Catalina Island, Casino Point, December, the waves are big and the water was cold. I wasn't having a fun dive. The coming storm had reduced the visibility and the fading sun had plunged the whole dive site into a grayish haze. At the end of the dive those large waves made for a punishing escape up the stairs to dry land. The next day I got a call that the dive boat was not going out due to heavy seas predicted for that afternoon and the next day didn't look very promising either. That was my last dive trip before I took a break from scuba diving to focus on other expensive hobbies.
I had completed PADI Rescue a couple of years before and hadn't been interested in taking any additional classes so my diving had plateaued. In the first three years of certification I had steadily progressed each year from Open Water, Advanced and finally Rescue, after that I turned my focus to taking trips and trying to dive as much as I could. When I say as much as I could I am pushing it because I live in Southern New Mexico. The closest diving for me was about 4 hours away so every other month I was taking a trip somewhere either locally or a couple times a year to somewhere on the ocean. My local dive shop was good at getting trips going to various locations, some much more tropical than others. Due to the economy putting a strain on everyone's discretionary spending it seemed that more trips were getting canceled due to lack of interest than were actually going. So I did what I could doing trips on my own to various lakes in New Mexico, Montego Bay and Catalina Island. They were good trips but I was getting bored of doing the same types of dives usually alone but on occasion I got to dive with some really good people so after my trip to Catalina I decided to focus on some of my other interests.
Almost four years later I got a call from my sister telling me about a trip she was planning to Hawaii. She was wanting to dive while she was there. She has been certified for about seven years but to my knowledge has never been diving with out me so I wasn't surprised when she asked me “Do you want to go diving and make sure I remember how before my trip”. I had been thinking about dusting off my fins but I had not done much other than shuffle gear around every time I had to get something stored in my office closet. Our conversation made me decide that it was time to go diving again so I drug out my gear which had been stored for longer than I wanted to admit and started to plan a refresher trip. I quickly found out that the dive shop we had both certified with had closed and the owners were pursuing other business ventures. A new shop had been formed by some of the instructors and staff from the old shop. The new shop had tanks and could provide us with air so we were in business. My sister decided that since we were both getting back into the game again she wanted to go back to Balmorhea State Park, which by West Texas standards is open water. It is an artesian spring surrounded by a concrete pool wall and deck built by the Civilian Conservation Corps back in the 30s. It is a very popular training site for open water certifications for the region. It is where both of us got our open water certifications, it is also a place I have long ago decided not to go back to. I just seem to end up back there. So the weekend is chosen and we go back, back to Balmorhea all 20’ max depth of it. It is open water I think, just barely; but it is wet and a good way to ease back into the sport in controlled pool like conditions. Guess what, I'm hooked again; I remembered how much fun I have on these dive trips and what a freeing experience it is to float weightlessly with the fish.
After I got back from Balmorhea I started to get back into diving in a big way. I have always enjoyed reading books and novels about the sea, diving, and exotic lands so as I was looking at my bookshelf I came across my copy of Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson which for those who haven't read it follows John Chatterton, Richie Kohler and a small group of divers who risk their lives trying to identify a sunken German U-boat off the coast of New Jersey. The first time I read the book was during a trip to Mexico for my Advanced Open Water class and my reaction was one of I can't believe these people would take such risks in their diving. At that time the story inspired me to be very cautious and methodical in my diving to not push past my limits and to do everything I could not to be a dive accident statistic. As I reread the story this time it inspired me to expand my training and extend my own limits so that I may one day visit the U869 and the SS Andrea Doria. Both wrecks lie in over 200 feet of cold murky Atlantic water. So I decided that Tec diving sounded less reckless and was something I wanted to give a go. However my LDS don’t offer any Tec training or support so I would end up traveling to another dive center to complete my training.
Went home and started Open Water course anyway. Freaked out in the confined water dives at the pool and never completed the open water certification dives. STRIKE 1
STRIKE 2
STRIKE 3
And I don't want it to stop!
