PLAN YOUR DIVE, DIVE YOUR PLAN
Hal was born in Ocala, Florida.
He discovered scuba diving when he was twenty years old whilst studying for his Master’s degree at John Marshall Law School in Atlanta, Georgia. After doing his first dive, Hal ignored the sport for the next six years.
In that time, Hal became not just a lawyer but a qualified pilot. He also had a passion for collecting firearms.
Scuba stands for ‘Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus’.
At 26, Hal was living and working in Orlando, Florida. He was looking for guns for sale in local newspapers, when he saw an advert for used scuba diving equipment.
On a whim, Hal decided to buy it. The seller agreed – on the condition Hal read the ‘US Navy Diving Manual’ first.
Hal met the seller at a local hotel swimming pool and was given a lesson in how to use the equipment.
His first dive was in February 1962, in the Crystal River. It was only 15 metres deep and he was spooked by a manatee – but he was also hooked.
Hal joined the Orlando Sport Diving Club.
Later that year, he had a real fright. With another member of the club, Bob Brown, they found a sink hole, known locally as the Zuber Sink. They decided to dive into it.
Neither man had dived deeper than thirty metres before – and they had not prepared properly.
When they jumped in, the water was extremely cloudy with very poor visibility. It was much deeper than they realised (in fact it was 73 metres), and their equipment was not up to scratch.
Whilst ascending, Brown hit his head on an invisible ledge and was stunned.
However, they escaped from the sinkhole. Hal remembered a mantra from his pilot training – ‘Plan your flight. Fly your Plan’. He swore that he would never take such a risk again.
The following year, Hal set up his own shop, the ‘Florida Divers Supply’ (known to everyone as FDS). He wanted to ensure every scuba diver had proper equipment.
Hal recalled that there was no proper instruction, so he began to train cave divers. If any of them proved competent, Hal would award them with a FDS Cave Divers Certificate – the world’s first safety certificate for the sport. If a diver was not proficient, he would not be awarded one. Hal said, “Scuba diving is not a safe sport.”
The FDS motto was ‘Plan your dive – Dive your plan.’
Hal’s FDS initiative came to the attention of John Gaffney, who was the founder of the National Association of Skin-Diving Schools (NASDS). Hal was offered the posts of training director and open water instructor, which he accepted.
However, when he joined the NASDS, Hal found he was the only instructor.
Hal did his first deep dive in December 1963, to a depth of 75 metres.
He then created a speciality deep sea diving club, named ‘Forty Fathom Scubapros’, after the Zuber sinkhole he had initially dived into. Members had to be properly trained and had to commit to diving into the Zuber at least once a month. They also dedicated themselves to making further improvements to scuba diving.
The Scubapros travelled around Florida, diving into other sinkholes.
In 1967, Hal broke the world record for a dive, descending 119 metres, just off the coast of Miami. He beat the record of 110 metres set two years earlier by his friend, Tom Mount.
He recalled, “The water seemed to be screaming by us, each breath was getting colder and colder. It was as though I was breathing through ice water.”
Hal was to extend this world record to 127 metres a couple of years later.
Along with Tom Mount (and five other divers), Hal founded the National Association of Cave Diving.
The safety certificates he had created became an official requirement for divers from 1970 onwards.
In 1979, Hal purchased the Zuber sink hole, renaming it the ‘Forty Fathoms Grotto’.
Hal’s FDS business grew into the Florida State Skindiving Schools (FSSD). They had four bases in Florida and another one in the Caribbean – in St. Lucia. By 1988, it had been renamed again as the Professional Scuba Association (PSA) – and by 1995, they added an ‘I’ to their name as it went international.
Hal said he had a list of sunken ships that he wanted to dive down and see.
He became one the first four people to dive down to see the wreck of the American Civil War ironclad ‘Monitor’, which had sunk off the coast of North Carolina.
Hal followed this up by diving down to the Andrea Doria, near New York, the Lusitania, off the coast of Ireland and the Japanese Truk Lagoon wrecks. His wish list was complete.
Later, he wrote the first instructor manual for extended range deep diving. He also commissioned a film, ‘Deep Diving’, which was produced by Ned DeLoach. It was filmed at Wakulla Springs in Florida.
Hal was now regarded as an expert in diving equipment. He invented the Octopus Regulator – a backup, emergency air supply system.
Hal was also the first to put a pressure gauge on his equipment – ensuring the diver could see for themselves if there was a problem.
Hal was extremely proud that by 1999, he had trained 55 divers who had gone down more than 100 metres – without a single accident.
Six of these had broken world records, including his own daughter Scarlett, who broke the women’s world record by diving to 129 metres depth.
That same year, Mark Andrews, who had been trained by Hal, broke the men’s record by diving to 158 metres.
Hal was known as ‘Mr Scuba’.
Hal was married five times. He had two daughters, Kirsten and Scarlett.
When Hal finally decided to retire, he had completed over ten thousand dives. He had won the SSI Platinum Pro award for his contribution to the sport. There had not been a single death of anybody he had trained – a record he was justifiably proud of.
Although Hal never dived professionally again, he kept his stake in the PSAI (Professional Scuba Association International).
Along with his fifth wife (of 22 years), Jan, Hal took his boat, Aqua Cat, to the Caribbean and enjoyed a leisurely retirement. He was notorious for the amount of biscuits he could devour – and became known by locals as the ‘Cookie Monster.’
When Hal died, the Editor of ‘Scuba Diver’ magazine, Mark Evans, said, “Hal Watts was a true legend in technical-diving circles, holding a number of Guinness Book of World Records for deep diving, but he was also a true gentleman and a pleasure to be around.”
The National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) said of Hal, “His incredible career, marked by ground-breaking achievements and selfless contributions to diver education, leaves an indelible mark on the underwater world.”
His close diving friend, Tom Mount, died exactly a week before Hal.
RIP Re-organising International PSA
