Nick Masellis - First Dive
Interviewer: This is Katie Blomgren from Maple Ridge Senior living here in Ashland, Oregon. And I have here with Nick Masellis and he is going to tell us his experience at his first deep dive in Navy dive school.
Nick: Well ok they took us down to 285 feet on air so we would purposefully get nitrogen narcosis which makes you neglect your own safety. You get really silly, higher than a kite. When I got down to the bottom to 285, they simply asked me to repeat my Social Security number to them. When I started to speak because of the pressure my voice sounded like I’ve been breathing helium. So I was talking funny right off the get and I started to tell them my Social Security number. I said five, five, five five five.. I couldn’t even repeat my Social Security number to them! I was so silly and high and they said, “Hurry up, bring him back up!”
Nick Masellis - First Submarine Dive
When you get back to the surface, you're normal and the highness goes away. No ill feelings but my tenders when they unhatted my helmet were looking at me saying 555 Nick, 555 and laughing! So that was my first deep dive experience. My first dive on a submarine, I got lost. I went down, went to the bottom of the submarine then around on the bottom and in the San Francisco Bay the water was terribly murky. So I lost the submarine, Lost track of where I was at, and the master diver told me to come back to the surface. So I came to the surface holding onto the submarine. I thought I was on the opposite side of the submarine when I heard “Hey Nick, just turn around!” And I go “What?” “Just turn around, Nick.” And I turn around and they were behind me waving, laughing at me. I thought I was on the other side of the submarine but I was on the same side that I had left the surface on to go down. So that was my first experience diving on a submarine.
Nick Masellis - Humphrey the Whale
My other exciting dive, with sea life no less. When Humphrey, the whale, went up the San Francisco Bay. I was over in Oakland diving, pounding away on one of the propellers when it got dark and I asked topside, “Is it getting ready to storm up there?” Then it got light again and they go, “Oh no Nick, just keep working.” Then it got dark again and I looked up to see the whale’s tail whooshed me and blew me back. And I start saying, “Get me up out of here now! Bring me back to the surface!” And they said, “It’s okay Nick he’s leaving, he’s swimming away.” But I felt very tiny next to that big whale underwater and I wanted back out.
Transcription and Audio Edit by Ileana Chavez and Samantha Alcaraz.
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