So, why should "Carey Deep" be the Scuba Do Rag Team for UDC 2008? Let me tell you a story...

In May 2005, I was on a solo trip to Cozumel... I'd been certifed for less than a year, and knew from my first dive off Villa Blanca Beach the previous summer that I wanted to be an instructor, so I needed to log some serious bottom time before SSI would allow me to start my training.

My first day on the island, I met Jaime Mezo - who is now one of my dearest friends, dive partners, and my Team Mate for UDC 2008. Jaime is a native of Cozumel and of Mayan ancestory - his love for the ocean and the island is evident in every dive... In addition to being the best Dive Master on the island (and best teacher, although he is not yet an instructor), he taught himself to speak English so he could then teach others how to be better divers, safer divers, and to love the underwater world as much as he does...

So, our friendship grew and we continued to spend a lot of time blowing bubbles, and surface intervals learning more about each other and our love for diving. In mid-October 2005, I went on my first dive to Punta Sur... It was my last day on the island, and it seemed like the perfect way to end a perfect trip... I remember seeing 16 Black Tip Reef sharks that day, a Pink Elephant sponge (no kidding - I have the pictures to prove it), and a cross in a cavern known as the Cathedral... This was the best dive of my scuba career at that point, and was even more remarkable because Jaime caught it all on video - my first scuba video...

It was a Friday, and when I returned to my hotel that evening, I tossed and turned, trying to decide why I was going home the following day... I didn't have to be to work until Monday, so why not stay another day and log a few more dives... ? I called the hotel and airline, and it was done... and a decision that would change my life in more ways than I could have ever imagined...

Saturday was another beautiful day on the island - on the reef and top-side. Jaime and I spent he afternoon with friends at the marina until after sunset... I remember leaving the marina as a passeneger on the back of a friend's motorcycle... we were only going a few miles to have a farewell dinner to celebrate my last night on the island... I remember making a left turn down the frontage road towards San Miguel - it was dark, quiet... and I remember hearing a scream - my scream - then everything went black... I couldn't feel anything, hear anything, see anything... I have a very vivid memory of thinking "this is it" - that I had died...

Suddenly, I felt a splash of cold water on my face and I awoke to find myself in a ditch filled with about 6 inches of water... My friend who had been driving the motorcycle was lying on the street motionless... I screamed at him, begging him to move - nothing... I tried to stand up to go to him, and I fell down and lost consciousness... the next thing I remember is hearing the ambulance... a lot of excited voices speaking Spanish...

When I got in the ambulance, Jaime was already there holding another one of our friend's heads in his lap... Blood was everywhere... I grabbed his hand and repeatedly begged him not to leave me... As hurt as I was, I was even more afraid of going to a hospital and being alone - knowing very little Spanish... He promised me he wouldn't leave me - and he never did... When I was in the hospital ER, he never left my side until they starting stiching the gash in my head... He said he could hear me screaming, but they wouldn't let him in the room... He spent the night in the hospital with me, and never told anyone that he, too, was hurt... Not even me... it wasn't until he left the morning after the accident to check on our friends that I saw the bed he'd been sleeping in was covered in blood... When I asked him about it, he said because he was a local, they would have taken him to a different hospital - and he couldn't do that because of the promise he made to me...

I was discharged from the hospital the following day, but unable to fly due to my head injury... I'd also sustained a broken leg and several lacerations... For the next 3 days, Jaime helped my change bandages, take showers, and pushed me around in a wheel chair... he went to the pharmacy to get me medicine... he washed the clothes I'd been wearng the night of the accident so I wouldn't have to see the blood... All the while he was needed elsewhere... at the marina... Huricane Wilma was set to make landfall... Between preparing his family, his house, and the boats, while also taking care of me, he didn't sleep for more than a couple of hours each night... The strength of the hurricane could not be ignored, and the urgency of getting me off the island grew with every passing hour... I got the last seat on the last plane before the airport was shut down...

I arrived in Denver after a long and painful journey... my leg was not in a cast, and I'd relied on Tylenol PM to help me deal with the pain. I went straight to the ER and was given morphine - it was the first time in 4 days that I did not feel pain... At some point during the night, the nurse told me I was going to a different hospital because I needed surgery and they were not able to perform the operation at their facility. It was not until I was completing the release forms before going to pre-op that I was told I was likely going to lose my leg - it was infected and the infection had entered my bone... I remember looking up at the television in my hospital room at that moment - coverage of Hurricane Wilma... I knew that I would survive - that I was safe - but I didn't know about Jaime and my other friends on the island... Before the surgeons took me in to the operating room, I didn't pray for myself - I prayed for Jaime, his family, and the island that I call "home".

I awoke after surgery but was afraid to open my eyes... I couldn't feel my leg, and knew that it was no longer there... the nurses kept trying to make me wake up - to open my eyes but I refused... if I kept my eyes closed, it couldn't be real - I felt much like a child who is afraid of a noise in the middle of the night and keeps her eyes closed so the monsters can't see her... Suddenly, I felt something touching the bottom of my foot... I still had my leg...

When I was released from the hospital, I had to endure months of physical therapy... while I was rebuilding my body, Jaime was doing his part to rebuild the island... when his home was safe for his family, he helped others on the island who needed help... He went diving in the harbor to help remove rubble and surveyed the damage on the reefs... After weeks without power, the lights came back on in Cozumel- and I started walking again for the first time. My goal was to be back in Cozumel and ready to dive by March 12th - my birthday. My physical therapist said I woulndn't be ready, but I proved him wrong... On March 12th, I was back at Punta Sur with Jaime - who promised never to leave my side... We started Carey Deep Scuba almost a year later and never look back...

So, why should "Carey Deep" be the ScubaDoRag Team for UDC 2008? Because Carey Deep consists of two divers - one SSI and one PADI - who have overcome great obstacles and are ambassaors of the sport and the Island of Cozumel. The "Wrath of Wilma" brought Jaime and I together and bonded our friendship forever - and Wilma was Pam Bertrand's inspriation for the Ultimate Dive Challenge. The Pink Elephant is gone, but Cozumel will forever be Carey Deep's home...

Respectfully Submitted,

Kim Rogers, www.careydeepscuba.com