Stu Roy
Instructor Emeritus
Location: Monrovia, CA
Hometown: Beverly Hills, CA
I am an instructor for PADI being certified as an Staff Instructor in the Instructor Training Course. I am also certified as an Instructor for NAUI as well as with DAN instructing Emergency Medicine for Scuba Divers, Advanced Oxygen Delivery and Aquatic Animals Emergency Medical Care. I am also a CPR with AED instructor.
I started diving in 1972 and became an instructor in 1988. I have logged over 8000 dives and have instructed over 1000 students. I still get excited when first timers exclaim upon surfacing after their first dive "that was incrediblle". I have dove throughout the world and taught in the Cayman Islands for seven years before discovering Gabe and Ocean Safari some years ago.
In the "other world", I am a Physical Therapist, licensed in California and have been licensed since 1963. Presently I specialize with knee and hip replacements seeing the patients in their homes after discharge from the hospital following surgery.
My passion lies with diving where I feel in touch with the sea and actually feel more comfortable under water than in our natural environment..
Shark rider personified
January 10, 2014
About 10 yrs ago, I had a class of 10 students, a DiveMaster for an assistant and myelf doing our last open water certification dive. The group was very cool and very good...3 of which were my son, son-in law and daughter-in-law. As we descended on Big Fisherman's Cove on the front side of Catalina, I noted a sleeping nurse shark on the sand below the group at about 45ft. He was pretty large and definitely the grandfather of the area at about 7ft in length. I wanted to give my kids something to remember and told the DM by signs to watch the group while I was going to play rodeo. He tried to tell me in every way possible that this was not a good idea.
I descended on the back of the shark, placed my fins around him under his belly-the fins could not reach each other as he had some girth to him...placed my hands as best as I could around him and hung on. Not a good idea. The DM said later that the students including my kids suddenly found kelp, rocks or anything they could hide under and watched.
The shark did 360s around and around. I saw water, sand and rocks, water, rocks, etc. and heard my tank and first stage hitting rock after rock. I bailed at around 5 seconds, curled into a ball and waited for the bite. The DM said he took off like a torpedo looking to tell his family about this strange black creature that attacked him.
DON'T DO THIS. Not a good idea. And yes, I still consider myself to be an excellent intructor. I now film starks..not ride them.
