> Dumbing down to the Lowest Common Denominator Level continues apace. The
> way it's going I can sense that I will actually give up diving before I
> have to "follow the leader" simply because I am arrogant enough to never
> do that. And there I was hoping to be able to break Leni Riefenstahl's
> record as to oldest ever conventional (not that she could _ever_ be
> called conventional) diver. ;-)

In much of the world, you still have the option of diving on your own.  If
it requires you to own your own boat, then it can be quite expensive.  Where
shore diving is possible, it can be quite inexpensive.  It just depends.
Anywhere that there is not a law to the contrary, you can usually find a way
to do the dive you want rather than what somebody else wants.  Still, if you
have to, or chose to, dive from somebody else's vessel, you are somewhat
obligated to dive by their rules.

I friend of ours was still diving well into his 80s.  You've got a ways to
go.

Lee