Are we really the minority??

[boat sju]

i once dived with a far north canandian SB'er that would drive 4hrs to dive a lake with tree stumps (enchanted forest they called it)....

You mean you've never had to watch out for tree branches during an ascent ?

Take a look at the pictures in this link.

Bruno's Dive Shop

 

[highlandfarmwv]

Ana, in my case, I didn't discover diving until age 54--husband HATES and fears water. I would have to choose between my husband of 30 years vs living at the ocean. Leaving would be too much heartache for everyone, so I dive when I can and dream about it the rest of the time.

 

[UWDoc]

The part that I don't understand is how can "divers" live in landlocked areas?. I know that life is what happens while you plan and all that jazz, but why accept being away from water.

So it doesn't surprise me that someone from Indiana gets certified while in vacation in a water destination and not dive again, what buggles my mind is that this person goes to a coastal town and doesn't put a for sale sign on his house the instant he's back.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm only in this landlocked state until I can get a job in a non-landlocked one. I took up diving after I committed to moving here; I may not have made the same decision if I had taken it up beforehand. So I have to make due for a couple years with quarry diving (and having to pay to dive in them!) and vacation diving as often as possible until I can move.

 

[drydiver]

That is why Lake Millbrook is the haven that it is, with it's 8ft of vis and sub 50 temps! ...

I was certified in tropical water, but lived in VA, halfway between Richmond & DC. If I waited until the next time I could afford to dive in warm water, well, I probably would have forgotten what little I had learned. So, quarries it was. After a few dives in Millbrook, I decided to make the 4 hr round trip to Rawlings for better viz and temps. Since I have sooo much to work on, the quarries really provide a great training opportunity. I recently went to Key Largo and it was a real pleasure, easy diving, relatively speaking. If I hadn't practiced between March and December, I doubt it would have been as much fun.

Now I am in the Philly area and have been once to DS, which has great facilities! I am sure I will be spending a few weekends diving there and eventually off the Jersey shore as well.

I guess that makes me avid. I will have to use that term the next time a vacation diver looks at me like I am a freak when I mention quarry / cold water diving in response to inquiries.

Donna

 

[Lone Frogman]

Wow...avid at 5-10...I wonder what that makes us? Psycho? :jump3:

You can call me a psycho. A good vacation day of diving is 5 dives.

 

[Ana]

Some of us have to live where the work is, where our families are, and where our established businesses are. If it were that easy, I think most people would do it, but add in a mortgage, a spouse, children in school, pets, etc., and it's just not as easy as you seem to think it is.

I have no idea what your life is like, so it would be ridiculous to try to say: you can do this or that instead. And I see there are others posting with similar responses.

Maybe in my case it is the fact that my parents were each emigrants from small fishing towns. I started my life yards from an ocean, when there was a need to move I chose to change countries before even considering if there was something for me inland. When my husband plays the "what if" game he knows I don't go away from the water. My life is pretty much set up now with the countdown to retirement, but I also played the kids/mortgage/rat-race game. Maybe my checkbook would've been happier farther inland but that wasn't for me.

Then again, just because I don't understand people in landlocked places it means there is nothing wrong. After all, we can not all be in the same place.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

Had I become a diver at a younger age, I certainly would have lived near the ocean, no matter what. It makes it tough, at the moment... And I am envious of those who live near the ocean and can log a couple dozen dives every month.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Just being landlocked does not mean you cannot dive. Just have to get creative at times. Lakes, rivers, farm ponds, quarries, extra deep potholes, etc. You also have to be willing to dive cold, low vis, sometimes featureless( that is subjective as I always find something to look at), places. I also do not understand the Underwater Tourists as I call them. Spend all that money to get certed and then only do one or two dives a year on vacation? As Larry the Cable Guy says "It's like wipin' before you poop. It don't make no sense!"

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

I think I'm doing okay... I dive lakes, quarries, boogie down to Vortex, take a trip to Key Largo at least once a year, and an annual dive trip to Cozumel, too. It's not as much diving as I would like. (i.e. Sometimes a few months go by, especially in the winter, when I don't/can't dive....)

 

[DaveyDiver]

Sorry, if this is a bit windy but I've read the thread with interest and apparently I'm one of those pesky majority divers.

When I was a kid, I lived for the Jacques Cousteau specials on TV. For a kid 1700 Km from the nearest ocean, I had a steady inventory of cheap masks, snorkels, and fins over the years. Every summer I'd chase pike in the shallows of our local lakes and recover fish hooks from the rocky bottoms. But kids grow up and it's a big world with lots of cool stuff. Being 200 Km away from the LDS and being a teenager with no car might sway you into looking for other things to do, especially since the snow and ice part of our winter seems to last for half the year.

So then you grow up, get an edumacation, and move to the big city. Now the LDS is only a few Km away but you've already got these other things to do and a bunch of other people to do them with. Maybe, just maybe you get married, have a family, buy a vehicle, buy a house, or may all of the preceding. The ocean didn't move, it's still 1700 Km away.

Then, as if someone was paying attention when you were a kid, an opportunity comes along when you're approaching "middle age" and you end up certified. You're still married, you still have a family and they want to get edumacated. You're still paying for vehicles and a mortgage. You're pretty happy about the whole thing too, you just need to put your newfound interest in perspective with the rest of your life. So you dive when you can. You get a chance to go on a trip to the ocean and you want to dive. You check your logbook and realize that it's been a while, too long, since you blew bubbles. So you head to the pool, you spend a few nights working on buoyancy control. You head to the lake for checkout dives with the LDS. You buy a little more gear to add to the pile. You look forward to the trip and you promise yourself that this will be the year to dive more prairie puddles to keep the skills up. And that's what you hope for because it's supposed to be fun.

I envy those of you that live near the oceans but that's not where the truly important things in my life want or need to be right now. I think I understand those of you who live a "diving lifestyle" to the exclusion of other pursuits but I've always been a life, not lifestyle kind of guy.

BTW, I promise to go to the pool at least twice more before the cruise so I'm not that guy silting up your bottom . And I promise to hang around here for inspiration to get out and dive more.