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Greek Diver Has Soaked Up Life Like A Sponge

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Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: May 24, 2008

TARPON SPRINGS - Greek immigrants have been sponge diving here for more than a century, but Taso Karistinos doesn't come from that tradition.

He made his own way to America.

He'd never even heard of Tarpon Springs.

He and a buddy were driving down to St. Petersburg in the early 1970s and stopped at a restaurant called the Parthenon.

"We hear these Greek guys cussing in the kitchen," Karistinos says, laughing. "We say, 'Oh, let's go talk to them,' and they say, 'Stay, we'll go to Zorba's, Zorba's nightclub.' After that, we figure we hit the jackspot" - he means jackpot - "and we stayed."

Taso, short for Anastasios, has creased bronze skin and a salt-and-pepper moustache. When he crosses the deck of the Anastasi, his 48-foot fishing boat, there's a little swagger in his step.

He's a sponge diver and a storyteller.

Like many divers, Taso has suffered from the bends, or decompression sickness. Once, after a day of diving, he was cooking spaghetti for the crew when he lost his vision.

"I knew what it was," he says. "I knew I was bent. I was bent in the head; that's why I couldn't see. So I threw my suit on and went back down. That was scary, man, waiting down there in the dark."

Taso pauses and delivers his punch line: "Then I went back up and had two bowls of spaghetti."

He has appeared in documentaries and magazine features about Tarpon Springs. He looks the part. Just the right Greek accent and charmingly fractured English.

Taso has the rounded belly of a 55-year-old man; his hands, though, are still rough and tough, the tools of a fisherman.

'I Can Stay Out There Forever'

A few years ago, he finally paid off the Anastasi. Now he's his own boss. Some years are better than others, but there's always a market for natural sponges, especially in Europe.

More than 100 sponge-diving boats once sailed out of Tarpon Springs. Now Taso's boat is one of five.

His fishing trips follow the Gulf Coast from the Panhandle to the Florida Keys. He dives every day, dropping anchor, searching for sponges, then moving to the next spot. He likes to stay out for a week to 10 days or longer.

"I can stay out there forever, man," he says.

Taso started out diving for other captains in Tarpon Springs. One of his mentors was a legendary diver called "John the Greek."

He learned how to descend anywhere from 15 to 60 feet. He learned how to harvest wool sponges, vase sponges and finger sponges. He learned how to make systematic searches through murky water.

"That's what saves the sponges," he says. "You can dive in the same place over and over, and not see the sponges a few feet away. You go in different directions. You can follow the sun, or you can follow the tide."

Taso didn't mind the long days. What he didn't like was working for somebody else.

"Whenever they make me mad," he says, "I jump in my car and go paint bridges, do sandblasting."

Clowning Around With Uncle Sam

Taso always returned to sponge diving, though, and eventually bought a small boat. Then he had to sell that boat to pay off the IRS. Tax problems. He learned his lesson. Now he says he always makes sure to settle up with Uncle Sam.

"You know," he adds, laughing, "when I come to this country, I didn't know what Uncle Sam was - you know, the picture? I thought he was like an evil clown."

Taso grew up on a family farm in Greece. He was the oldest of 12 children. They milled their own flour and pressed their own olive oil.

As a young man he became a sailor and traveled to America.

Taso got married soon after arriving in Tarpon Springs, but it didn't last long. He didn't speak enough English and she didn't speak enough Greek.

His only son grew up sponging with his father. Anesti can remember diving all day and then cleaning sponges late into the night.

"He didn't show me any slack at all," Anesti says, laughing.

"He has a really, really hard-core work ethic."

Anesti butted heads with his father for years. He worked his own sponge boat for awhile, then became a charter captain. Now he sells log-cabin homes in Murphy, N.C.

He can't wait for his two sons to get older, so he can take them sponge fishing in Florida. He's sure Taso will be there.

"My dad is old salt," Anesti says. "He's an old dog who'll be diving, I'm sure, until he's in his 70s."

Taso has a house in Tarpon Springs, but he makes his home on the Anastasi. The cabin is lined with Greek icons and family photos.

Next to his bunk is a framed picture of his brother, Dimitri, who died in a diving accident in Greece.

In the evening, and when the weather's too rough for diving, he and his crew watch videotapes on a small TV.

Sometimes, for fun, they watch "Jaws" or "The Perfect Storm."

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