jrubal1462
New
HI,
WARNING: WALL-OF TEXT
If you don't feel like reading, feel free to skip all the crap below and just say, "Hi Justin".
I promise I won't be offended
Nice place! Seems like there's a lot of sweet advice being thrown around here by people with an absurdly large amount of experience....and lots of good stories too...and some not-so-sweet incident/accident reports, which are incredibly helpful as well.
I feel so isolated when it comes to diving. Diving has always interested me, ever since I snorkeled through a giant fish tank somewhere in Disney World, only to turn around and do it again roughly 5 times in a row. I looked into diving in high school, but it seemed prohibitively expensive, but when I saw that Syracuse offered a PE course in SCUBA, and you get certified for something like $175, I was all over it.... And it was AWESOME.
Unfortunately, I literally know nobody that's even remotely interested in diving. I went to Purdue, in the middle of scenic Indiana for grad school, and lived there for about 3 years. Now I'm home, writing my thesis, and I really need to get underwater again. It's just weird because I don't know anybody, or even how the whole culture works. Can I just show up at a dive shop with my fins, mask, and snorkel and say, "Hi, I'm Justin....want to take me diving?" Who would trust me? Who wants a dive buddy who has 5 whole dives under his belt that happened 3 years ago? I mean, aren't they responsible for my safety, don't they reserve the right to say, "Go home kid, we don't like your kind 'round here"?
In my defense, I'm pretty fantastic.
Not seriously, but at least I understand that I have 0 credible experience. Also, I like to think that I'm very relaxed and quite comfortable. I've been a volunteer firefighter for over 10 years, so I got quite used to breathing with the whole 2-stage regulator thing (We call them S.C.B.A when used on land) for years before I ever took the plunge. The only real difference is our 2nd stage keeps the pressure in your mask slightly higher than atmospheric, to keep all the biproducts of combustion out of your lungs in the event of a leak....but I digress.
Oh well, thanks for the info, look forward to good discussions. I especially like the flame-free beginner questions section. Does that imply we're encouraged to flame people who ask stupid questions in the advanced section?
Justin
WARNING: WALL-OF TEXT
If you don't feel like reading, feel free to skip all the crap below and just say, "Hi Justin".
I promise I won't be offended
Nice place! Seems like there's a lot of sweet advice being thrown around here by people with an absurdly large amount of experience....and lots of good stories too...and some not-so-sweet incident/accident reports, which are incredibly helpful as well.
I feel so isolated when it comes to diving. Diving has always interested me, ever since I snorkeled through a giant fish tank somewhere in Disney World, only to turn around and do it again roughly 5 times in a row. I looked into diving in high school, but it seemed prohibitively expensive, but when I saw that Syracuse offered a PE course in SCUBA, and you get certified for something like $175, I was all over it.... And it was AWESOME.
Unfortunately, I literally know nobody that's even remotely interested in diving. I went to Purdue, in the middle of scenic Indiana for grad school, and lived there for about 3 years. Now I'm home, writing my thesis, and I really need to get underwater again. It's just weird because I don't know anybody, or even how the whole culture works. Can I just show up at a dive shop with my fins, mask, and snorkel and say, "Hi, I'm Justin....want to take me diving?" Who would trust me? Who wants a dive buddy who has 5 whole dives under his belt that happened 3 years ago? I mean, aren't they responsible for my safety, don't they reserve the right to say, "Go home kid, we don't like your kind 'round here"?
In my defense, I'm pretty fantastic.
Not seriously, but at least I understand that I have 0 credible experience. Also, I like to think that I'm very relaxed and quite comfortable. I've been a volunteer firefighter for over 10 years, so I got quite used to breathing with the whole 2-stage regulator thing (We call them S.C.B.A when used on land) for years before I ever took the plunge. The only real difference is our 2nd stage keeps the pressure in your mask slightly higher than atmospheric, to keep all the biproducts of combustion out of your lungs in the event of a leak....but I digress. Oh well, thanks for the info, look forward to good discussions. I especially like the flame-free beginner questions section. Does that imply we're encouraged to flame people who ask stupid questions in the advanced section?
Justin
