A question ( or two ) for all divers

General banter about diving and why we love it.
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Don-B
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A question ( or two ) for all divers

Post by Don-B »

I was asked this question the other day.
What made me want to start scuba diving?
So I will ask the same question.
What made you want to scuba dive?
Also I will add the question for those long term divers. What makes you still want to dive?

Question 1
There were a couple of reasons I wanted to scuba dive.
First was watching Jacques Cousteau on TV as a kid.
Exploring under water looked really cool. As I reached my teens other interests took over and dream's of diving faded.
When I reached my early 20's it was spearfishing that got me into the water.
Spearfishing wasn't the only one but it was the biggest( at the time at least).

So question 2 what kept me diving.
I soon found out there was a lot more than spearing fish.
What intrigued me about diving as a child was the biggest draw, exploration.
Seeing things you never seen before, exploring the unknown.
Every year I see new and interesting creatures.
I have also been trying to dive more new places. I can't wait to get back to the north Washington coast.
There is so much out there, a lot probably never seen by human eyes before.
Taking pictures and vids is also a lot of fun. Hopefully in a few years I can be good as some of you.
Relaxation, being in another world all my problems seem to go away.

And the biggest reason I keep diving?
All the great dive buddies that I have met.
Divers are the best people out there. I really like the social time spent before, between and after dives.
Thanks Northwest Dive Club for being here so I could find the best group out there.

So lets here your story's now.
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Desert Diver
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Re: A question ( or two ) for all divers

Post by Desert Diver »

Wow! Just what was it and what is it? What was it that made me try to extend my first snorkel so I could go deeper? I remember a man at the beach telling me that he didn't think it would work that way but I had to try. Then practicing free diving so I could stay under longer. I think what really got me interested was being able to see things I'd never seen. But then an experience with a Johnson-Evinrude hookah at about 14 really hooked me. Not much to see in the lake but what a feeling, weightless and flying! So the desire to see new things and then that wonderful 3D flying experience.

Why keep diving? Because I still love that flying feeling. Flying over the edge of the wall in Coz and looking down into the darkness below is worth anything it costs. And I see new things every saltwater dive. And things I've seen before I need to look at more closely because Jan or someone else on this forum has explained how they make a living down there and I want to watch what I could never have guessed could be. When someone, Lynn I think, posted video of a sea cucumber eating I couldn't wait to see that for myself. And then when I watched the vertical ones poking their little arms into their mouths and realized they were sea cucumbers too I could hardly wait to tell someone.

For me there is one more thing. I like machinery. I like guns, engines, machine tools, tow trucks, scuba compressors, all things electrical, and figuring out how they work and how to get the most out of them. This scuba hobby can really fill that need.
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dwashbur
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Re: A question ( or two ) for all divers

Post by dwashbur »

I had never really thought about scuba diving, but I learned it's something my wife had always wanted to do. One year while we were living in Arizona, we won a weekend trip to Catalina. While we were there we decided to do some snorkeling in the kelp beds near where we were staying. As we went along, we kept looking further down and asking "wonder what's down there?" When we finished snorkeling, we made a pact with ourselves: someday we'll learn how to dive, go back there and find out.

A couple of years later we were living in Boise and discovered the town had two dive shops. We looked into learning to dive, liked what we saw, and pretty much never looked back. And it appears we're going to get to realize our Catalina promise later this year.

For what it's worth...
Dave

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LCF
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Re: A question ( or two ) for all divers

Post by LCF »

My first exposure to scuba was when I was about 7 or 8. A neighbor's brother was in the Navy, and he was a diver and a photographer. He'd come home on leave and show us amazing pictures. I thought it looked cool. Horses were way cooler, though . . .

Over the years, I did a bit of snorkeling and always thought it was fun. I'm a lousy free diver because I float like a bloody cork, so being UNDER the water was never on my radar.

When I got married, my husband, a former diver, would occasionally say to me (usually as we drove past Lighthouse, which was a route we often needed to take), "You really ought to learn to dive.". I always said, "Yeah, someday."

And then, nine years ago, I drank too much wine at a Gonzaga auction and placed a bid on a Golf & Wine trip to Australia (never mind that Peter doesn't drink wine, and neither of us golfs). To my surprise and horror, I won it. On the way home, my long-suffering husband said, "Well, if we are going to go to Australia, now you HAVE to learn to dive.". I was sufficiently sheepish that I would have agreed to about anything at that point, so I said yes -- but told him I'd do the classroom and pool work in Seattle, but he would have to take me to Maui, where his father lived, to do the diving. "I ain't NEVER setting foot in Puget Sound -- it's too danged COLD!"

Well, I liked my instructors and my classmates, and got MauMaued into diving in the Sound, where, clad in a leaking dry suit, I promptly got hypothermic and almost landed in the hospital. The rest is history -- I've been diving, actively, in the Sound and elsewhere, for the last nine years.

What keeps me at it? A whole bunch of things. I love being weightless and rising and falling with my breath. Pinpoint control in the water has been very difficult for me to learn, and I love a challenge. I'm still working at it, every dive; I will never be as good as I want to be. And now I get to model those skills for students, and try to inspire them, as well.

I love the marine life. I'm fascinating by how much we don't know about the seas. I love watching behavior -- a cleaning station can keep me mesmerized for as long as my buddy will tolerate. I love both the diversity and the commonalities, and how animals are adapted to the environments they live in. Watching a giant manta gracefully flap through the water gives me Goosebumps (sorry for the capital; autocorrect on this computer simply will NOT allow me to remove it). I have been sucked into another challenge, that of trying to capture what I see with a camera, and just like buoyancy control, I can't foresee ever being as good at that as I would like to be.

I love the variety of experiences you can have diving. From color-drenched walls in British Columbia to granite pinnacles in Monterey, or kelp forests in Southern California, to the blue water and huge structures of the Socorro, or the colorful, lush reefs of the Philippines, or the decorated passageways of the Mexican caves -- it's all different, and it's all amazing. And diving has given me an excuse to travel to some really delightful places. Sunset on the Red Sea, or the bay in front of God's Pocket, or the iconic mountains of the South Pacific, are all amazing memories.

And, of course, the people . . . diving has brought me wonderful friends, and the combination of diving and the internet has spread them literally all over the globe. I have friends I haven't met yet in places like Thailand, Holland and South Africa. More reasons to travel!

It's an amazing activity, and I can't imagine ever stopping doing it, as long as my body will still let me move heavy gear around.
"Sometimes, when your world is going sideways, the second best thing to everything working out right, is knowing you are loved..." ljjames
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Jeff Pack
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Re: A question ( or two ) for all divers

Post by Jeff Pack »

I'm a water baby, always have been. I dont care if there's nothing to look at but sandy bottom, put me in the water and I'm happy swiming about. Under or on top of the water.

Was weird being out of the water for 35 years, I never knew how badly I missed it. But it all came back inside of a week in Tahiti, that convinced me to get certified again. I even know the exact moment I made the decision, while at this one 80ft deep hole in the reef snorkeling, wishing I could get down there and explore.

Today, instead of preparing to dive 80ft, I'm preparing to dive 300ft, so I can see things few divers get to see, nor have been to.

I dive because its fun, a challenge, and I just love being in the water.
=============================================

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- I would imagine that there would be a large amount of involuntary gagging
- I don't know about you but I'm not into swallowing it

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RenaB
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Re: A question ( or two ) for all divers

Post by RenaB »

I spent my weekends at the beach. Every one of them, with my grandmother. My father also dove in Carpenteria (now a state beach, but wasn't then). I have always loved the ocean. I enjoy sleeping by it still. Also, when I was stressed I would go to the pier and sit and just watch for hours. Tide pools are my favorite. The weird part is that I don't like surface swimming (the crawl). I can do it for miles, just don't enjoy it. I like holding my breath and swimming under the water. Now, I can do that and breath, AWESOME! And I get to see similar things as tide pools but 100 fold. Still don't like sharks. :) While taking my open water there was a day trip requirement for snorkel. Full wet suit, no gear. Just mask, fins, snorkel. I could have spent all week in the water. I swam with seal lions. It was the most amazing thing ever. I just really love it, and miss the water. I live too far away from it for my liking, but husband likes the mountains. So....I drive. :)
Last edited by RenaB on Wed Apr 16, 2014 12:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
Rena

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Gdog
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Re: A question ( or two ) for all divers

Post by Gdog »

I grew up in Northern Idaho, a mountain redneck. Eventually I found work with the company I work for now 30 years later. One of the perks is this company sends it management to Hawaii once every 5 years. On my first trip, my wife hen-pecked me into trying snorkeling. Me, a mountain hillbilly, snorkeling off the coast of Maui....go figure. I was immediately hooked. I spent every spare minute of that week snorkeling, searching for better places. Honalua Bay eventually figured into that equation. ON that snorkel excursion, way out into the bay, I saw a turtle way below. I tried to swim down but it was too deep. As I watched it from the surface, 2 divers went by way below me, and stopped to watch the turtle. That was the moment I told myself, "IM DOING THAT"! It took about 5 more years, a divorce, a remarriage, and the impending return to Hawaii trip to get me off my butt and into a dive shop. Open water certs at Mikes Beach on the Canal, and a couple weeks later I was diving in Hawaii. Hooked for life.
ratfishlvr
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Re: A question ( or two ) for all divers

Post by ratfishlvr »

Like many others, Cousteau got me interested as a kid. I started snorkeling in the bathtub, staring at the drain with one of those old school blue oval masks when I was about 7. I did that until the water got too cold and I was shriveled up and my mom made me get out. I got certified when I lived in New Mexico and the nearest dive shop was 4 hours away, and I had to wait for the fire dept chief to fill my tanks, then drive another 4 hours to a decent dive spot.

I dove Titlow Beach in 2004 as my first Puget Sound dive and I saw a GPO out in the open. I was hooked! We moved here and I've been getting in the water every chance I get. Even if I'm doing a shallow eel grass research volunteer dive or a cool wall I love every minute, 10 feet down or 100 feet I like it all.

I recently started photo and video, above and below the water. I always get more ideas and continue to learn. As soon as I make a video I have ideas for the next one. That's part of what keeps me coming back for more.

Let's go divin"!!!
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60south
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Re: A question ( or two ) for all divers

Post by 60south »

Q: What made you want to scuba dive?

It seemed to be one of those wonderful, adventurous things that interesting people and explorers do, and it looked like it might be fun. I imagined myself as an adventurous explorer and wanted to try it.


Q: What makes you still want to dive?

More than I ever imagined, I found it's a wonderful, adventurous thing that is a lot of fun, and I get to share it with other explorers!
:)
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