Like many mission oriented groups, Pangaea and 5Gyres actively look for external partners that share our vision and passion- in our case for Exploration and conservation of the world’s oceans. We are very pleased to announce an important new partnership with Sherwood Scuba.
Sherwood is one of the absolutely foundational names in diving and ocean exploration. Working out of California, Sherwood connected its industrial gas business to the rapidly emerging field of SCUBA diving in the mid 1950’s. Their components went into the first commercially available regulators- including those developed from JY Cousteau’s early engineering. For the last half century they have been steadily honing this critical underwater equipment. Divers worldwide have depended on Sherwood’s precision engineered, absolutely reliable regulators in some of the most demanding conditions – caves, ice, extreme depths and current swept tropical reefs. Their credo makes a lot of sense to those of us who go into the sea professionally – “Produce the most durable, reliably engineered products in diving…” We get that.
This is personal for me – my first regulator was a 1984 Sherwood 2000. It was a complete rock for my first 5 years and 150+ dives across the Caribbean. I remember dive, rinse, pack- dive again- again, again, again… We never even thought twice about the reliability of these regs. They just plain worked. Now almost 30 years later (agh !) we need this even more. We dive on tight schedules, almost always in unknown “exploratory” conditions, with very little support- technical or otherwise. Our recent trips into Ascension Island are a great example. 10 days of sailing 2000 miles to reach an exceptionally remote island- you get one shot to get this right. And, its much more serious than just R&R fun…we go to these places to learn and communicate. A bit like astronauts, the few crew know how fortunate they are to be there. They have to get things done and tell the story. And if we’ve learned anything – its that the sea is not your- or especially your equipment’s friend.
This will only be more important in the months ahead. Between now and August 2011, Sea Dragon will travel almost 25,000 miles across two oceans and the Equator heading for Vancouver Canada. Diving will be an important part of the mission in Brazil, St. Helena Island, in the bluewater center of the Gyres, and then in a long arc from Easter Island to Hawaii. Nowhere is this more important than our upcoming expedition to the Jasuer Bank- a set of seamounts 230nm off Brazil. Diving at depths over 160′ (50m), our large team will be very equipment dependent for this technical exploration dive project. Sherwood has completely fitted out Sea Dragon with dive kit as our Official Diving Gear Sponsor.
We value these partnerships well beyond the simple utility of the resources. In our case a core part of our mission is about connecting people to the ocean and its challenges. As Cousteau said and knew so well, people only protect what they understand and what they love. We dive to explore, learn and communicate. We NEED people all over the world to dive to stay vitally connected to the sea. It is completely un-realistic to expect people to care, much less act or even sacrifice, to protect an ocean that we do not even venture into. While film and other media are powerful, we hope more people will get out and dive. Intense, remote locations like Ascension are important…but we can see, learn and protect much close to home. Thank you and here’s to a long-term partnership
Go learn and see what Sherwood does at their site Sherwood.com