I always wanted to dive. Sea Hunt, J Cousteau, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, PBS, Animal Planet... you name it, if it had water on it I was watching it. I was certified in 1995 because I thought it would help me with graduate school. Yep that's right... grad school. At the time I was working on my MS and had applied to the Florida Atlantic University program in Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (robot submarines) in the Marine Engineering Department for my PhD. Yep I'm a dorky clownfish for sure but that is another story entirely.
That was my excuse to get certified anyway.
My first introduction to diving was NOT pretty. My class was the instructors first class and apparently he wasn't trained well. The shop owner can be best described by any of several anatomical parts which are usually kept hidden from the public. I prefer one unique to the male anatomy personally. The divemasters were cocky and arrogant. On many occasions the DM's just rolled their eyes and walked away when questions were asked. Students that didn't progress at the rate they wanted were put over in the dunce side of the pool (thats how we referred to it at the time) and pretty much ignored. We were told we needed more attention and they didn't have time to give it to us. There were about 5 of us that were deemed not good enough to instruct. After I was certified they told me to not bother to dive since they only certified me because I was taking the class for college credit and they didn't want me to get an F. I was told that I was unsafe and had no business in the water. Apparently, my death was acceptable to them though since I still received a cert card. In retrospect, I think this attitude was because I didn't buy enough equipment through them and do it soon enough after starting the class. I had terrible eyesight (-9.0 diopter lenses) and needed a very expensive prescription mask that I could not afford at the beginning of the course so I bought it at the end of the course instead and borrowed other peoples gear instead. I also borrowed gear from some certified divers I knew instead of renting it since the mask pretty much wiped out my funds for that month. You don't have alot of money when in grad school and kind of have to scratch to make things work when you can. They didn't see it that way.
The damage was done. For twelve years I wanted nothing to do with diving. My experience was the people were terrible jerks and I just didn't want anything to do with it. Had enough... I literally threw away the cert card (found the stub many years later) and didn't go to FAU even though I was admitted unconditionally. That is one of my biggest regrets, no PhD that I really wanted in a field I really wanted to be in. But I never forgot about it and wondered what if. I wasn't really doing anything else except going to work and coming home and I had money now. I was bored and lonely and not too happy since work was pretty much my entire life and it just didn't seem worth it. I had the laser eye surgery a few years back and now have perfect vision. I was still watching diving shows religiously. One day I was feeling sorry for myself for being such a poor diver and found the SD site while searching the web. I thought "All Right, I don't have an excuse anymore, I'm gonna try it again and go on one of these trips, dangit!!!" The next day I started getting ready since I figured I had a long way to go.
True story.
Since I had such a horrible certification experience I really wanted an instructor to say I was safe. I took a refresher after 12 years and the AI that did the refresher could not believe I had been out of the water for 12 years. He said I did better than most people with basic OW who were recent divers. Then I took the advanced class and had no problems, just sailed through it even though it was my first time in open water in 12 years. Still, I was beat up SOOO badly by the first shop/instructor that I wanted yet another instructor to tell me that I was ok in the water, so I immediately took the Rescue class. Excellent experience and I had no problems at all. That was all in murky water in north Texas. AFter three professionals concurrences, I felt like I had solid basic skills at that point. I didn't feel like an expert, just knew enough to dive safely and slowly get better at it.
The rest is history. I did my first trip with SD and was completely comfortable in the water but felt like I knew my limits. But more importantly, I learned that the entire diving community is not a bunch of buttheads. Some are, and when they are they have perfected the art, but most are pretty cool people.
So that is my long winded story. The morals to the story are
1) there are some REALLY REALLY REALLY bad shops/instructors out there and you shouldn't let one of them bring you down,
2) advanced instruction will make you more confident and hopefully safer, and
3) I write WAAAYYYY too much since I barely talk in person!!!
Hopefully, you will all learn the irony in that last statement soon enough.
Scott
