briancb2004
New
Hi Miranda, welcome to the wonderful world of diving! First off I have been diving since I was about seventeen (which was about eighteen years ago) and can still remember the aniexty of my first OW dive. I was certified in Maine on the east coast, water temp and visbility, was cold and not great. Since then I haven't got to do too many blue water tropical dives, but the ones I have done were amazing! I now live in Oklahoma and have been on my city's fire dive team for almost twelve years. I see some people have told you maybe you shouldn't dive (diving is great but sometimes it's not for everybody). As of right now though I wouldn't give it up just yet, you might be giving up something that you come to truly love!!!
First with anything new that we are learning there will be aniexty and apprehension. This is normal. When you first start out I believe this can be a good thing. As you do more dives, get more training(which I highly recommend) the fear of equipment failure won't be so much on your mind. In my OW class I had a fear of doing mask removal, I hated, didn't want any part of it. But I made an effort to overcome that by any chance I had of practicing that skill. I would start off before my dive with swimming on the surface with out my mask for a minute or two. Now after many times practicing I can take my mask of without thinking about it. Same went for regulator recovery and buddy breathing the more I practice this skill the more comfortable I felt.
I believe like many others have already pointed out that if you and your financee find a more experienced buddy (This helped me because my friend and his dady both had over a thousand dives I recieved alot of knowledge and felt comfortable knowing they had been diving that much) and dive within your comfort level (slowly building on your comfort level) you will be glad you stuck with it.
As far as reliability of equipment. With regular maintenance and taking care of it I have had most of my same gear since I started (regulators and BCD).
Good luck with it and let us know how it goes!
First with anything new that we are learning there will be aniexty and apprehension. This is normal. When you first start out I believe this can be a good thing. As you do more dives, get more training(which I highly recommend) the fear of equipment failure won't be so much on your mind. In my OW class I had a fear of doing mask removal, I hated, didn't want any part of it. But I made an effort to overcome that by any chance I had of practicing that skill. I would start off before my dive with swimming on the surface with out my mask for a minute or two. Now after many times practicing I can take my mask of without thinking about it. Same went for regulator recovery and buddy breathing the more I practice this skill the more comfortable I felt.
I believe like many others have already pointed out that if you and your financee find a more experienced buddy (This helped me because my friend and his dady both had over a thousand dives I recieved alot of knowledge and felt comfortable knowing they had been diving that much) and dive within your comfort level (slowly building on your comfort level) you will be glad you stuck with it.
As far as reliability of equipment. With regular maintenance and taking care of it I have had most of my same gear since I started (regulators and BCD).
Good luck with it and let us know how it goes!