Lynn Janetta Obituary, Death- We regret to inform you of the passing of longtime MSD Dive Master Lynn Janetta, as many of you may have already heard. All of our MSD divers, with whom she touched many, will miss her.
Early in the new millennium, Lynn started diving with us. She went on board as a frequent fun diver after her O/W class. She quickly established herself as MSD’s unofficial greeter, always the first to take brand-new fun divers under her wing and make them feel at home. She immediately came across as being passionate about the sport and, more significantly, the diving community in which she found herself. So it’s hardly surprising that She advanced through the ranks very rapidly and earned her PADI Dive Master rating within a few years.
She oversaw the fun dives for many years, organized and judged many of the year-end underwater pumpkin carving competitions, and was a big assistance during the 10 years we held the Dive Fests. She also regularly joined MSD diving trips, bringing her “Lynness” to people all across the world. I could continue in this manner for quite some time (because the praise is both deserving and genuine), but even Lynn would grow tired of hearing all of this “sunshine” at this point.
Every lesson with Lynn in attendance was remarkable, but none more so than the diving master class, which I believe I (Todd, by the way, was her teacher for most of her classes). The DM course is challenging and requires a lot of classrooms, open water, and pool time. Skills reviews, rescue drills, and timed swim tests are all conducted in the pool. To say Lynn was somewhat lazy would be inaccurate; instead, you could say that she was simply “not too hung up on OVERachievement.
The “It’s too far; It’s too heavy” card was one that she frequently used. I certainly exerted the most pressure on her, though. She succeeded as a result. We were all able to respond to that since we knew Lynn. We later exchanged a lot of diving-related experiences. I often felt relieved while leading divers on enjoyable dives around the mines since I knew Lynn was topside taking care of things up there. Or back when we used to perform dive rescues, it gave me and I’m sure most of the squad a lot of comfort to know that she was up there on the ice minding my rope. There was also nobody I felt more at ease with hanging off a tow bar behind the boat in complete darkness.
