Homage to Stan Waterman

Stan Waterman, perhaps the most beloved of all diving industry icons, has passed away at the ripe old age of 100 years old.

He was famous for working with Ron and Valerie Taylor, filming oceanic whitetip sharks feeding off whale carcasses in Australia for Peter Gimbel's award-winning documentary Blue Water, White Death. Along with Chuck Nicklin and Al Giddings, he was an underwater cameraman for Peter Benchley's story The Deep. This blockbusting 1977 movie starred Nick Nolte, Robert Shaw, and Jacqueline Bisset.

Stan regularly dived in challenging locations and was often aboard liveaboards such as the Aggressors and MV Sea Hunter, where the great raconteur entertained other divers with his unique stories. When he approached 90, he celebrated his forthcoming birthday with a trip to dive with great white sharks at Guadalupe Island and gave his long career a final salute with a last hurrah on the Cayman Aggressor.

Every diver knew Stan. He was kind and sympathetic and even tolerated younger divers on trips who, when diving with him in his later years, naively offered advice, though his accumulated time underwater probably amounted to more years than they had been alive. He would listen patiently, kindly tap them on the shoulder, and merrily respond, "Good for you."

Classically trained in English under Robert Frost, he delighted in using wordplay and euphemisms.

Stan was not good at remembering people's names. His close friend, author Peter Benchley, was fond of telling how he took Stan to meet director Steven Spielberg hoping he would bring Stan in as the shark expert when they filmed JAWS. But Stan blew it when he mistakenly called Spielberg "Joe" throughout the meeting.

Stan always had a twinkle in his eye for the ladies, though he lost his left eye to disease later in life, and some only knew him with his pirate's eye patch. He maintained a wicked sense of humor, and while often seen with a gorgeous young woman on his arm, he remained happily married.

I once followed an octogenarian Stan up a boat ladder after a particularly arduous dive and said, "I don't know how you do it."

"Little blue pills!" he mischievously replied, closely followed by, "When you get to my age, happiness is a bowl of bran for breakfast."

A Shakespearian scholar, Stan was always generous with his bon mots, reflecting his pragmatism and modesty. My favorite was when he told me, "My wife told me, Stan, you may be a legend in your own lifetime, but never forget the garbage goes out on Thursdays."

An East Coast American, born in New York on April 5, 1923, Stan Waterman passed away in early August in Maine, where he forever maintained a home. If you want to know more about Stan Waterman, he wrote two autobiographies. Since his life was so well-lived, one was not enough. It was rumored he was working on a third. Sea Salt and More Salt are available through the Undercurrent bookstore here.

I wrote an homage to my friend Stan Waterman on his 99th birthday. You can read it here. https://tinyurl.com/kyx3w3cs

- John Bantin