71 replies to this topic

[Dejah]

Hey All,

I thought this would be an interesting subject to share with all, tell us how did you get into Scuba Diving?

My story is this, while growing up I was so much into watching Seahunt and Jacques Cousteau on TV I always thought it would be great fun to one day try that.. Only one problem as I later was learning to swim I had a bad experience with almost drowning it then caused me for many years to fear the water. Yet in the past few years I've really worked a lot on conquering my fears and decided with some help of friends and a little nudging I would do it. Well since that day I've never looked back, but I will say I still have a little fear of water, but nothing like I once did

Dejah

[Diverbrian]

Actually I got into it as the result of a bad relationship.

I have always loved the water and watched various wildlife shows that showed graceful divers underwater. I never really thought of becoming a diver because I never believed that I was in good enough physical shape to learn it.

I thought that all dive training was like you see on Men of Honor where the instructors run you for a couple miles per day and that type of thing. That was right down to the proper attitude of the instructors. Again, I thought that dive instructors where like the Robert DeNiro character on that movie. My time on submarines didn't help as I saw people go to dive school and come out as fanatics.

Anyways, several years after I got out of the Navy I had a relationship fail badly. I decided that many of the problems were my fault and took up swimming laps to fight chronic depression that I had been battling since I was a teenager and didn't know about. Then, I took up diving to learn that we have world class diving my backyard. Who would have known, LOL ?

I am also a history buff, so I heavily started leaning towards wreck diving. As most of the wrecks up here are well preserved, I can't think of a better maritime museum than jumping off a dive boat. It where I am most at ease and think the best. It is also the one hobby that I have taken up that my family or friends didn't influence me on. I took it up on my own.

I would say "the end", but the story hasn't finished to this day....

[TraceMalin]

I started SCUBA diving when I was 13 years old after having grown up snorkeling and skin diving. Since I liked to stick my head underwater and I would cry any time my mom would try to take me out of the water, she bought me my first mask, fins and snorkel when I was about 3 years old and accepted the fact that I'd probably grow up to become a full time frogman rather than a lawyer or a brain surgeon. A word of advice: Mama's don't let your babies grow up to be dive bums unless you can be proud of them when they do what I did and bury three college degrees in the bottom of a drawer under a lifetime's worth of C-cards.
During my teen years, I spent every hour not in school or working as a trail guide at my aunt's riding stable underwater building experience and learning specialties. By the time I reached college, I became a professional lifeguard and a SCUBA instructor. It came as no surprise to my friends on my lacrosse team when asked what my future plans were during the last practice of our senior year, that I replied, "Just keep lifeguarding and teaching SCUBA." My friend who asked me that question was on his way to medical school and couldn't believe that was my only aspiration. Well, it wasn't. My true life's aspiration was to be lying on my surfboard in some shallow tropical water napping and have some tourist wake me by asking if I knew what time it was? I'd pick my head up off the board, make a show of removing my Oakley's and squinting as I looked around studiously for effect, and proudly announce, "Yeah, Dude! It's daytime!" as if I had just gotten the million dollar question correct!
I guess in some ways I succeeded despite my efforts to the contrary and the fact that I only have one business suit in the closet and I'm not sure if it fits. I became a freediving instructor trainer because I can go deep and hold my breath for long periods of time. This means that I could be fun for the right woman in a hot tub! I managed to be in the right place at the right time to become a board member and technical director of a science diving company and president of a freediving organization. I've worked around the world as a scuba instructor and I've been able to see so much of the underwater world. I often ponder the choices I've made in life when I'm sitting on my surfboard, exploring a sunken shipwreck or a cave, or soaking up the sun in my lifeguard tower. I think of my financially successful friends in their cubicles and their offices and wonder if I shouldn't be doing something more grown up. But, then, that perfect wave will lift me to my feet, or a shark will cruise by in blue water, or I'll spend the day imparting wisdom on one of my young lifeguard friends as the old geezer that I now am at 36 and I'll realize that I'm doing what I love. Few can say that.
I love the freedom that I have to travel, surf and dive. But, often I do that as a single diver. My biggest pet peeves about traveling as a single are that: 1) boat captains keep giving me stern looks when the newbie diver the crews usually have me babysit surfaces exclaiming, "Wow! I've never been that deep before!" 2) I have to come up with ways of forging imaginary signatures in my log book so that I don't get banned from GUE for solo diving 3) Those breath hold skills are going to waste! 4) Sleeping alone in hotel rooms can really suck, unless the alternative is sharing a room with a dive buddy who snores and offgases under the covers.
Bottom line, I'm just trying to find the right dive buddy for life. If it doesn't happen to me, I'd nominate Grant (bigblueplanet) to take my place since he's much smarter and more cute than I am!

Trace

Edited by TraceMalin, 14 December 2004 - 10:16 AM.

[H2Oaddict]

My mom MADE me do it! And I thank her all the time! !

While I was in high school, we had 4 pre-teen/teenagers living in a blended household. Things were not mixing to well so my mother and step-father thought it would be a great bonding experience for all 6 of us to get certified and then go on a diving vacation. I've had saltwater in my veins ever since. (That would be about 26 years) I'm addicted, I can't help it and it's all Mom's fault.

[hnladue]

I need something to do for myself. Something to get me moving. I've always loved the shows about diving and the sea. I grew up on a lake and have loved boating. But leave it up to me to take up a sport that also the most embarassing!! I'm very heavy and letting others see me in a bathing suit is hard!! I wish they had dressing rooms on boats!

[CaptSaaz]

I also picked this up as something new after a bad relationship. Divorced and looking for a new direction, friends and /activities. I started traveling down to the caribbean taking a couple of the Windjammer cruises and just snorkeling around the shallow reefs. Then, the ship I was on had a scuba dive as one of the days activities. I talked to a couple of people that were going and they answered some of my questions and suggested I do the Discover Scuba to see if I liked it. Well, nuff said. Six months later I have my OW, working on my AOW and all ready have 2 diving trips planned for next winter/spring.

[randy54]

Hey All,

I thought this would be an interesting subject to share with all, tell us how did you get into Scuba Diving?

My story is this, while growing up I was so much into watching Seahunt and Jacques Cousteau on TV I always thought it would be great fun to one day try that.. Only one problem as I later was learning to swim I had a bad experience with almost drowning it then caused me for many years to fear the water. Yet in the past few years I've really worked a lot on conquering my fears and decided with some help of friends and a little nudging I would do it. Well since that day I've never looked back, but I will say I still have a little fear of water, but nothing like I once did

Dejah

Mine was for survival. Quite the opposite of you D, I was drawn to the water because I almost drown several times as a child. I learned to swim underwater before I could surface swim. I figured at the age of 6, if I got pulled under again, I could swim out of trouble. (1 month shy of 50, and I can still feel the water, see its geeness and the gold bubbles swirling around me. The river banks I knew were full of people, but I couldn't see anyone. I screamed, but couldn't hear it. Counting how many times I went under, and amazed that after the 3rd time I was still alive. I can still feel the squeeze I thought was death, and the blackness engulf me. The squeeze and the blackness turned out to be an off duty life guard, and I was the first person she ever saved. Truely if she had not grabbed when she did, I'd have been gone, all my engery was expended). That X-mas I asked for my first mask, so my older bro wanted one too. Parents were willing to give him his, but I had to kick and scream to get mine. It was blue with a yellow face plate. I was obsessed with Seahunt, and any show that delt with the water world. I joined Sea Explorers, got into sailing, power boats, and canoeing. In 1969 a gentelman joined as one of our leaders, and he dove, and had a friend who owned a dive shop. He got us a major discount, and after a short intense battle with my parents, I got to learn to dive at 17. The major agreement was I had to pay for all of the diving stuff, and stop coming close to drowning. So far, I've kept up my end of the bargin.

This was my first time around. After a few years, life lead me away from diving for 25 years. I got into hiking and the mountains for awhile, then started having serious problems with my feet. One day after coming to the conclusion I'd have to give up the mountains for the most part, I saw an ad about a dive class. I figured if I could no longer go up, I might just as well go down. I signed up for an open water class, and here I be, 5years later, and still haven drown.

[Walter]

I've always been fascinated by diving. Part of the attraction was my fear of water and inability to swim. In Junior High, I almost drowned in a pool. I eventually taught myself to swim poorly.

Once, some friends and I were visiting another friend we hadn't seen in about 5 years. In those 5 years, he'd met a beautiful lady who taught diving. She moved in with him, taught him to dive and brought him through the ranks to instructor. Ken encouraged us to take his class. Mike & I took him up on the offer. We ended up taking the class with just the two of us. We had Ken & Kendra as our instructors and an AI candidate, Dave, assisting. It was a great class, but getting through the swim test without drowning was a chore for me. Ken still uses me as an example in his class - If the worst student he ever had can move on to become an instructor trainer........

[Latitude Adjustment]

An old movie called "Frogmen" got me started, as a kid I always prefered the bottom of the pool, as a teen I wanted to be UDT till I saw them running down the beach carrying a telephone pole, at that time I was 125 pounds so i joined the USAF, they deposited me in Bermuda so after 15 minutes of do's and don'ts I made my first dive.
I once tried telling Jacques Cousteau that this obsession was all his fault but my French was worse than his English.

[nextariel]

I went snorkeling for the very first time while in Hawaii, off Maui and Lania. I was in the water when I heard a humpback whale and looked up to see it in the distance. I decided I wanted to be down there with the fishes.

[Dejah]

Hey great stories everybody... I love reading about how others got into diving
how about some more, Anybody?

[Funewgy]

Hey great stories everybody... I love reading about how others got into diving
how about some more,  Anybody?

Mine is not nearly so exciting or "near death" as some of these.

In July of 2002 and 2003 I went over to Bimini with a buddy on a fishing trip. For two straight years we drank a ton of Coronas, did some snorkeling, and didn't catch diddly-squat.

For the record, America Heritage defines "diddly-squat" as:

NOUN: Slang A small or worthless amount.
ETYMOLOGY: Alteration of diddly@!&% (influenced by doodly-squat) : diddly (probably from diddle2) + @!&%, added as an intensive (from @!&%).

I didn't even know diddly@!&% was actually a word, but I digress.

Anyway, as we are sitting around feeding the fish on our last day in 2003, my buddy says, "@#$@ this. Next year we are diving. Get certified." So I did.

And after diving in a 40 foot quarry in North Alabama this spring, the gin clear waters of Bimini in July were a sight for sore eyes. It was absolutely beautiful. I am now officially hooked. I've been back down to dive in south Florida already, diving the Spiegel Grove and The Duane. We currently are planning on a Crystal River dive trip in January. Did I say I was hooked?

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Next...

[peterbj7]

I just jumped in and there it was!

[WreckWench]

Hey Funewgy can you wait til Feb to do the Crystal River? Looks like we are going to do an SD trip there in Feb and dive the Aquarium while we are at it in Orlando. -ww

p.s. come join us in Cozumel if you want some AWESOME diving!

[Funewgy]

Hey Funewgy can you wait til Feb to do the Crystal River? Looks like we are going to do an SD trip there in Feb and dive the Aquarium while we are at it in Orlando. -ww

p.s. come join us in Cozumel if you want some AWESOME diving!

WW, might be a possibility. We were trying to time it on the worst weekend of the winter -- the weekend between the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl...no football. Good planning is paramount you know.

But I might be able to be pursuaded to tweak the dates a bit given the proper motivation.