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There are so many amenities for the avid divers today. They can get pool instruction from qualified PADI personnel at the hotels. They can get all their diving gear at several different professional scuba diving shops. Divers have all measures of safety that a diver's safety is highly guaranteed. If there is an unfortunate accident, there is the hyperbaric chamber, fully functional in San Pedro so that lives can be saved right here on the island. You got the picture right. There is so much offered to the diver looking for fun and yet guaranteeing his safety. But in all this picture, what is the most important element in scuba diving? Is it a chamber or a PADI official? It is none of these. It is a scuba tank. Yes, a diving tank filled with air for without this, there is no scuba diving. And just who is this person that introduced this world of fun and business to San Pedro. In the early 70's, it was Mr. Alan Forman, a co-founder of a hotel group known as Coral Beach Hotels, that got the idea of setting up a facility to provide air tanks to the adventurous divers. Alan had been in the hotel business in the very early days of tourism along with others like Mr. Fido NuŅez, (deceased) Florentino Gonzalez, Samuel Gonzalez, Chico Gomez, and Thomas Paz. Their hotel chain offered rooms, restaurants, boats, sailing, fishing, snorkeling and great cookouts. However, there was a small group of visitors who wanted to do something more adventurous- diving. With this in mind, Allan arranged to get some tanks to satisfy this sport. Eventually Coral Beach Hotel purchased its own air compressor and pretty soon the first tanks were being filled right here on the island. This was the beginning of a fast growing and booming business in San Pedro. It was Alan Forman's and the Coral Beach Group. It was their vision and courage to introduce something new. Today there are several dive shops that offer all the gear for a professional and fun dive in the Caribbean. There are several air compression units to fill hundreds of tanks that are used daily during peak season. All of this is the vision of the man who introduced the idea to San Pedro. Twenty Five Years Ago salutes Mr. Alan Forman.
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