{"id":24822,"date":"2023-06-13T12:39:58","date_gmt":"2023-06-13T16:39:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.dan.org\/?post_type=dan_alert_diver&p=24822"},"modified":"2023-07-27T17:00:43","modified_gmt":"2023-07-27T21:00:43","slug":"member-profile-breathing-gas-giant-jess-stark","status":"publish","type":"dan_alert_diver","link":"https:\/\/world.dan.org\/fr\/alert-diver\/article\/member-profile-breathing-gas-giant-jess-stark\/","title":{"rendered":"Profil du membre : Le g\u00e9ant des gaz respiratoires Jess Stark"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FROM THE ARCTIC CIRCLE TO ANTARTICA<\/strong>, if you\u2019ve ever taken a breath from a scuba cylinder, there\u2019s a good chance that cylinder was filled using a Stark Industries breathing-air compressor. For half a century dive operators and fill stations around the world have been using Stark compressors to fill divers\u2019 tanks, trusting their quality to meet daily demands. It\u2019s no surprise to find the same level of toughness and dependability in the compressors\u2019 namesake: Jess Loren Stark. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lifelong Texas resident, Stark began diving in 1954 with a double-hose regulator and no pressure gauge or buoyancy compensator. While studying law at Wharton, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1955 and served honorably for six years. Upon his discharge he returned home and started a small business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn 1962 I bought a small gun shop in Houston called Shooter\u2019s Supply and eventually turned it into a machine shop since I had acquired a lathe and milling machine,\u201d Stark said. \u201cIn 1968 the dive shop I frequented mentioned they needed an air compressor, so I figured I could make one for them and did. It seemed more lucrative than machining parts, so I kept at it. Word got out, I started hiring employees to handle additional sales, and the business began to grow.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Stark wasn\u2019t building compressors, he was diving offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. After his first trip on the liveaboard Aqua Safari,<\/em> he immediately began working on ways to get free dive trips \u2014 an approach familiar to many passionate dive professionals. First working as an unpaid deckhand and then offering repair and maintenance on the boat\u2019s compressor, he eventually earned his U.S. Coast Guard Charter Boat Captain license and became the Aqua Safari<\/em>\u2019s assistant captain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1972 Stark\u2019s dive experience expanded into commercial diving, and he worked jobs in dangerous conditions that took him all over the United States. Stark recalls wearing an Advanced 2000 air helmet mated to a Viking drysuit with 70 pounds of lead, working in the intense heat of a South Carolina nuclear power station\u2019s spent fuel pool as he was lowered into the 116\u00b0F liquid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter about 29 minutes I realized I was close to losing consciousness and radioed the tender to get me out,\u201d he said. \u201cI learned then that the backup diver on the surface had fainted while I was working.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stark still has his Kirby Morgan SuperLite 17 helmet with serial number #003, which he purchased in 1975 direct from Bob Kirby and Bev Morgan. He credits its sturdy design with saving his life on multiple occasions, one in which his dive umbilical became wrapped around a propeller shaft in heavy seas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe umbilical became a tightly packed 2-foot-diameter ball around the prop shaft, and I gradually unwound it while rotating the massive prop blade,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe more wraps I got off, the easier the prop was to turn. But the stern was rising 6 to 8 feet out of the water with each wave, and every time it crashed down it caused a complete foam whiteout. On one of the downward crashes the force jerked the prop blade out of my hand, and the next blade below me rotated up and crushed my head between the blade and the ship\u2019s hull. The helmet was so strong that my head was totally uninjured, and the only damage to the helmet was the destruction of the regulator, which caused it to free-flow uncontrollably.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Stark found fulfillment in his dive career and in the global distribution of his compressors, he is most proud of his years in law enforcement serving his community in Houston. Before he built his first compressor, Stark joined the Harris County Sheriff\u2019s Office as a diver in 1965. The work was informal at first; deputies used privately owned boats, and the divers\u2019 only responsibility was to remain available to work dive scenes day or night whenever called. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe recovered everything you can imagine from the murky waters, rivers, and ponds of Harris County, where visibility was often zero,\u201d Stark said, \u201cincluding murder weapons, drowning victims, cars, counterfeiting equipment for the Secret Service, and a safe for the FBI, just to name a few.\u201d After 35 years in the Marine Division, Stark transferred to the Sheriff\u2019s Academy as a firearms instructor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A diver can\u2019t stay away from the water for long though; after years of training new recruits, Stark returned to the Marine Division to dramatic changes. \u201cThe county had purchased boats for the Sheriff\u2019s Office, and we were assigned harbor patrols in the Port of Houston for the Department of Homeland Security,\u201d Stark said. \u201cOur duties included preventing unauthorized boats from entering security zones, and we carried personal radiation detectors to alert us to the presence of any nuclear devices while on patrol.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 56 years of service with the Harris County Sheriff\u2019s Office and Reserve Command, Stark retired to spend more time with family and help his team run Stark Industries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Close calls for Stark extended beyond his days as a diver and in law enforcement. Throughout his life Stark has been fortunate to survive countless brushes with death, some of which read like a Dos Equis \u201cmost interesting man in the world\u201d beer commercial, yet he has the scars and newspaper clippings to prove them. He was shot in the hand by a derringer, shafted in the shoulder by a spear gun, charged by an elephant in Kenya, mauled by a lion in Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe), and chased out of the water by hungry 12-foot bull sharks. He survived a plane crash in a pineapple field in Honduras and plugged the holes in a 65-foot steel- hull ship as it sank 80 miles off the Gulf Coast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn every calamitous event, I am grateful that God watched over and delivered me from disaster and my feckless nature,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter years of experiences kept to myself, I have been hounded by friends and family to share them. At their request I\u2019m putting them together in a book to reflect on the importance of faith, family, and living a fulfilling life. My niece Desiree has already decided on a title for it: Nine Lives \u2013 And Then Some<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 AD<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Jess
On patrol in the Port of Houston, Stark served with the Harris County Sheriff\u2019s Office for 56 years.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ville d'origine : <\/strong>Houston, Texas
\u00c2ge : <\/strong>86
Ann\u00e9es de plong\u00e9e : <\/strong>69
Most Memorable Dive: <\/strong>Making more than 400 dives on the wreck of the V.A. Fogg shortly after it sank in 1972
DAN Member Since: 1995
Pourquoi je suis membre de DAN : <\/strong>The first time I discovered DAN it was a no-brainer to me. Why not have emergency evacuation support and dive accident insurance while doing my favorite sport, especially with the number of decompression dives I was making?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Stark
Stark Industries breathing-gas compressors have been providing divers with tank fills around the world for half a century.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\"Stark
Stark with his Kirby Morgan SuperLite 17 helmet, serial number #003, in a 1978 newspaper photo after a recovery in Lake Amistad, Texas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\"Stark
Stark in Cusco, Peru, in 1954<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\"liveaboard
The liveaboard dive boat Aqua Safari ran its first dive trips in early 1972<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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EN SAVOIR PLUS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Journey back to 1972 and dive on the wreck of the SS V.A. Fogg <\/em>with the Aqua Safari<\/em> liveaboard. This incredible and stunning footage taken by careered cameraman Rick Armstrong, preserves the history of a wreck that is now unrecognizable to those who dived it in the first few months of its sinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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