Are you glad you didn't start diving in your 20s?

[Kim]

.......and sex was safe.

That was a LONG time ago!!!!!

Fun though....huh?

 

[Thalassamania]

Truly gnarly.

 

[pilot fish]

I think I would have thought there were very few boundaries in diving in my 20s -yeah, I can do that. I might have taken way too many chances. Now that I'm 50 plus I know I have many boundaries. When you gain knowledge you realize all the things you didn't know.

 

[Walter]

Other than giving myself a little more padding in me deco status because I'm now in my 50s, I dive pretty much the same way I did when I was in my 20s. Being stupid is not mandatory for young folks. I wasn't stupid and neither are many of them today.

 

[mikerault]

I learned at 47 and wished I had learned in my 20's.

Mike

 

[james croft]

Yeah, I am glad I began diving at 12 or 13 instead of having to wait until I was in my 20's

 

[Peter Guy]

I learned and started diving in my late teens (40 years ago). I'm very glad I did because the teaching was very different (and in my opinion, much better, but that is a whole 'nuther topic and since I learned in a college setting, not relevant in the real world). I'm not exactly sure why I stopped (well, my first wife might have had something to do with that!) but I wish I had stayed with it during that 30 year interval.

I don't think I was an "unsafe" diver in any way -- just a different diver -- with much different gear.

 

[jbd]

I think I would have thought there were very few boundaries in diving in my 20s -yeah, I can do that. I might have taken way too many chances. Now that I'm 50 plus I know I have many boundaries. When you gain knowledge you realize all the things you didn't know.

Again I'm agreeing with Walter's comments above. I was pretty much concerned with safety and following safeety rules when I was young. At this point in my life now I am a bit more carefree about my personal safety.

 

[drbill]

When I was diving in my teens and twenties I almost never went below 100 feet (even though I was certified to 130), I rarely did repetitive dives and never (knowingly, since we didn't have computers) went into deco. Now in my 60's it is rare that I dive shallower than 100 ft as my max depth, I do as many as 5-6 dives in a day and dive to depths as deep as 200 ft. Of course I dive with much different equipment than I did in my youth, and as I've matured I've come to fear fewer things in life (like great white sharks and women). Of course I dive pretty conservatively with respect to deco obligations and things like that, and gave up heavy partying back in my mid 20's.

 

[k4man]

in 1995 I was certified (to dive ) when I was 31 years old. I really wish that I would have KNOWN about, or had the chance to learn to dive earlier. It may have changed many things in my life (career, where I traveled and what I did).

While the money may not have been there in the teens and 20's, I think I would have followed a different life style and probably would have had a different job than I do now. All and all, it's reflection and nothing more. Just have to make the best of what you have when you have it!