwest Diving Pioneer Award this year. He was aware of the award, but was very ill and he passed away just two weeks before the ceremony in Seattle.
Jim is also being inducted into the NAUI Hall of Honor, a very special award presented to individuals that have volunteered countless hours of their time to training diving leaders, speak at diving symposiums, mentor divers that are pursuing a career in diving education and contributing to the diving industry.
Jim has received many awards over his long career as a diving leader.