DATELINE: 21st November 2000
HALL OF FAME
Nineteen honoured at inaugural ceremony
The International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame was launched in October on Grand Cayman Island with two impressive ceremonies to honour 19 world-renowned diving celebrities and pioneers.
Those involved arrived from Australia, Austria, Canada, the Cayman Islands, England, France, Switzerland and the USA to receive awards for their achievements in recreational diving.
More than 240 people filled the Hyatt Regency Hotel Pavilion for a glittering black-tie occasion that included a gala dinner, video clips of the accomplishments of the 19 inductees, and presentations to the celebrities by Paul Tzimoulis, publisher of America's Sport Diver magazine.
Personalities "enshrined" included some particularly well-known in Britain, such as Jacques-Yves Cousteau; Hans and Lotte Hass; Ron and Valerie Taylor; Sylvia Earle, and Diver Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Bernard Eaton. They were chosen from more than 300 names considered.
The presentations were followed by a moving Celebration of Life memorial service in which several packed dive boats were tethered side by side off the island's Seven Mile Beach. Widows, family and friends of the seven deceased inductees cast flowers on to the sea's surface and released young turtles, bred at the island's famous turtle farm.
Following an introductory speech, Jean-Michelle Cousteau was the first to pay homage, to his famous father.
The hall of fame is the brainchild of Cayman Islands Minister of Tourism, Commerce, Transport & Works Thomas C Jefferson.
He chaired a board which he said spanned the spectrum of recreational diving expertise, including Cathy Church (Underwater Photo Centre and Galleries); Jean-Michel Cousteau; John Cronin (President, DEMA); Capt Charles Ebanks (President, Cayman Islands National Watersports Association); Rod McDowell (President, Cayman Tourist Association); Lee Salinsky (President, Historical Diving Society USA) and Tzimoulis.
The Minister said that the new century seemed an appropriate time to salute the heroes of one of the world's most exhilarating sports, and in the Cayman Islands where recreational scuba-diving began. "We believe this will be an exciting development for the entire scuba-diving community," he said.
It is intended that the induction ceremony should become an annual event.
The Roll of Honour
Lloyd Bridges/USA: Star of TV underwater adventure series Sea Hunt, which introduced sport-diving to millions;
Jacques-Yves Cousteau/France: Co-inventor of the aqualung, world-famous for underwater films and books, and for his conservation ideals;
Ben Cropp/Australia: Shark-hunter and underwater cameraman, director and producer;
Ellis Royal Cross/USA: Author of the world's first scuba-diving manual;
Dr Jefferson C Davis, Jr/USA: Diving medicine pioneer who helped to develop hyperbaric medicine;
Sylvia Earle/USA: Led first team of women "aquanauts" to live beneath the sea, world's deepest woman diver (328m), author and conservationist;
Bernard Eaton/UK: Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Diver magazine, founder-Chairman of Marine Conservation Society, diving exhibition organiser;
Emile Gagnan/France: Engineer who invented and developed the aqualung with Cousteau in 1943;
Al Giddings/USA: Underwater film director, co-producer and underwater photographer of Titanic, The Abyss and The Deep, winner of three Emmys;
Hans and Lotte Hass/Austria: World-renowned man-and-wife pioneers of sport-diving, underwater adventure, photography and film-making;
Jack Lavanchy/Switzerland: President of PADI Europe, fervent supporter of safe diving who launched the Divers Aware safety scheme;
Jack McKenney/Canada: Former editor of US Skin Diver magazine; one of the world's premier underwater photographers and film-makers;
Bob Soto/Cayman Islands: Introduced recreational scuba-diving to the islands in 1957 and a driving force since;
Ron & Valerie Taylor/Australia: Spearfishing champions turned underwater film-makers, acclaimed for work on such films as Jaws and The Blue Lagoon;
Al Tillman/USA: Founder of the National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI), the first international diver training agency;
Stanton Waterman/USA: Renowned for his work in commercial underwater film and photography as cameraman, director and producer, has won five Emmys and numerous other awards.