Be A Diver

[kf4zht]

Despite not wanting to put my head under water until I was six years old I quickly became a fan of water. As I grew up, particulary in my teens I was always exploring outdoor. Backpacked over 1000 min in a year. Rock climbed and worked as a lifguard/boating instructor at a BSA camp for a few years, then as a whitewater river guide. I had friends that scuba'd and knew I wanted to try it. I made a deal with a scuba crew that I would teach them wilderness first aid if they taught me scuba. Unfortunatly the timing never worked out. I went on tall ship sailing trip to the bahamas and we snorkeled everyday. I quickly realized that even at that shallow depth being able to stay down would be so much better.

I came to college and chose schools poorly so my exploring side was put to limited status. I was itiching to find something to do and found out I had to have 2 PE classes and they offered OW and AOW as 2 classes. So I took it and here I am today. Guess it is just me going to the next frontier to explore.

Also I am a volunteer firefighter so wearing a air tank and being in an enviroment that humans really aren't supposed to be in. Difference is that scuba is fun, firefighting is something I do to give back (and the adrenaline rush) and no one cares if you can be suited up for scuba in 2 minutes or less.

Now I just need to find cheap places to dive to get more experience.

 

[Teamcasa]

A friend convinced me we could may some quick money diving for Abalone and cleaning boat bottoms. We made money with the Abalone but only cleaned a few boats before that got old. Then again, we were only teenagers in 1969 so what did we know!

 

[Scubagolf]

In 2001, I went to a Club Med in the Sea of Cortez in August. Too damn hot to play golf and I hate laying on the beach. What else to do for two weeks? Took a two hour resort course and 20 dives with the "real divers" later went home, hooked.

 

[Supershark]

My brother, its all his fault!
He came back from a holiday saying he had done his Padi, and I should too. I have always loved that water, even the cold horrible stuff in the UK. I had a holiday booked to Cancun, I checked the website and yes try dive for free! I did it and was hooked. I wanted to do the open water, but only had 2 days left. I got home, booked a holiday to Dominican Republic on the basis that it had a dive shop on site. I went on my first day said i want to do my Padi, and spent that afternoon reading the manual. Loved the course, did about 10 dives on the trip felt great.
About 2 months later my brother appears back from a holiday with his Advanced card, telling me he had been really deep and seen sharks. That was it couldn't have the brother beating me. So off to the Great Barrier Reef, liveaboard with Advanced. Loving it, every holiday involved diving, my missus lay on the beach I went diving.
Then 2 and a half years ago i was looking for a new job, the internet replacing my career, damm you Easyjet! My missus said what is your dream job? Of course Scuba Dive Instructor I said pretty much joking. 2 days later she sent me an e-mail with a list of places to learn to be an instructor. So I sold up in the UK and came to Thailand for 4 months, doing an internship. After 2 months I was a DM and got a job offer in Thailand, great DM'd for about 4 months, did my IDC, hey presto I was an instructor. Unfortunately me and missus drifted apart, we are still friends, but I decided to stay in Thailand. After working in various places, Pattaya, Koh Tao, Koh Samui. Koh Phi Phi I stumbled into a bar in Phuket, met a girl fell in love got married and now I live and work in Phuket.
Diving has changed my life, I am living my dream. I consider myself a very lucky person. With the ocean covering 70% of the earth and rising, someday we're all donna DIVE

Cheers

 

[TMHeimer]

I have been a shell collector for 40 years. Lived most of my life in Northern Manitoba with no desire to dive the northern lakes. Moved to Nova Scotia in 05, got certified that year and have been diving for shells (where the good ones are) since.

 

[J.R.]

I was born and raised in the Midwest... as you might guess water sports aren't quite as prevailant here as some other areas of the country... but I had this Grandfather...

My Grandfather grew up through the Depression and was, for the most part, one of those self-taught individuals. He was never without National Geographic, Life and Reader's Digest magazines at hand... an tales of the pharohs and Egyptology on the tip of his tounge. He was the one who gave me a sense of adventure and a realization of the marvels of the world that lay beyond the fields I grew up with.... Sea Hunt... Sky King... these were the shows I watched when I was a kid. Tales of pirates and boy adventurers were what I read. For some reason, swimming was always something I took to very naturally...

Now... if you take all these ingredients and simmer them well for a number of years and then take that kid (who joined the Navy) and drop him in Pensacola, Florida in 1970 with a dive shop in fairly close proximity and a buddy who said, "Hey... wanna' learn SCUBA diving?" and it all comes together...

Now, as all good tales come in volumns these days...

I spent a number of years diving back then and used to do it quite a bit of diving... but time and circumstance change things and after a while I found that I had hung up the fins and moved on to other activities... then...

About three years ago I stumbled across my old NASDS cert card. It was old... cracked... but still "mostly there"... a little internet research showed that SSI had absorbed them so I called SSI and got the card re-issued. My wife and I were heading out on a cruise and I thought it might be fun to take a refresher course and try it again.

Well... the refresher courses were full but the DM suggested I try a "Discover Scuba" to see how much I remembered. Needless to say the gear was *almost* foreign as it had changed so much but the DM explained it... I got a good brief... found that all of the basic skills were still, somehow, fully functional... and got hooked all over again.

Volumn 3...

So later in the cruise we were stoping at a location where a guy I met during the first dive talked me into buddying with him for a dive. My wife went snorkeling with some other friends of ours... When we all got back together one of the first things my wife said was, "I need to learn to SCUBA dive." The *need to* was explained by the fact that she was frustrated trying to dive down to take pictures of fish... by the time the camera focused... and the picture snapped... she found she was floating back up to the surface... diving would solve that problem she reasoned.

When we got home she enrolled in an OW class. After she got her C-Card, we BOTH enrolled in Advanced OW... she to advance her skills, me to use it as a 'refresher'... and for both of us an opportunity to learn to dive as a buddy team.

... ain't life grand...