Invincible, by Daniel Jones
This is an essay written by my nephew Daniel Jones for his college entrance. This, specifically, is why there is no diving off the back of the Willie T. Lenny, then the captain/owner of Opus, is now on Slipstream.
Dan Jones
15 Aug 2007
Townsend-7
Invincible
As far as I am concerned, I am invincible. Aside from a broken collar bone at the age of four and a cold here and there, I am unbreakable. I can go anywhere, do anything, even jump off a mountain if I want. This was my outlook on how I could live the rest of my life until a vacation in the summer of 2006 changed my perspective completely.
My family had been planning a SCUBA/ sailing trip to the British Virgin Islands to celebrate the fiftieth wedding anniversary of my Mom's parents for many years. The plan was to basically island hop to all of the best diving spots in the area with our knowledgeable ship captain Lenny aboard the S.Y. Opus. On the second evening of the trip, the captain brought my Mom's brother, his wife, my older brother Rob and myself to a party boat called the William Thorton, which included a dance floor and a makeshift high dive made out of an ice machine that put the diver twenty feet above the thirty foot deep ocean. My brother and I were fascinated by the high dive and spent most of the afternoon there. Later, we lounged at a table on the lower level of the boat, looking out over the area where the high divers crashed into the crystal clear water. At one point in the evening, I watched a young man not much older than me hit the water flat on his chest and lay still in the water. I did not think much of it until I looked back a few moments later and he was lying motionless on the ocean floor. Without even thinking, I dove in and forced my self thirty feet under water with all my might. I grabbed the boy and started to ascend but his weight made it twice as hard. Above the water, as I was told later, Rob dove in as soon as he realized what was going on. Halfway through my ascent, I felt a pair of strong hands grab my cargo and me and the load became considerably lighter. When I was at the point where I thought that my lungs and eardrums would burst, I felt my head break the surface of the water. It was only when I looked at the face of the young man in my arms did reality hit me. He was pale as a ghost and blood and foam were coming out of his nose and mouth. A group of bystanders jumped in to help my brother and me pull the boy onto the boat's dock, where Lenny immediately began CPR. As the young man had no pulse and was not breathing, I tried my hardest not to break down right there. All of a sudden, after a set of Lenny's chest compressions, the victim vomited water and began breathing with signs of a pulse. Lenny had someone call a rescue team and got our group away from the William Thorton as quickly as he could. Later on during our trip, I learned that the young man, who lived in South Africa and was named Francis, spent three days in the hospital but eventually made a full recovery.
This experience taught me that life is a very fragile thing. Thinking of myself as invincible was foolish and I learned that even the smallest things, like trying to impress some girls by doing a front flip off a high dive, can turn from fun to deadly in a heartbeat.
Dan Jones
15 Aug 2007
Townsend-7
Invincible
As far as I am concerned, I am invincible. Aside from a broken collar bone at the age of four and a cold here and there, I am unbreakable. I can go anywhere, do anything, even jump off a mountain if I want. This was my outlook on how I could live the rest of my life until a vacation in the summer of 2006 changed my perspective completely.
My family had been planning a SCUBA/ sailing trip to the British Virgin Islands to celebrate the fiftieth wedding anniversary of my Mom's parents for many years. The plan was to basically island hop to all of the best diving spots in the area with our knowledgeable ship captain Lenny aboard the S.Y. Opus. On the second evening of the trip, the captain brought my Mom's brother, his wife, my older brother Rob and myself to a party boat called the William Thorton, which included a dance floor and a makeshift high dive made out of an ice machine that put the diver twenty feet above the thirty foot deep ocean. My brother and I were fascinated by the high dive and spent most of the afternoon there. Later, we lounged at a table on the lower level of the boat, looking out over the area where the high divers crashed into the crystal clear water. At one point in the evening, I watched a young man not much older than me hit the water flat on his chest and lay still in the water. I did not think much of it until I looked back a few moments later and he was lying motionless on the ocean floor. Without even thinking, I dove in and forced my self thirty feet under water with all my might. I grabbed the boy and started to ascend but his weight made it twice as hard. Above the water, as I was told later, Rob dove in as soon as he realized what was going on. Halfway through my ascent, I felt a pair of strong hands grab my cargo and me and the load became considerably lighter. When I was at the point where I thought that my lungs and eardrums would burst, I felt my head break the surface of the water. It was only when I looked at the face of the young man in my arms did reality hit me. He was pale as a ghost and blood and foam were coming out of his nose and mouth. A group of bystanders jumped in to help my brother and me pull the boy onto the boat's dock, where Lenny immediately began CPR. As the young man had no pulse and was not breathing, I tried my hardest not to break down right there. All of a sudden, after a set of Lenny's chest compressions, the victim vomited water and began breathing with signs of a pulse. Lenny had someone call a rescue team and got our group away from the William Thorton as quickly as he could. Later on during our trip, I learned that the young man, who lived in South Africa and was named Francis, spent three days in the hospital but eventually made a full recovery.
This experience taught me that life is a very fragile thing. Thinking of myself as invincible was foolish and I learned that even the smallest things, like trying to impress some girls by doing a front flip off a high dive, can turn from fun to deadly in a heartbeat.
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