How has SCUBA spilled into other parts of your life?

[Sounder]

Sure, we all use the techniques and equipment we've got for diving, but how has diving spilled into the "dry," non-diving parts of your life (besides draining your non-diving bank account)?

Examples I've got:

1. Using a tank to fill car tires. It's SOOOO much faster than a compressor and when my father goes 4 wheeling, he borrows a HP80, argon reg, and has a tire-filling-thingy that fits on the end of a LP hose. An HP80 is MORE than enough to get him through even a long trip of lowering the pressure in his tires and then filling them again while on the trail. I also now bring a small tank of air when I go on road trips so if I were to get a minor flat I could keep it full while driving to a filling station instead of having to change the tire in the middle of nowhere (though sometimes you just plain have to change the tire).

2. Using hand signals in stores or in other non-diving arenas. Mrs. Sounder and I use hand signals to communicate all the time. If we're seperated in a crowd of people, we can communicate across the room or simply check-in with the other one to ensure everything is "ok."

3. Working on the boat. Before SCUBA, I had to hold my breath while brushing all the "lake schmootz" off the bottom of the boat throughout the summer which grows on it as it sits in the water (usually have to scrub it twice a summer). Now I just put my gear on and go to town. It takes a FRACTION of the time it used to and I'm not nearly as tired when finished!


So, how has SCUBA entered other parts of your life? :hello2:

[jackieg]

A better take is how the "other parts of my life" cut into my dive time?

However, I do remember when my dive buddy and I are in separate vehicles it is amusing to throw the "OK" sign to one another at stop lights. Throws off the tourists.

[Grateful Diver]

Other parts ???

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Sounder]

Other parts ???

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

True. You probably should sit this one out... this is for people who have tini-tiny other areas of their life besides diving.

[Penopolypants]

Other parts ???

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Haha! Well, you did go snowshoeing that one time....

SCUBA will dictate my next vehicle purchase. I've been thinking for a while that I wanted to sell my car and get an Element, but the gas mileage issue (not bad, but not spectacular) has me eyeing other options and hanging on to my car for the time being.

My vacations are all planned around diving now...even on my next trip home to Georgia, I'm hoping to convince my mom to go down to Florida for a few days.

I don't use the thumbs up sign when I think something's great anymore, I use the ok sign - and get weird looks from my non-diving friends. My (diving) sister and I occassionaly use hand signals to communicate above water.

I don't spend as much money on clothes because I'm saving up for various bits of gear - considering that I have to dress up (kinda) for work, that's probably not a good thing.

I also don't go out as much on the weekends because I'm usually diving early the next day.

[Pez7378]

Does surfing NWDC at work count?

[Sounder]

Does surfing NWDC at work count?

Oh yeah.

[Dmitchell]

I learned to dive when I was 17 (1988).

My folks bought the dive shop in 1989, on January 2,1991 I was running the store and a young woman came in to inquire about learning to dive. I set her up for the class and then married her in late 1992!

In 1996 we had our first kid and in 1997, my wife took over managing the shop from my parents. It gave her the opportunity to work and not have to put our son in daycare.

In 2000, my wife and I assumed ownership of the store and I started teaching.

Now, we have 2 sons both raised in the dive shop. The now 11 y/o has been certified to dive for a year and is measuring himself everyday until he can fit on one of my rental drysuits!

Top That!

Dave

[Sounder]

Ok, somebody here has to have something in theiy life that isn't completely consumed by diving!! ](*,)

[Zen Diver]

Let's see... when my car, purchased in the Before Time, finally needed replacing my purchasing parameters involved around having a "roof" on the back (liftback instead of vertical opening door), sufficient space to carry dive gear (and multiple tanks), dive and water friendly (no leather interiors) etc. I'd look at the storage area first and then stand with my back to the bumper and see if it was the right height for me in gear, etc. Then, I'd take it for a test drive.

Travel only revolves around diving. When asked where I've been I rattle off my dive trips, and then have to add on in a PS fashion other places I've been (again, in the Before Time).

My friends outside of work are all divers. When I go back to work after days off my co-workers no longer ask IF I was diving, but rather WHERE I was diving (they'd learned).

Went from being a rather timid, Never-Going-to-be-a-Divemaster diver to DAN Instructor, EFR Instructor, and Scuba Instructor. I'm working in the ER fulltime and diving/teaching parttime, but I'd much rather be able to reverse that ratio now.

The "Guest" bathroom is now the Gear Room, thank you, that conveniently also has a toilet, sink and shower (no longer a bathtub tho, that is gear rinsing station).

I now have almost as many diving related books as medical books.

Camera decisions are made based on housing availability.

I have to be really hungry for some new gear to pick up some overtime at work; otherwise OT cuts into dive time.

I look at the camping sections of stores with an eye toward dive site application (like Wylerbear's Port-a-Lou station, coolers, which are really hood warmers and small gear rinse stations, folding camping chairs etc).

I reflexively use hand signals too, and as Jackie put it, makes for great communication in traffic

Cell phones are needed mostly so I can contact my dive buddy, and vice versa, in case of traffic issues etc

Social events revolve around diving and dive gatherings (haven't been to the theater in years).

When my eyeglass Rx changed, I got my two dive masks done before my glasses...

I'm sure there's more but I have to go pick up my new glasses so I can read the directions to a party of dive staff I'm attending tonight...

-Valerie

[Sounder]

Bravo Valerie!!

...and I don't think I'll ever get over seeing Wylerbear's Port-a-lou for the first time!

[Aquanautchuck]

Good question Doug. I have sold my racing dirt bike, my quad, and most of my firearms, haven't snow skied for 2 years. When I have free time and it is nice I am getting wet. I changed my workout to improve my diving. Let me tell you how much more fun it is to dive with all the heavy gear if you add some weight training in your regular workout.

No vacation is ever considered unless I can dive. EVEN MY HONEYMOON!!!!!!!!!!!! I got 4 days of morning diving in on it. And it better have sun, sand, and warm water/weather.

It is real hard to have a mixed party anymore. Us divers just seem to gravitate to each other and tune out everyone else. To be honest, is there any other subjects other than diving that is important?????

Half of my books on my book shelf is on diving related subjects. My Zodiac and dive gear comes first over everything else. Well maybe my wife might be ahead of them a little.

[Sounder]

Good question Doug. I have sold my racing dirt bike, my quad, and most of my firearms, haven't snow skied for 2 years. When I have free time and it is nice I am getting wet. I changed my workout to improve my diving. Let me tell you how much more fun it is to dive with all the heavy gear if you add some weight training in your regular workout.

No vacation is ever considered unless I can dive. EVEN MY HONEYMOON!!!!!!!!!!!! I got 4 days of morning diving in on it. And it better have sun, sand, and warm water/weather.

It is real hard to have a mixed party anymore. Us divers just seem to gravitate to each other and tune out everyone else. To be honest, is there any other subjects other than diving that is important?????

Half of my books on my book shelf is on diving related subjects. My Zodiac and dive gear comes first over everything else. Well maybe my wife might be ahead of them a little.

...and everyone calls your wife "Di." Those are the first two letters in "Dive" and "Diving," - this isn't by accident.

[submarine]

I was first certified to dive in 91. I was on a mission, for the first several years, to dive as much a humanly possible. I thought for sure that I would work in or on the water. Well, things change, dive buddy's time get divided, careers, and resposibilities creep in. I have continued to dive through the years but, not with the same passion. Until now that is... about two or so years ago my wife came to me and said that she felt great about every aspect of her life except her health. She was determined to exercise, eat right, and to loose weight. We went to work together and made a change in our lives. Every goal deserves a reward, right? Hers was to get certified to dive when she got everything else under control. She might not want me to share this but, after making our lifestyle change we have lost over 100 lbs. combined. We exercise together, we eat right together, and now we DIVE TOGETHER. I am closer to my wife now than I have ever been and I owe it to diving.

Is that what you were looking for Sounder? Good question!

[lurch]

It's made me hate those prerequisite and distribution classes at the Uni a little more. Every hour I sit in front of a prof who's material I'll use a grand total of 4 minutes a year is an hour I could be wet. Or dry in my case. This is what wikipedia was created for! ](*,)

[enchantmentdivi]

... and then stand with my back to the bumper and see if it was the right height for me in gear, etc.

HA HA HA!!! The guy at the Chevy dealership thought my husband and I were nuts when we kept butting up to the back end of the Tahoes, Suburbans, Avalanches, etc to see if they were the right height for us in gear. The Tahoe won.

[Pez7378]

Let's face it, SCUBA is an addiction. The only thing that keeps us from hiding gear in our sock drawers, and asking for new ADM subscriptions in nondescript brown wrappers is the fact that it's not illegal. Scuba has taken over our lives, it's a sickness. It's funny that nobody considers an alcoholic "fanatical" about drinking. We think of them as poor souls suffering from an illness. They need treatment. But Scuba divers are simply "fanatical" about diving. Nobody is trying to send me to a 12 step program.......Yet. Frankly as far as I'm concerned it's the same thing.................................perhaps if I couldnt dive, you'd see me on the corner trying to score a hit of Nitrogen from the gas man.


Hi my name is Chris and I'm addicted to Diving. :hello2:

[Sounder]

Let's face it, SCUBA is an addiction. The only thing that keeps us from hiding gear in our sock drawers, and asking for new ADM subscriptions in nondescript brown wrappers is the fact that it's not illegal. Scuba has taken over our lives, it's a sickness. It's funny that nobody considers an alcoholic "fanatical" about drinking. We think of them as poor souls suffering from an illness. They need treatment. But Scuba divers are simply "fanatical" about diving. Nobody is trying to send me to a 12 step program.......Yet. Frankly as far as I'm concerned it's the same thing.................................perhaps if I couldnt dive, you'd see me on the corner trying to score a hit of Nitrogen from the gas man.


Hi my name is Chris and I'm addicted to Diving. :hello2:

Whatever. I don't have a problem. I can quit anytime I want - I just don't want to.

[dwashbur]

My wife is a travel nurse and I'm basically a tag-along bunkie. We only take travel assignments on the coast, near diving spots. The primary factor in taking a job is "how close is it to good diving?" I do like biking and walking, but every time I pass any body of water, no matter how big or small, my first thought is "what's under there?"

We use hand signals all the time. My favorite trick is, whenever somebody gives me a "thumbs-up" I ask "You want to go up? To where?????" That's usually a good spark for me to launch into a pedantic treatise on scuba signals while the listener desperately seeks an escape route.

Oh, and as far as vehicles that can carry our scuba gear and still give decent gas mileage, I have two words: mini van. We have a Ford Windstar and a Plymouth Voyager (both older vehicles, I don't like new ones) and they both hold our gear and are a comfortable height for gearing up/down. That's the chief criterion for choosing a vehicle.

Okay, we're hopelessly addicted. And WE DON't CARE!!!!! :smt038

[Pez7378]

Whatever. I don't have a problem. I can quit anytime I want - I just don't want to.

Someone's diving in de NILE! Ba da ba bum!

[spatman]

good thread, sounder.

i think the main ways scuba diving has spilled over into the rest of my life is by providing me an outlet, release and sometimes distraction from everyday nonsense. i'm always excited to go diving, alway at peace when i do, and very happy afterwards. it provides plenty of food for thought during surface intervals, both in my reflection on past dives and planning for future dives, as well as the incredible amount of information available for a lifetime of learning. it also has given me access to a whole new community of people who share my passion (or at the very least interest) in diving.

here's to good times.
:occasion5:

[LCF]

Well, I was thinking about that as I hung one of my HID lights in the downstairs bathroom to take a shower the other morning when the power was out.

The reason the shower downstairs has a hand-held spray is to wash gear, not to wash guests.

All proposed travel is vetted for diving possibilities. If there are none, it is unlikely the trip will get my approval. You know it's sad when a high-end luxury cruise to Tahiti had to show adequate diving possibilities before I was interested.

And, well, we bought a boat.

[scottsax]

I don't use the thumbs up sign when I think something's great anymore, I use the ok sign - and get weird looks from my non-diving friends.

LOL!! I don't use thumbs-up anymore, either.... Sometimes I'll touch the top of my head with my fingertips when the waiter asks how things are and my mouth is full of food. They don't get it, but I laugh....

I don't drink as much (HA!), will never touch drugs again (true, but a little sad-I was a good hippie for many years), have started exercising, and am weaning myself off smoking all because I want more bottom time, or I have to get up early for diving, or I'm diving in a few days and need to make sure I'm healthy. Matter of fact, diving helped me stay clean in the early months of withdrawal-the knowledge that I probably would die if I was high under water was a great motivator to "just say no"....

I got others in one of my bands interested in diving, and reawakened the passion in the bandleader, a former NAUI instructor who hadn't dove in years. We're going to Bonaire in 6 weeks! All of my vacation plans revolve around diving, all of my reading material is dive-related, and I'm seriously re-evaluating my new relationship because she doesn't dive and has no interest....

Diving has profoundly impacted my life-making me a healthier, stronger, more responsible and mature person.

Scott

[Aquanautchuck]

[quote and I'm seriously re-evaluating my new relationship because she doesn't dive and has no interest....

Scott[/quote]

Don't be so fast Scott. I dated divers and when you break up you lose your dive buddy. A real bummer. I just married a non-diver. She said she would learn to dive when I make a quilt. And she said no cheating with duct tape. ](*,) . But she is a great boat tender, helps around camp, cleaning the boat and gear and does not complain when she has to sit on the boat in the sun for an hour waiting for me to surface. And she loves to go to warm water vacations and not complain about my diving. Though she did say she would just go shopping while I am diving........Hmmmmmmmmm I wonder how many SU's that will cost me.

[Tangfish]

I feel extremely parched on the surface now.