By Rolf W. Sturm

Standing on the deck of Ocean Explorers in Simpson Bay, owner LeRoy French is delivering precise diving instructions while he simultaneously sizes up the group he's about to take out to Samson Reef, a small reef located about a half mile south. His manner is authoritative but accommodating especially to newcomers and first timers, making sure that the latter in particular follow everything he's saying so they can relax and not worry about something important they forgot in the prep speech when they're 40 feet beneath the ocean surface. French has performed the drill thousands of times in his 31 years as a dive instructor, but it hasn't become so automatic that he neglects to cover all the things that every diver needs to know and prepare for before they embark into the waterworld. The ritual, as he continues instructing the assembled group on buoyancy rates and underwater currents, serves another purpose which inevitably reveals itself as the group, especially a large one like this (today there's 10, the maximum allowed) arrives at the reef. "If I see somebody who's just glancing off in the distance somewhere, my senses start becoming activated when I get on the boat he says. I'm going to watch the guy who hasn't been listening to what I've said." And when LeRoy French talks diving, you want to listen. He has a lot to say on the subject.

First dive in 1955

Scuba participation has increased tenfold since the '60s. He remembers diving the virgin waters of the Cayman Islands in those times, which, until recently, was one of the most popular dive destinations in the world. "I was there right in the beginning except for one man with a small compressor and two tanks. It was just incredible diving. It had every type of marine life you could imagine no one had ever been dawn there."

Thriving underwater businesses

The mid-60s to the early '70s saw what French calls his "hobby" expand into a thriving career which stretched his diving interests from that of an instructor to a series of businesses organized as French Underwater Industries which included everything from underwater photography to developing water-proof housings for cameras. Some of his photos wound up in the pages of National Geographic while he also contributed articles for dive publications and produced underwater motion pictures. Along with longtime friend and diver Al Giddings, French established his first dive operation at Marin County in Northern California known as the Bamboo Reef Dive Shop in the early '60s. Later, he spent a year and a half in the South Pacific doing surveys and developing dive sites for a hotel chain in the emerging diving industry while he still ran his dive operation and continued to teach as a master scuba instructor. He also developed technical equipment for underwater use by various organizations including a remote controlled 16 mm motion picture camera for the Smithsonian Institute which has recorded images 500 feet below the surface of the inhumanly chilled waters of the Antarctic. What started out as a taste for adventure snowballed into a small global enterprise as French owed as many as eight businesses during the peak of all this activity by the early '70s.

Near fatal encounter

But all that diving was not without its share of risks and French almost met his end early in his career when he experienced every diver's and ocean goer's worst nightmare - an attack from the most formidable killer patrolling the seas: A Great White Shark. The attack occurred off the coast of San Francisco near the Farallon Islands in 1962 when French was only 24. Miraculously he's lived to tell about it but the attack was severe, requiring nearly 360 stitches to sew up the damage inflicted to big torso, wrist and calf.

He spent a year in and out of hospitals and though the wounds have more or less healed, the incident remains indelibly impressed on his memory some 34 years later as he recollects his brush with death. "He bit me three times. He grabbed me by the mid-section and took a piece out of my hip, came back and grabbed me by the forearm and cut all the tendons in my hand. Then he came back and grabbed me by the calf and took a piece out of that," he recalls somewhat shakily of the ferocious attack by the 16-foot, three-quarter ton Great White. "Fortunately he let go after that for some reason."

It wasn't until a couple of years later that French re-entered the water with the help from his older brother Jim, also a diver, who guided LeRoy back into the environment he so loved. .

"I must say that first trip out was a little frightening, but it was probably the best therapy I could have had because I didn't want to give it up but on the other hand I was very apprehensive," he remembers. "From that point on I was back in the water again."

For most divers, such a life-threatening experience would have cut short their diving aspirations but French refused to give in to fear. In fact, the legacy of the attack will be re-lived in his own words as he's just completed a contribution called "In The Jaws Of Death" for an upcoming book on such deadly incidents entitled 'Great Shark Tales' to be published later this year.

In the years following the attack, French pursued his dive businesses in earnest and continued his diving.

Began dive operation St Maarten

Eventually he found his way to the Caribbean and established Grenada Divers in 1972 on Grenada, where he remained for eight years before he was lured to St. Maarten in the early '80s.

He bought Maho Water Sports, setting up the first modern dive operation on the island and operated it for a few years until he established his Ocean Explores Dive Center, which he purchased from local proprietor Elton Ross in 1986.

French recalls those early years of St Maarten diving when there were only a few other operations in existence and his shop was a far cry from the full-fledged outfit it is today. "It was a quaint island dive operation," he chuckled.

Today the small shop on the edge of Simpson Bay Beach is filled to bursting with all varieties of dive equipment and scattered with historic diving paraphernalia. Bare wall space is minimal as diving photographs, t-shirts, equipment and certificates combine to create an atmosphere of organized clutter in a busy aquatic hub.

It was also in St Maarten where French settled down somewhat, scaling back his myriad of business interests and where he met his future wife Dominique

Family business
Dominique French swims with a school squirrel fish and striped grunts at Samson's Reef.

Dominique and LeRoy French provide a wealth of diving experience at The Ocean Explorers Dive Center. An accomplished diver and instructor in her own right, Dominique has scaled the deep waters of the Mediterranean in search of red coral for a jewellery maker and has also dived the incomparable crystalline waters off the island of Moorea in the South Pacific.

Dominique caught the diving bug early, trading in a life of routine to follow her diving pursuits which eventually brought her to the island.

"I tried living a normal life in France, but I loved the islands and wanted to go back to some island but I didn't know where," explains Dominique, who's been a certified instructor since 1982. "Somehow I ended up in St. Maarten for what I thought was only going to be a short time."

The short time turned into 10 years and Dominique has become an integral part of the dive business where she teaches, shoots videos and books diving excursions.

She works alongside LeRoy and with help from their 12-year-old daughter Lisa, "a good little diver," who got her diving certification recently at the minimum age, and together they run the well-equipped shop. As wife and business partner in their mutual love of diving - Dominique is 50 per owner and managing director - LeRoy figures he couldn't have done any better. The two met when she came to work for him at Ocean Explorers and as French sums it up, "We fell in love and that was it."

"She's probably one of the finest female scuba instructors I've ever met. She's literally an expert and she's very patient. She's brought a lot of that patience and intelligence to the shop and it's made a big difference," French enthuses. "She's an excellent water person, really good at guiding other divers."

Years spent diving in the waters surrounding St. Maarten have given them a rare perspective on the ecological condition of the reefs and other marine life. Both have noticed changes, though not for the better.

Some reefs damaged over years

Ship traffic, pollution, Hurricane Luis (debris of its wake is still scattered on the ocean floor) and even the increasing amount of divers have all had varying effects on the delicate marine ecology which has grown from about eight dive sites a decade ago to more than 20 sites ranging from depths of 15 to 110 feet.

The reefs still have an abundance of marine life and are especially plentiful with fish including groupers, barracuda, yellow tail snappers and the usual Caribbean variety of reef fish. On occasion, you will spot an eagle ray, stingray, Caribbean reef shark or a Nurse shark.

What has been devastated over the years by ships and hurricanes is the soft, flowing coral like the spectacular huge plumes of the Basket Sponge - which is almost non- existent now in St. Maarten waters.

"There are some areas in St. Maarten that are as good as they were in the '80s but those are the places that few people get to or know about. The sites that are very popular are still very interesting, but probably not as prolific with marine life as they used to be," says French.

Still, he maintains that 90 percent of the reefs ae in excellent condition though a number of them are vulnerable to the destruction caused by large ships. "Some of these reefs are only 25 feet from the surface and there are so many big ships," adds Dominique.

"Many times we've gone back to a dive site only to find the reef scraped up by a ship."

She feels a better system of markers is needed but ship traffic is not going to decrease and diving as well as other water sports will always share an uncomfortable coexistence.

'Never touch or take anything'

For his part, French defends the divers' share in the deterioration of reefs and marine life. He cautions everyone never touch or take anything during their dives and points out that as a group, divers are extremely environmentally conscious.

He believes diving can continue to grow "for 20 or 30 years" without damaging effects to marine life. The key, French maintains, lies in the dive operators themselves and how strict they are when they take the people down. A moment's carelessness can destroy a decade's worth of coral growth.

"What we try to instill in people is be careful on the bottom. Make sure you don't touch anything or stand on anything. The people are very attentive and concerned with the environment," he explains.

"Thousands of people may dive reefs over time without damaging them if the dive master is environmentally conscious.

"If we say: We don't care what you do, just get in the water and start going the place will get devastated in a matter of years."

French has nothing, but harsh words for those who are careless in their scuba ex- ploits. It's obvious he cares deeply about the state of diving and marine life.

A love affair

While turning 59 next month and entering the twilight years of his diving career, he has no plans to quit but hints at slowing down.

"I had a few opportunities to do something else in my life but after I first breathed underwater, just that first time, it was a magical moment for me," he recalls. "I got hooked and from that point on it was a love affair with the ocean."

Back on the boat at Samson Reef, the divers are beginning to return to the surface. Once on board, an excited, breathless chatter fills the boat as they begin to trade stories of their underwater adventures.

Among them is Jackie, a young doctor from New York who is halfway through her open-water test to getting her diving certification - only her second time in the ocean. LeRoy is her teacher.

"1t's a whole new world down there," she says with a wide grin. "It's so beautiful and all you have to do is relax and breathe," she says, not noticing she borrowed the very phrase French used in the prep speech.

French notices me talking with the new diver."Anotherlove affair with the ocean in the making?" I offer. He smiles. "That's what it's all about."

Reprinted from The Herald Weekender, Saturday, January 18, 1997