66 replies to this topic

[jholley309]

Okay, so we all know that scuba diving thoroughly rocks, and there's a diving specialty for everyone. Technical, recreational, "techreational", DIR, DIW (the opposite of DIR ), professional, just-for-the-heck-of-it: what winds your crank about diving?

What possessed us to strap on a tank of compressed air (filled to 3000 PSI, no less), stick a funny-looking doohicky in our faces, plunge beneath the surface, and breathe through a little rubber hose the first time? What is the compulsion that we feel to keep returning to an environment that, without life support, could kill us? Why do we spend countless hours reading, watching, and studying something that quite frankly is an unnatural act that no sane person would ever consider doing once they understood all the risks? What makes us so different from those who are content to stay on the surface? I don't know about you, but here's what gets me going about diving...

It's the thrill of discovery. It's the same reason I got into astronomy, and similar to why I enjoy strapping a week's worth of food, shelter, clothing, and cooking equipment to my back and striking out through the woods far from any sign of human civilization. The underwater world, to me, is like the surface of an alien and unexplored planet; there is always something new and unusual to see. It's a chance for me to check out of my normal environment and escape into the unknown, far outside every experience that I've ever had over the course of 30-plus years of living. It's a chance for me to see things and feel sensations that I've only ever heard about, never seen or felt for myself before. Whether I'm trying to find an elusive moray that'll pose for that perfect snapshot, trying to find a good spot to string a weighted, measured line at the bottom of a murky lake so I can count kick cycles and figure out how far I travel underwater, or just hanging in midwater, lazily looking around at the fish and marvelling at the feeling of complete freedom of movement and near weightlessness, I truly would rather be diving than doing nearly anything else. I am more relaxed, more focused, and more aware of life when I'm underwater than I am anywhere else. When I surface, low on air and energy, tired, and thirsty, I always seem to want to linger just a little more, delaying that sad but inevitable moment when I must leave the water and resume my normal, land-bound existence. The place where I'm left with nothing but my memories of that other world, perhaps a few snapshots, reliving the experience as I try to explain to my non-diving friends what it's like to hover motionless as a shy little fish curiously swims up to my mask, eyeing me with the same curiousity that I feel while I'm eyeing him, and realizing that they will just never know how special that sort of moment in time can be.

That's why I dive. That's why I measure time in days and hours before my next opportunity to get in the water. And that's why I will continue to dive, any time, any place, for as long as I am physically able to.

So, why do you do it?

Cheers!

Jim

[Terri]

To see the pretty fishies!!!

[tdtexas]

Because it is there!

[annasea]

What an absolutely wonderful post, Jim!

Being currently stuck in diver-to-be purgatory, I can't supply my own answers yet, but I definitely understand the appeal of this one...

...what it's like to hover motionless as a shy little fish curiously swims up to my mask, eyeing me with the same curiousity that I feel while I'm eyeing him...

Thx for sharing!

[BeachBunny]

I don't think it is possible to put my feelings any more eloquently than you have managed to Jim. You basically covered what I feel, but am not able to truly express. I feel the water is a part of me, and what better way for me to be a part of it than to dive?
The only area I would disagree with you would be when I surface, I am not tired, but exhilarated, low on air and thirsty definitely. If the DMs would let me I would only surface long enough to change my tank, get a little drink, and then jump back in. Diving is truly being free, happy, content. I don't see how any other sport could bring one the same sense of satisfaction as becoming one with the sea.

Edited by BeachBunny, 21 October 2005 - 01:17 AM.

[AliKat]

I had just gotten orders to Guam. I remember looking at a map and seeing this little tiny dot in the middle of all this blue. I decided I'd better get a hobby that included doing something in the water!

[scubafanatic]

..to begin, I'd have to agree with Platy...........the seeds were planted by Sea Hunt and that famous french guy.....but lay dormant for many years as I grew up in a very non-diver environment......finally got certified 4 years ago when I had free time , being between-jobs, as they say...........and have never looked back.

....the motivation to dive is multi-faceted.... I enjoy the gear-component, but instead of hot-rodding a '69 Camero, I enjoy the quest for the ultimate 'configuration'...experimenting with different things on a never-ending quest for perfection...........I enjoy the mental challenge of strategizing all the components of a dive trip/ and each dive......monitoring all the variables (air-consumption / deco status /currents / depths / temps / navigation)...almost like 3-D chess, along with the background awareness of the realization I'm betting my life on winning every 'game'....I feel more alive knowing there's a non-zero risk to scuba...that danger lurks in the background........I enjoy the 'competition', not with other divers but with myself.......the quest to improve air-comsumption, bouyancy skills, overall efficiency to become a better diver.....and, of course, the opportunity to visit an alien, hostile, yet stunningly magnificant, magical world and admire nature in all it's glory......... ultimately, however, the biggest 'draws' for me are two-fold.............the ability to breathe underwater, a magic power that always brings immense joy to me.........and seeing ladies in scuba gear!

Karl

[casematic]

I've always been fascinated by fish and coral.... probably should have been a marine biologist or ichtheologist....

I also find that underwater is one of the places I am truly relaxed.... I don't know if it is being enveloped by an electric blue that does it .... or getting a break from the woes of the world ... When I'm underwater, the troubles of the surface world do not enter into my thoughts.... Its just me and the fish.

I think that it is watching the fish and corals that really does it for me ... and the interactions ... and behaviours .... and the incredible diversity. The relationships that fish have with each other and other species (cleaning stations always amaze me when I am lucky enough to happen upon one).

When I am diving on a wreck, I find myself checking out the nooks and crannies to see what corals and fish have set up housekeeping, more than the condition of the wreck or what caused it (although the aire of mystery is appealing in itself) . The ship is being taken back by the sea... little by little.

[Twinklez]

I am more relaxed, more focused, and more aware of life when I'm underwater than I am anywhere else.

If I were to pick one thing...this one line from your post pretty well says it for me Jim. Thank you for saying it so right!

:-)

Twinklez

[Mermaid Lady]

Hi Jim!

What a wonderful post. I couldn't have said it better. Diving is great, very relaxing and so much more. It really is exploring a whole new world.

Nice page BTW I like the astronomy stuff. Have you ever seen a total solar eclipse? (solar occultation to be precise, as it is the earth that is eclipsed by the moon, not the sun. But I digress....) I saw the one in 1991 from Mazatlan. If you ever get the chance to go see one, take it. You won't be disappointed!

Edited by tuttt, 23 October 2005 - 07:56 PM.

[Mermaid Lady]

It all started with Sea Hunt----

Hey Plat!! I remember Sea Hunt too.

It was great diving with you. Hope to dive with you again soon!

[PerroneFord]

Awesome post Jim. Sometimes I am so envious of divers who are fascinated my marine life like corals and such. I have a friend who I am trying to dive with. He is a cave diver and helping me along my path to cave diving. He tells me frequently that I am "too wrapped up in the technical side of it" and that I should just go out and see cool stuff and enjoy it.

People wonder about cave divers. Being that there is little flora or fauna. It's the rock formations and sheer splendor that draws the cave diver. They are wired a bit differently. Much the same with the wreck diver. While he or she is combing the boat looking for artifacts or clues to the sinking, or poking around inside imagining being on the boat while it was on the surface, others are looking at the fish habitats.

Ultimately I think we all find our reasons to tempt fate and head under the water. I crave the solitude. Much like when I would camp, or do off-road driving. I'd just enjoy the peace of being alone for a while. Even if I am alone in a crowd.

There is just so much down there for everyone to enjoy.

[Capn Jack]

#1 - My YMCA lifeguard instructor was a diver - asked me if I wanted to learn - duh ? - HS kid, impress the girls, do something the other kids couldn't etc. Kansas swamps!! But thrilled at the control underwater, and the challenge of buoyancy. Reckless days. Tables? Float collar?

#2 - USN - A cheap sport that got me off the boat, and away from the crowds of other guys. An always available activity since there is usually water every where a ship goes. More thrills, more challenges on keeping things under control in an uncontrolled environment.

#3 - Fast forward a couple of years - Uber Dad - trying to get youngest son interested in expensive sports. Got "interested" myself. Now my oldest daughter got the bug too.

I'm suspecting narc addiction, but who, like cares, man? Now spend a lot of my time either diving, getting ready to dive, or planning a dive. Most diving lately has been helping new divers get started during one of PADI's longest DM intern programs on record.

BUT, I finished, I am going to the Keys and warm water, soon- just need to get a little hurricane out of the way.

[drbill]

What kind of a question is this, Jim? Utter nonsense. You HAVE to dive... why it is like breathing, eating, or making love (sometimes even better than that). I thought it was an involuntary response to environmental stimuli, not something we have any control over? Unnatural act????

Interesting that you would bring up astronomy. Decades ago when I created a science curriculum, I established it based on a series of "perspectives." These perspectives were partially based on my favorite poet, Robinson Jeffers, who emphasized a philosophy called "Inhumanism." Essentially this meant escaping from the social and strictly human perspective on the world ("humanity is the crust to break through") and looking at it from the historical, the geologic, the astronomical, the evolutionary, etc. My marine biologist icon Edward F. "Doc" Ricketts (of Cannery Row fame) was also quite taken by this philosophy which he called "breaking through" after Jeffers' poem.

The first year my students took the Geologic and the Astronomical Perspective (which included an understanding of how all carbon- and higher element-based life comes from the nucleosynthesis of elements heavier than He in the centers of stars). The next year students took environmental physics and chemistry and field ecology. After that, evolution, marine ecology, animal behavior, etc.

Why do I dive? Because it takes me away from the strictly human level of interaction (social, political, etc.) into a world where non-human interactions dominate. Perhaps that is in part why I dive solo most of the time (although I had a great time diving with two friends, Debbie and Debra, on Sat. and they almost missed the very last boat to the mainland because we were having so much fun talking about diving over a 4-hour dinner).

Diving puts me in a Zen-like state where my awareness is on a completely different plane or perspective. It's better than drugs (well, LSD was pretty incredible, but I knew that I liked it far too much and that was dangerous so I quit taking it decades ago).

Of course the very first time I donned SCUBA gear (what little there was in 1961-62) it was out of curiosity about "The Silent World."