4 replies to this topic

[secretsea18]

While this topic has been buried in my request for a dive buddy, many SD members may not yet know of the loss of Larry Smith on March 20 this week. Larry passed away in a Sorong hospital unexpectedly on Tuesday, from a presumptive heart attack (per his son). He had been diving on AK in FakFak and was medivac'ed to the Sorong hospital and his death is not dive related at all.

A very nice memorial to Larry is posted on www.wetpixel.com from friends from around the world.

For those of us who counted Larry as a dear friend, the void left by his passing will never be filled. He had an enthusiasm and such joy of the sport of diving, especially for muck diving (which he coined) and the macro undersea world. He was truly a "steward of the sea" in his attitude towards introducing divers to "his" ocean friends.

I will always remember talking Larry into letting me do an extra dive on a superb site called Black Magic near Komodo. I begged him to let me miss dinner and do a dive instead before the boat left to continue our return to Bali. Not only did he arrange to let me do the extra dive, he arranged dinner to be a little early and that let us do not just the one extra dive, but 2 extra dives at this site!! He was as excited as I was by the weird and bizarre nudibranchs present in such great numbers!

Larry's "big yellow fins" can never be filled..... He will be truly missed ....

Edited by secretsea18, 23 March 2007 - 09:12 AM.

[dustbowl diver]

I am saddened at the news and offer thoughts and prayers to his family and to his friends who are grieving at his pasiing!!!!

[Dive_Girl]

A very nice memorial to Larry is posted on www.wetpixel.com from friends from around the world.

That is a lovely memorial page. I am sorry to hear of the loss of your friend. My thoughts go out to his family and friends/you.

[secretsea18]

I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to dive with and know Larry. I saw him last at DEMA in Orlando, and had a chance to catch up, as he was on his way back to Indonesia to return to his home away from home, the Adventure Komodo. Larry was Cruise and Dive Director on that boat for the last 3-4 years, pioneering diving in Eastern Indonesia.

In addition to the lovely memorial on Wetpixel the website for the Adventure Komodo has a memorial page too.

Larry's favorite rules of diving with him:
1. Don't do anything stupid!
2. Just follow the big yellow fins!

I think we can all try to follow his first favorite rule of diving....

Robin

[mantarraya]

I have literally known Larry since I was a kid as we grew up in Longview, Texas, and he hung out with (and was enamored with) my cousin and older sister in his teen years (I'm 5 years younger than all of them). Later, he found out I was a diver, and wasted no time in calling me up to talk diving. It just wasn't that easy to find divers in East Texas at that time.

I knew he was respected in the dive community, but never truly appreciated that till now, reading all these tributes. The news still hasn't spread much in East Texas, and there are a lot of people that are truly sad to hear of his passing.

Edited by mantarraya, 23 March 2007 - 01:37 PM.