How many of you love diving with your spouse?

[LeadTurn_SD]

My wife is my favorite dive buddy. As a bonus, she is great at spotting critters.

She used to hold my hand sometimes. Turned out she got the shakes when deep. After she stopped drinking coffee before diving, the shakes stopped. I kinda miss the hand-holding.

She’s better with her air than I.

Ditto.

For a large male, I do fairly well on air consumption (I'm just under 6'5", about 260 lbs). But, my gosh, I think she has gills. I can, on a good day, squeeze about an hour out of an AL80 on a typical mutli-level reef dive.... but she still has 1,200 lbs left.

I sometimes sling an AL30 as a poor man's doubles just so she can "finish" her dive

Best wishes.

 

[scottwilson1]

I'm getting my girlfriend certified in March ( vacation ) , hope she loves it, she's very athletic and enjoys swimming so I think we have a good chance she'll take to it.

Wish us luck

 

[Aqua-Andy]

I am very jealous reading this thread. My wife and I started dating in high school and have been married for 18 years. She is my best friend and we do everything together as a family with our three kids, we hike, bike, ski as well as many other activities, except diving. My wife refuses to dive, she still thinks there are big monsters that will get her. I keep trying to convince her that she is too old and the meat would be way to tough so no monster would want to eat her anyway. She also thinks I am just nuts to go into that water. My two oldest kids have no interest in diving and my youngest is only eight so there is still hope there. I have loved the water my whole life and absolutely love diving but also feel bad when I am away from the family doing what I love.

 

[Stoo]

I am very fortunate that my wife likes to dive with me. I enjoy seeing her being amazed at the under water world, and it is great to share it with some one you love.

Me too, mostly. Mine is a warm-water diver, but has recently stepped up her game up here. (Which has really put a dent in my solo-diving!). She isn't terribly experienced with drysuits, and isn't big enough to manage doubles, so "we" mostly do shallower recreational dives together.

There are a few little things that kind of bug me sometimes though. For example:

She loves to hold my hand most of the time, although now its getting a little bit better.

Get a camera, and make her your model. It's great way yo keep her within sight, but without getting all embarrassingly lovey on you.

When we kick out to the kelp beds I have to tow her when she gets tired.

We don't dive in kelp, and boat dive 99.9% of the time, so we are pretty fortunate in that we rarely have any sort of long swim.

Her mask fogs up a lot.

Same here.. and she isn't great at clearing it... contacts... We met when she took a course from me, and never really mastered that skill.

She blows through her air in half the time I do.

Now in my case, it's the opposite. I get great mileage, but she gets AMAZING mileage (She weighs 100#). I think of her as my portable pony bottle. When we are down south, it kinda freaks out the DMs when we, umm, "extend" our dive by me sharing her air when mine is really low. I take a couple of breaths, swim away and take a couple of pics, come back for more air, and so on. When it's time to come up (after 75 minutes or so) i go back to my own supply to ascend and do whatever deco we need. It keeps our skills sharp too!

Things I love

She cracks me up under water.

Same here... I have done a lot more diving than her, and it's a blast watching her checking things out... bit lke a little kid. She's also excellent at finding little critters for macro shots!

laying on our backs watching our bubbles and the sea life go by.

Yup

Taking selfies of us together

Yup

talking about how cool the dive we just had!

Yup

I know I'm forgetting some things. But tell me what you love or what drives you crazy when you dive with your spouse.

Frank G
Z GEAR - Z Gear

Oh ya, she likes to train the wildlife to attack me, just for giggles and snorts...

 

[Dan G]

My wife is my main dive buddy and our relationship is so much stronger because to our experiences diving together. We de-brief after almost every dive and we have created some of our own hand signals that came about after being unable to communicate something.

There are certain activities that can be challenging for couples to do together, but if done well are excellent for a relationship. Diving has been one of those activities for us.

 

[Z Gear]

Oh ya, she likes to train the wildlife to attack me, just for giggles and snorts...

Thanks for your response to my post.

Sounds like were both pretty lucky guys. I will probably get her a steel 100 in the near future so we can equal out our air usage.

---------- Post added January 30th, 2015 at 08:35 PM ----------

My wife is my main dive buddy and our relationship is so much stronger because to our experiences diving together. We de-brief after almost every dive and we have created some of our own hand signals that came about after being unable to communicate something.

There are certain activities that can be challenging for couples to do together, but if done well are excellent for a relationship. Diving has been one of those activities for us.

I feel the same way. I do other activities such as surfing and hiking, but diving is different. We communicate quite well underwater and we are always asking if we are OK. We do bond more I feel when we dive together and I am glad others feel the same. I guess I can't help myself but brag on how great that is and how those of us who have their spouse dive with them have something special.

I cherish the experience of diving with my wife.

---------- Post added January 30th, 2015 at 08:44 PM ----------

 

[sphyrnidus]

I was always a warm water diver, having been raised on Curacao. My first father in law was my instructor and buddy for 17 years. Then I moved to the Netherlands and decided not to dive in these cold, murky waters and only did trips. After my divorce I met this nice lady and we talked of our hobbies and we were both riding BMW's and she happened to be a DM. So she convinced me I should dive here and taught me the drysuit diving and we're diving together here for 6 years, over 500 dives now. I started to videograph in 2009 and she is my spotter and navigator. Likewise she is my travel organiser and keeps track of key's and papers. She wanted to photograph, so I gave her a camera, which she flooded and I found her another one, same result. So now she is happy just spotting and leading the dives, she loves night diving too. Last november we were on a boat and she ripper a seal so she couldn't dive and I ended up with an instabuddy. I lost him within 20 minutes (mind you viz is mostly not more than 15 ft over here) I don't mind being alone, but I almost never get seperated from my SO, under water that is. Anyway, she is my buddy, navigator and spotter, what else would I want?

 

[Z Gear]

I was always a warm water diver, having been raised on Curacao. My first father in law was my instructor and buddy for 17 years. Then I moved to the Netherlands and decided not to dive in these cold, murky waters and only did trips. After my divorce I met this nice lady and we talked of our hobbies and we were both riding BMW's and she happened to be a DM. So she convinced me I should dive here and taught me the drysuit diving and we're diving together here for 6 years, over 500 dives now. I started to videograph in 2009 and she is my spotter and navigator. Likewise she is my travel organiser and keeps track of key's and papers. She wanted to photograph, so I gave her a camera, which she flooded and I found her another one, same result. So now she is happy just spotting and leading the dives, she loves night diving too. Last november we were on a boat and she ripper a seal so she couldn't dive and I ended up with an instabuddy. I lost him within 20 minutes (mind you viz is mostly not more than 15 ft over here) I don't mind being alone, but I almost never get seperated from my SO, under water that is. Anyway, she is my buddy, navigator and spotter, what else would I want?

Sorry, can't ask for more. Wow plus she night dives too, that's great!

 

[radtype]

My wife is also my dive buddy. She is a DM and we help out with classes together (instructors like it - free labor X2). Best part is dancing during safety stop. When she is taking photos, I let her do her thing and watch over her.

 

[Thook]

Nough said!