01945 Summer 2024

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DIVER, continued from page 8
“I used to go by myself all the time,
I didn’t want anyone to go with me.
Because, if I find a treasure, I’m not
going to share it… And then all of a
sudden he starts diving with me… and
there he is, bubbles and all,” Cassidy
said.
Tyler said the coolest thing he’s seen
underwater, so far, is his dad.
Cassidy and Tyler went out on the
water one beautiful afternoon on friend
David Smith’s lobster boat, Blue Magic.
Cassidy’s was hauled in at the moment.
Cassidy always has a tender with him
who drives the boat while he and Tyler
go underwater together.
The guys suited up, putting on about
120 pounds worth of gear. Tyler jumped
off the boat towards his buoy and dive
bag, and Cassidy followed suit toward
his own. Around 15 to 20 minutes later,
the guys popped back up.
Tyler’s bag was filled with urchins,
while Cassidy had a few crabs, urchins,
scallops, and even a boot that looked
like it was in the process of becoming
one with the ocean floor.
On a typical diving day, Cassidy said
they go through four tanks and usually
go out on his 13-foot whaler, the Stuff It.
“(My father) would be out in the
water, and he’d wave to people and they
wouldn’t wave back. So, he’d give ‘em a
bouquet of (middle fingers), (and say)
‘stuff it!’” Cassidy said. “So when he
passed, my mom goes, ‘I want to get a
boat, I want to name it Stuff It.’”
Cassidy sells most of his urchins and
scallops to Patriot Seafoods in Salem.
He said he considers diving
underwater therapeutic and can’t
imagine doing anything else.
“You can look out at the water
like this, oh it’s beautiful. You go
underneath it, it’s a totally different
world,” Cassidy said. “There’s crabs,
there’s lobsters, there’s fish, there’s
seals; they come around and play with
you in the winter.”
“My boat is our world,” he continued.
Tyler said that when he grows up,
he’d like to be a commercial diver, just
like his dad.
“I never, ever imagined having my
son with me at 50 feet, diving right
alongside of me, at 12 years old,”
45
Cassidy said.
Doug Cassidy and
his son, Tyler,
show off their sea
urchin T-shirts.
Tyler Cassidy lugs
his oxygen tank
onto the boat
before heading
out to dive with
his dad, Doug.
01945 Summer 2024.indd 10 6/4/24 12:14 PM