Barbara Allen

Growing up with active involved parents included lots of family gatherings, camping, fishing, swimming and bodysurfing. In Jr. high school, had a choice of taking horseback riding or swimming lessons. Opted for the horses then switched to the pool. Lifeguarded for LAPD Camp Valcrest and City of LA summers during high school (Washington) and college (LACC).

Had been lifeguarding, teaching swimming and paddleboard ballet when my boss Jack Cheany asked if I'd like to teach diving. Only experience had been snorkeling at Catalina during annual lifeguard outing, but said "yes," and he taught me enough basics to pass the L.A. County underwater instructor's course entrance test and that started a path in life that has always been loved and well-traveled.

After graduation from 6UICC in Spring of 1957 (2nd woman after Dottie Frazier), the insurance ramifications caused the City not to get involved in teaching diving, but was lucky enough to get on part time with the Meistrell brothers at Dive N' Surf, helping Roger Hess teach their classes and making lots of checkout dives on the Rio Rita off Catalina (years later, got invited aboard by new owner John Riffe for a dive on the refurbished Rio Rita in La Paz).

Recertification seminars at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla introduced me to southern legends such as Connie Limbaugh, Jimmy Stewart, Wheeler North, Andy Rechnitzer, Chuck Nicklin, Ron Church and many others associated with Scripps, Scientific Diving Consultants and the Diving Locker.

A roommate and I came down one checkout weekend in May 1960 when big surf negated a canyon dive, so Ron and roommates Verne Fleet and Sets Fukuno (all members of the Addicts spearfishing team) took us body surfing at Boomer Beach, diving at the Coronados and introduced us to some more special locals who've remained lifelong friends (we still meet Wednesday nights and weekends at the beach and hold an annual SOS (start of summer) beach party.

Our weekend stretched to a week of surfing, partying (first potluck gathering was at Lamar Boren's in Bird Rock where son Gary invited us) and, finally, diving the Coronados, Pt. Loma and, best of all, La Jolla Cove where you had your pick of abalone and lobster and the yellowtail and white sea bass that would cruise through the kelp beds.

Well, needless to say, driving home we're wondering "could we move to San Diego, leave our families, friends and good jobs at the Gas Company, take pay cuts (we'd checked the ads) etc...." Once back in Los Angeles we sent resumes to temporary employment agencies (both were secretaries), got positive responses and in 2 months we were moving to Pacific Beach!

After two months of "settling in" we both got temp jobs in La Jolla and could use our lunch hour to jump in at the Boomer or the Cove for a surf, ab or bug. After a few months of too much fun, got a full time position at General Atomic and started teaching Scuba part time for the Diving Locker and at General Atomic for the recreation club. Another part time job during that time was doing underwater ballet in the pool behind the bar at the Stardust Hotel in Mission Valley. In the early 60's, I got about $3/hour for secretarial work, and the Stardust paid $5!

In 1961 was "railroaded" into being secretary (lasted 8 years) of the fledgling San Diego Underwater Photographic Society (I could take notes and type) and put together a monthly newsletter for the Diving Locker. After a couple years, started getting brave enough with the UPS club camera to try underwater photography (not too hard with the likes of Ron Church, Chuck Nicklin, Bill DeCourt, Elwyn Gates, Emil Habecker and the early SDUPS members giving generous encouragement) and even won a few club contests. Our annual underwater film festivals rivaled then filled the gap after Santa Monica's demise.

One memorable trip was to Cabo San Lucas in 1964 with Ron and Shirley Church and Lynn Chase when Cabo was virgin and you buzzed the town so someone would come pick you up when you landed on the hardpan behind the Hacienda Hotel. Ron's friend from high school had a dive operation there and we were treated to the best Cabo had to offer (clear water with fish, turtles, sandfalls and black coral). Most impressive were the layers (food chain) of fish off the pier when the cannery was operating, with cormorants diving down amongst them .

In the mid-60's Westinghouse decided to establish an ocean research laboratory (WORL) in San Diego and through Ron Church (who was pilot/photographer of their new Costeau designed minisub) was recommended as a "technician." There were four Ph.D's in various disciplines of oceanography, a secretary/bookkeeper and me. I was lucky enough to work with Dr. William D. Clarke, a Scripps graduate in biological oceanography, and was usually in the office 3 days a week and underwater 2.

Shortly after starting with WORL in 1967, I was called up to the Offshore Exploration Conference in Long Beach to demonstrate Westinghouse's Mark VI semi-closed circuit mixed-gas rebreather, along with June Davis, another L.A. County UICC graduate. We did well, attracted the crowds (two 6' tall gals in bikinis), and got asked to demonstrate the following year at the show in Washington D.C.

One of the exciting projects at WORL was helping with the logistics of fielding and supplying several teams of diver/scientsts organized and led by Dr. Richard Chesher, to assess coral reefs infestations of Acanthaster planci, the crown of thorns starfish, in the north Pacific and Northern Marianas.

Westinghouse kept a 16' Boston Whaler at Scripps Pier from where we launched and I participated (counted and photographed plants and critters) in surveys on kelp beds off Del Mar, La Jolla and Pt. Loma, and set instrumentation off Del Mar and the Naval Electronics Tower out from Mission Beach. We did an interesting abalone study off the Ithmus at Catalina where we set up meter square transects then embedded pinlights and attached numbered tags to the abs, photographing them at night from a 16mm camera on a tripod shooting B/W reversal film at a frame a second, and next morning diving and plotting their locations. Another fun effort was being sent to help survey and photograph the effects of a warm water outfall on the local flora and fauna off a power plant in Key West.

Memorable vacations in the 60's were visiting Dottie Frazier at the Ithmus where she lived aboard "Fickle Miss" with 2 teenage boys, worked at the bar on shore and rescued the multitudes of things that folks on boats drop overboard. An impressive experience with Dottie was heading to the Ithmus via Avalon one weekend when her boat just stopped outside the mooring buoys. Harbor Patrol comes right out to offer a tow and Dottie says "...heck no, if I can't fix it I don't belong here." Well, she grabs her tool box, takes up a floorboard, finds and fixes the problem and we're off again!! We had one fun night dive with Ron Church and Bob Bradley, co-pilots of Westinghouse's DeepStar Submersibles where we (mostly Dottie) out dove them for bugs.

Moved to the Bay area in the early 70's and worked for FMC's oceanographic and waste treatment divisions who utilized my diving and photographic ability to document circulation studies utilizing dye and ping-pong balls! Along with family and friends in northern California, we explored the coast and often brought home limits of abalone from Gualala, Mendocino and Ft. Bragg (no tanks). Also, thanks to some advice from Jeff Foott, nature photographer, and Ron Church (then working with Costeau and assessing the otter population for a special) got to play with the otters off Cannery Row in Monterey with Karen Straus.

In the late 70's, took a 6-month leave of absence from buying construction equipment at Bechtel, San Francisco, to "backpack" through the South Pacific. Thanks to all my friends in oceanography and underwater photography, was able to connect with friends in diving, surfing and photography in Hawaii, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa and Tahiti. In PNG dove Milne Bay with early pioneer Bob Halstead, and thanks to intros from Dr. Chesher (met when at WORL) , got to meet and house sit for the Director of Fisheries, then spend a week living aboard with Dr. Chesher and wife Frederique Lesne while they were assessing coral reef resources off the Trobriand Islands.

Returning to Bechtel for a field buyer assignment in Pennsylvania in the early 80's, helped teach and document (photograph) a scuba class from our jobsite in local pool, quarry and off the Jersey Shore, then was treated to a wonderful week of diving in Bon Aire.

Returning to San Francisco in the early 80's, resumed northern California ab diving trips with frients from all over California. Then in 1986, took off for a 6-month drive around Australia that lasted over a year! Had bought a Toyota van and shipped over camping, diving and photo gear. From Bateau Bay, 60 miles north of Sydney where ex-roommate Mickey and wife Nan live, headed north, around the top, down to Perth where I decided to stay for start of America's Cup. Had to renew visa so went up from Perth to Port Hedland and flew to Bali for a week then back to Perth for a few weeks and around the bottom, over to Tasmania and back up to Sydney.

Back in San Diego, took a parttime job issuing lagoon permits for the City of Carlsbad and stayed 15 years, retiring November 2002. Was able to take lots of time off during winter months, so enjoyed more northern California ab diving, island hopping in Hawaii, Cozumel UW photography and driving and diving Baja. April 2002, visited friends in the Florida Keys and got to use their hooka gear at Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary.

Now looking forward to more time to play!

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