Remember when we used to dress out in the Gulf with just a weight belt and a knife?

I was on a platform off Grand Isle in 2004, and the old hands laughed at me for having a full scuba setup, saying real divers just used a surface supply and a good set of lungs, and now I see guys with sonar rigs on their helmets and I wonder if we lost something simple along the way.

3 comments

3 Comments

abbyhall4d ago

The older guys definitely had a point about simplicity back then. I remember jumping off a boat near Destin with nothing but a belt and a spear, and it felt way more connected to the water than all this high-tech gear now. We've traded that raw feel for fancy gadgets, but I'm not sure it made us any better at finding fish.

fionamurphy4d agoMost Upvoted

God, right?? It's the same with everything now though, not just fishing. I mean look at how people cook these days. Everyone's got an air fryer and a sous vide machine and five different gadgets just to make a sandwich, but the food doesn't taste any better than what my grandma made in a cast iron skillet with a wooden spoon lmao. We've just gotten obsessed with adding more steps and more gear to everything without stopping to think if we actually need it. Same with music too. People spend hours tweaking playlists and buying expensive headphones but they're just listening to the same stuff they'd hear on a cheap radio. It's like we traded the joy of doing something simple for the stress of having all the right tools.

noraroberts4d ago

That "connected to the water" part hits hard. I did the same thing in the Gulf years ago with just a handline and a knife, and I swear I could feel every fish before I even saw them. All this sonar and GPS now just makes me feel like I'm playing a video game instead of actually fishing.