Page 25 - AlertDiver_Winter2013

AD: So Antarctica was your first
attempt to dive all seven continents?
Evan: No, my training took place off
Laguna Beach, Calif., so North America
was my first continent. Then about four
months later, on our return to Antarctica,
I dived in Ushuaia, South America, my
second continent. Five days later on
March 13, 2009, I made a dive off Detaille
Island, Antarctica. In 2010 I dived in Israel
(Asia), in 2011 Norway (Europe) and
Australia, and finally Africa in 2012.
AD: Those are some rather substantial
environments for a young, relatively
inexperienced diver. What precautions
did you take?
Evan: One of our friends was bent in
Antarctica, and that worried me. I only
went to 40 feet, but I had over-weighted
myself to avoid an uncontrolled ascent.
Completing that dive gave me enough
confidence to realize I didn’t have to
take unnecessary precautions like that
because my training had prepared me to
deal with emergencies.
AD: How did you overcome the
significant certification challenges
for diving with rebreathers, in
caverns or in extreme temperatures?
Evan: I play premier soccer, so I’m
pretty fit, but drysuit training was the
most challenging. I had to complete a
certain number of dives in a drysuit,
and there was a period when it seemed
like we were diving constantly on the
weekends. Even though sea conditions
were good, I was getting worn out just
becoming familiar with the equipment.
Jeff: Evan may not have been totally
concerned with the project’s demanding
aspects, especially in the realm of safety,
but as his father, I certainly was and still
am. Early on, especially, I kept him very
shallow. There was no reason to go too
deep, and I wasn’t sure about the effects of
inert-gas stress on his bone growth. I still
don’t allow him to go deeper than 80 feet,
physiologically. His time at that depth is
strictly limited. We try to stay at about 25
percent of the no-decompression limit. I
walk a fine line between encouragement
and trying not to push Evan.
AD: Evan, besides your dad and family,
what are your other support groups?
Evan: Well, my school, Tarbut V’Torah
Community Day School, because we’ve
worked out a way for me to go on these
expeditions even though I’m just a high-
school sophomore. Also, lots of my
friends have learned to dive, and we dive
together now. And DAN, because we
realize it’s important to know what to do
in case of an emergency and be prepared.
Jeff: We’re DAN Family members. DAN
is a major tool in terms of evacuation
and consulting support no matter how
remote the location, and we’ve been in
some fairly remote places.
AD: Evan, your last dive for the record
was in Bushman’s Cave in South
Africa where several experienced cave
divers have died. How did you feel
about attempting to set the record in
Bushman’s?
Evan: I was excited! My dad connected
me with Don Shirley (a South Africa-
based technical-diving instructor), and he
was my buddy during four dives in the
cavern zone. We didn’t go deep, which
was the main problem for the divers who
had died. Plus, I had my dad, so staying
relaxed was easy because he’s been
through a lot of sticky situations.
AD: Tell us about your most interesting
dive during the record attempt.
Evan: That was probably in Israel. We
dived in the Dead Sea. I just wore board
shorts, and I still had to use 60 pounds
of weight. It was cool because I saw
these incredible salt formations and
huge crystals everywhere.
AD: Besides school, what are you
working on now?
Evan: My immediate project is finishing
the book I’m writing about my record
dives. Besides just setting the record I want
to tell people about what I saw in each
place, especially environmental changes.
AD: Can you give us some examples?
Evan: In South America we helicoptered
over receding glaciers and forests totally
destroyed by introduced beaver species.
The amount of ice melting in Antarctica
and Norway was scary.
AD: What about future dive projects?
Evan: After Africa we went to Albania,
where I participated in a class conducted by
the Albanian Center for Marine Research
to American Academy of Underwater
Sciences (AAUS) standards. I’m supposed
to go back next year and help run a
mapping project to survey shipwrecks;
some date from the fifth century.
AD: Every path leads to another,
Evan. Where is your future heading?
Evan: I’m hoping to use my
experiences and the book to help me
get into the U.S. Naval Academy. I
want to be a naval aviator; I’ve wanted
to fly since I was four years old.
— ­Maurine Shimlock
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JEFF BOZANIC ANDRE SHIRLEY JEFF BOZANIC