4 replies to this topic

[uwfan]

So this may not be the place for this post, but I had to share a wonderful conversation I had today.

One of the parents at my school has thought about scuba diving for a while and her husband gave her a present of a Discover Scuba class. Yesterday she went. Today she slipped into the library, caught my eye through my office window where I was working, and like a kid who is bursting with something exciting to share, came in to my office and told me how much she loved the class! She said,"I'll have to do the class again because I had a hard time with the mask clearing, but I had so much fun!" Apparently she sat at the bottom of the pool and watched the other divers swimming around in the pool and had a BLAST! "It was so quiet, I could hear my bubbles but that was it. It was so surreal." I loved the whole conversation!!

One of the other teachers listened to our conversation and I could see her eyes getting that "I really want to do that" look in them. She also got that funny little catch your breath kind of response too, I know that response...when you really want to do something DEEP down and it scares the pants off you...but sooner or later you do it just because you keep thinking about it. I have this funny feeling another diver is in the making!!

Ain't it great sharing our sport?!?!

Any other stories out there of new diver awe???

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

A great topic! While not quite a "new diver awe" story, I've made friends with a lady I met this past August, and we've been doing friends-things the past few months. Two Saturdays ago, we met up for a leisurely lunch, and she has always loved to listen to my dive trip stories. While we were chatting over salads, she told me that after listening to my enthusiasm about diving, she really wanted to get certified.

Since I had planned to stop at my LDS on my way home, I asked if she wanted to come along. While I was buying my lift bag & reel for my next AOW class, she got all the scoop she needed about the OW course. Once she starts the class, I'll have to give her a singledivers.com sticker and remind her to join! I know she'd love to come on a trip with us.

So, who else has infected a friend with the dive-bug?

[BeachJunkie]

Being over here, living on dive forums whenever I'm near a computer, and having two years worth of dive magazines with me, I've managed to put the bug into about half the guys over here with me. I doubt that all of them will go through with it but I know for a fact two are very seriously considering it. I know one is comming down to key west to get certified when I move there. Another is trying to talk me into going to the bahamas for a vacation and doing some diving. He'll do the classroom at Ft. Campbell and then check out dives in the bahamas. I'm hoping I can afford it and we can schedule it. If they both go through with it, I'll try to get them on here. They're not much for online forums though. Hopefully the dive bug will be enough to get them online. I have another guy with me here who is already certified but hasn't been diving in forever. He will be upgrading his gear and diving with me when we get back to Campbell hopefully. Before I left I got my roommate into diving. He will be moving with me to key west and diving with me! Looks like I'm the Billy Graham of diving!!

[Dive_Girl]

While up on a boating dive adventure in Canada, I conducted a discover scuba diving experience in a small bay for one of our group who was not certified. I wasn't sure what he would think since it was in cold water. The bay was a quiet little place with lots of large starfish, moonsnails, crab, perch, and even some small gunnels. After 20 minutes of a really relaxed dive we surfaced. He turned and looked at me and said (verbatim),

"That was a life changing experience."

I turned to our group watching us from shore and said, "And that is why I do this every weekend in cold water."

[sudsymark]

One time I had a brother and sister in one class. He was certified but she was going for her certification. She liked it so much that a few months later she enrolled her son in an open water class. They would come to the shop and play in the pool and dive at the local quarry. But what was really exciting was going with the mother and son to Cozumel and being with them for their first ocean dive. Just watching them try and take in all the fish and coral was shear entertainment. ne son got neckcramps whipping his head back and forth. After the first day of diving they were raving and she turned to me and said that this made all the time and travel worth while.