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History |
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| Wreck
divers fortunate enough to visit Truk Lagoon in Chuuk State today
are offered many choices -- by Gradvin's count 48 incredible wrecks to dive
on, three
live-aboard dive boats to dive from, several good hotels and
restaurants. But by far the leader in choice of dive shops and dive
guides is the Blue Lagoon Dive Shop, now celebrating over 25 years of service to divers. |
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 A far cry from Nov. 13, 1973 and
its humble beginnings in a wooden shack with a borrowed air compressor,
today's modern air-conditioned shop boasts 250 aluminum 80 cubic
foot scuba tanks, 3 compressors, and a fleet of 10 dive boats
with 10 dive masters certified by the Professional Association of
Dive Instructors (PADI). A mixed gas facility completes the picture.
On on-site museum is now being planned by Gradvin Aisek in memory of his father, Blue Lagoon
founder, Kimiuo Aisek. The museum will commemorate the
important role Kimiuo had in the development of tourism in Chuuk
and the historical background made possible through his personal
experience. Kimiuo Aisek lived through the invasion of Truk Lagoon
and went on to build the diving business that is so successful
today. Gradvin is requesting
photographs and mementos that would be suitable for the museum.
Please contact Blue Lagoon Dive Shop,
BLDiveshop@mail.fm if you can contribute in any way. |
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| The patriarch who founded this successful
enterprise is Kimiuo Aisek.As a boy of 17, Kimiuo was an eye witness
to "Operation Hailstone," the American aerial attack on Truk launched
from aircraft carriers on Feb. 17 and 18, 1944. Never could he have
dreamed he would be making his living for 25 years -- and supporting
hundreds of his family and island residents -- by taking tourists
from countries all around the world to explore what has been called
"the world's greatest wreck diving." |
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| Kimiuo may well have been the world's most famous dive master. He was a
friend to such diving celebrities as movie producer Al Giddings, of
"Titanic," "The Abyss," and "The Deep" fame, and John Kennedy Jr., who
credited Kimiuo with teaching him "everything I know about diving." |
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| While
a series of strokes kept Kimiuo from diving in the later days of
his life, he could
often be coaxed to "talk story" about the successful development
of diving in Truk Lagoon. As today's divers are smoothly eased into
their BC backpacks with 80-cubic foot aluminum tanks and regulators
capably mounted for them by their boat driver, most haven't a clue
as to how Kimiuo made diving possible in Truk. "I never wanted to
open a dive shop," professed Kimiuo. "I didn't know what a dive
shop was. I never knew anything about running a business." Kimiou
claimed he was happy with his salary of $3.50 an hour at the Marine
Resources office, where he served as dive master for the crown of
thorns starfish control team in 1970. (By 1973 the minimum wage
in Truk was still only 65 cents an hour.) |
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 But
adventurous divers from California -- among them movie maker Al
Giddings and Ken Seybold, then President of Bay Travel, Inc., a
pioneering dive travel company from Laguna Beach -- had bigger ideas
for Kimiuo and Truk's fledgling dive tourism industry. The lure
of Truk's unique diving came to the attention of American divers
with the February 1972 issue of Skin Diver magazine.
Editor Paul
Tzimoulis had written a 7-page spread on the newly located I-169
"Shinohara" submarine in Truk. The sub had been explored and photographed
by a team of 6, including their leader Giddings, Seybold and
Tzimoulis. The sub discovery was unplanned, found while the group was making
"an underwater film about the adventure and beauty of wreck diving,"
Tzimoulis wrote. The newly publicized lure of Truk's wrecks,
coupled with Continental-Air Micronesia's new 727 jet service and the
new Truk Continental Hotel, resulted in divers "coming like rain,"
according to Kimiuo, "from California, Kwajalein, Guam." |
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| Guam scuba instructors
Dianne Strong and her late husband, Ron, formerly East coast wreck
divers, were among the first to take dive tours to Truk. She recalls
the first of 13 trips they led for Guam's Coral Reef Marine Center
from 1973 to 1979, several of which she spent teaching scuba for
Blue Lagoon Dive Shop. "We knew there was no dive shop in Truk,
so three days earlier Air Mike ferried ahead of us our 20 empty,
72 cubic foot steel tanks. We made our first dive on the Shinkoku
Maru on June 9, 1973, our second dive on the sub the next day. At
that time Truk High School Principal Barry Connell and Navy Seabee
Bob Evans located the wrecks for us when Kimiou couldn't get off
work. Our boats varied from the Distad's boat to a 44-foot trimaran
owned by the Maramar Hotel and built in Yap by Russ and Verna Curtis,
and later the more common, low-roofed, Trukese wooden boats with
pointy bows.
Kimiuo was a youthful 45-year old, working by day, and staying up
all night pumping our tanks for us at his Marine Resources office.
We paid a dollar a fill. We were plagued by water and power shortages.
If either occurred, Kimiuo would be late delivering our filled tanks
in the morning." |
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Unlike diving tourists from Guam, divers from the
states couldn't bring scuba tanks all the way to Truk. The need
for a dive shop on Truk kept growing. As Truk's first certified
dive master, many believed Kimiuo was the right man for the job.
Arthur Travers, President of Poseidon Adventures, a California travel
agency specializing solely in diving adventure tours, joined Seybold
and Giddings in trying to convince Kimiuo to quit his job and start
a shop. They brought tanks to Truk for their clients to use, and
then left them with Kimiuo, renting them out
to him. "They paid me $5 an hour to run the compressor -- I was
the only one who knew how," Kimiuo recalls. "And they tipped me
very much money. I was making $500-600 a week, and the same amount
from Fisheries pay -- that part I gave to my wife. I was very happy."
With each trip, Seybold would leave more tanks behind, and Kimiou's
wealth continued to grow. One night, after pumping 20 tanks, Kimiuo
let the compressor rest. He drank beer and Seybold started up again,
as Kimiuo recalls. "Ken asked me, 'are you making money?' I told
him, 'yes, plenty!' He asked me if I wanted to make more money.
He said, 'tell your boys,' I said 'what boys?' He said 'the boy's
you're gonna hire to drive your boats to take out your divers.'
He really wanted me to open the dive shop!" By that time Kimiuo owned
60 tanks and diving tourism kept increasing, he realized there would
be a real future in this business. Giddings convinced him to apply
for a $7,000 construction loan from the Trust Territory. Truk's
then Distad John Sablan pushed for approval from Saipan headquarters,
and also authorized loan of the Marine Resources compressor. Blue
Lagoon Dive Shop was thus born on rented land about a half mile
from the one-mile long airport runway. Kimiuo cracks a grin and
his eyes dance as he recalls that first day. "I pumped all the tanks,
bought a six-pack of beer, and invited Barry Connell (Truk High
School Principal) to come over to the shop. I told him to invite
all the American teachers to come out for a free dive the next day.
No charge! That was Nov. 13, 1973." |
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Blue
Lagoon Dive Shop" had been launched
Micronesia's first dive shop opened with 36 steel scuba tanks and
backpacks, the compressor, and one Trukese wooden speedboat driven
by the late Koichi Peset. The first dive guide, Kimiuo's stepson Kelep
Souken,
now a father of seven, after 25 years still safely guides divers
to Truk's underwater sights. But success didn't come easily for
Kimiuo Aisek. Steel tanks had to be hydrostatically tested on Guam,
and eventually were discarded and replaced by aluminum. Compressors
died and had to be replaced. The growing number of dive masters
had to be certified and outfitted with gear. The customary stresses
of extended family members wanting to be paid but not showing up
for work often contributed to financial losses. Kimiuo's fortune
was made and lost several times. But each time diving friends from
the mainland U.S., members of Truk's Air Force Civic Action Teams
(CAT) would come through for him -- money for
a boat and motors, mechanical assistance, or the free shipping of
a new Mako compressor all the way from Los Angeles, courtesy of
Continental Airlines. |
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Over the years medical problems
had plagued Kimiuo. The dive shop reached a real
turning point in 1989 when Kimiou spent six months in Hawaii for
medical care. |
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Gradvin Aisek, his son. "I had been an apprentice to Dad for 14
years when he left for Hawaii," Gradvin proudly recalls. "I started
in 1975 driving the boats, learning to locate the wrecks. When I
learned to dive in '75 we had steel tanks, a double hose Aqua Lung
regulator, no depth or pressure gauge, a J-valve reserve
and no dive computers!" Kimiou echoes his son's pride in learning
the business. "After the CAT team hooked up my first owned compressor,
I taught my son to dive. He learned everything," Kimiuo recalls.
"Today I would say he's better than anybody in diving technique.
I'm very proud of him."
Gradvin fixed up the dive shop in 1989 with
some paint and air conditioning, increased the selection of wreck
dive t-shirts, and improved the shop's equipment servicing. He had
interned on Guam with Bill Spurlock and Jim Brandt at Island Scuba
Repair and later at Micronesian Divers Association (MDA). When Kimiou
returned, he knew his son had proven himself. Gradvin became manager
of Blue Lagoon Dive Shop. |
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| Before the days of electronic web sites
and scuba bulletin boards, word was gotten out about Truk through
publications showing the unique beauty of these WWII wrecks. The
cover of the May 1976 National Geographic featured Al Giddings'
photo of a main battle tank on the deck of the San Francisco Maru, shot
at a depth of 170 feet. The 36-pages of the issue's "Life Springs
from Death in Truk Lagoon" were written by Sylvia Earle, Ph.D, and
photographed by Giddings. The Giddings-Earle expedition of 1975
included John Kennedy Jr., then age 15, and his cousin, son of the
first Peace Corps Director "Sarge" Shriver. Jackie Onassis had trusted
her son's life to Giddings, who in turn, placed his trust in Kimiuo
and his dive masters. Today JFK Jr's dive knife and backpack are
on exhibit at the new Blue Lagoon Dive Shop with Giddings' photo
of John -- signed,
"To
Kimiuo: Thanks for teaching me everything
I know about diving! P.S. I'm prettier now!" |
Information about the
world's greatest concentration of divable wrecks expanded greatly
with the publishing of Klaus Lindemann's Hailstorm Over Truk Lagoon
in 1982. Hailstorm quickly became the Truk wreck diver's definitive
"Bible." The second edition was published 1992. Klaus had initiated
a long, systematic wreck search and together with Kimiuo discovered,
rediscovered and identified many of today's popular wrecks.
In 1999,
Klaus published his Hailstorm - The Dive Guide - which he dedicated
to Kimiuo: "This book is dedicated to my good friend Kimiuo Aisek,
the great Micronesian Navigator and Custodian of the Truk Wrecks.
I owe him deep gratitude and cherish his friendship. I have been
diving with Kimiuo since 1978 in Truk until he retired from diving
some 15 years later. In 1980 we went on an extensive wreck search
-- without the aid of the photographs which have since been unearthed
nor GPS, with just Kimiuo's 36-year old recollection -- which we
referred to as 'Kimiuo's Scientific Nose,' --- and a simple depth
recorder. We discovered and rediscovered
literally all wrecks, some of which have become very popular now.
"Kimiuo, you showed us the wrecks and you told us the story. I was
privileged to record what you remembered. It will never be lost.
It is part of your legend in Hailstorm Over Truk Lagoon." |
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Another wreck locator, Dan Bailey, then residing
in Kwajalein, published WWII Wrecks of the Kwajalein and Truk Lagoons
in 1992. Both authors were in Truk in July 1998, expanding their
materials for additional books.
From print media to video, Truk's
images and stories have been captured over the years with the able
assistance of Kimiuo and his Blue Lagoon Dive Shop.
Then President of Sea Films, Inc, Al Giddings was the first to produce
a commercial quality film about Truk. "Search for the 'Shinohara'
I-169 Submarine" competed for honors in the television Emmy awards.
His dive boats and dive guides were supplied, of course, by Blue
Lagoon Dive Shop. In January 1998 Giddings returned to Truk for
32 days to shoot high definition film of 24 hours on three wrecks.
"Truk Lagoon: Underwater Odyssey," was an hour-long special aired
by TBS on August 30, 1998. While Kimiuo's initial supporter Ken
Seybold is no longer living, Giddings and Kimiuo's other decades-long
friends sent Blue Lagoon Dive Shop their best wishes on Nov. 13,
1998. Free diving for the day and free meals at Truk Blue Lagoon
Resort awaited diving visitors to Chuuk, Manager Aisek announced.
The anniversary special commemorated that day when Kimiuo offered
free diving to launch Truk's first dive shop. Anniversary year visitors
are also in for a treat when they visit Blue Lagoon Dive Shop. This
new 2400 square foot concrete building
opened June 30th adjacent to the Truk Blue Lagoon Resort, formerly
the Truk Continental Hotel.
Over the years Kimiuo
shared the history he personally experienced with the many divers and
visitors to Truk Lagoon. In his last few years he could sometimes
be found in a captain's chair at the dive shop, eager to 'talk
story" to any diver who suspected who he might be.
The dives Kimiou made, the
sights he had seen, the history that has been unearthed, and the friends
he made through diving -- this is what is at the true heart of the Blue
Lagoon Dive Shop -- celebrating over a quarter century of wreck diving
history. |
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