How did you convince YOUR spouse to start diving

[scubajo007]

I asked my GF if she wanted to try discover scuba, which she did and the same day after the intro dive, she signed up for the dive course. Maybe I was lucky, but that what you should try, if she enjoys it then she will almost certainly continue with the full course otherwise if she don’t like it then she has tried and that will be end of that discussion.

 

[terrylowe]

I just taught a woman to dive. Her husband has been certified but has not dived in 20 years of their marriage. ......... She came over and said she thinks she can trust me and wants to learn to dive, maybe.....
Sometimes, you have to be patient.
...

WOW! What a great story. I've only been diving 4 years....at least 16 more years to wait....

 

[garyd54220]

I bought her a Discover Scuba certificate for her birthday. To say she wasn't thrilled is an understatement. She said "I told you (a number of times by the way) I don't want to do that." I should point out that she was not a strong swimmer and was marginally afraid of the water -so much so that I had never been able to get her into the deep end of a pool. I told her that if after she tried it she still felt the same way I'd never mention it again. I was counting on that sense of wonder that occurs when you take those first breaths under water, look around and think ...holy sh*t is this awesome. Lucky for me that was how she felt and now she's diving doubles of mix to 180' regularly. On the other hand the whole thing could have backfired on me and in fact did when I tried the same thing regarding cave diving. She bailed after the first day of cavern class. So now she stays home when I make my annual Christmas week trek to cave country for some minimum 2 a day diving. But...she understands how cool it is and how important to me and lets me disappear for that big holiday week which is still pretty cool!

 

[Conan3]

I wore her down, and it only took 29 years.

I was certified before we got married, then kids, work got in the way for a long time. etc

Got the kids out of the house and decided to get the boys certified to dive and she was interested this time.

She has been snorkling for years with me.

Setup oldest son and her for Discover Scuba.

She Liked it

So we setup OW classes and it had been so long since I dove ,
I went through the class again with them as my old PADI card was from 1977 and said "BASIC SCUBA DIVER" on it.

Well she's hooked now and likes to dive as does my son and brother in Law.

Looking to get in lots of dives from now on.

David

 

[diver 85]

The only way was to get the instructor out to the house for some private lessons in our pool......After that wife loved it & did better on the checkout dives than me or our 14 YO daughter per our instructor....

 

[zamburinha]

When I told my husband I would do a scuba course, his exact words were: "That's fine, but I will never do that". After a year of meeting lots of diving friends and hearing about our weekend excursions I could see his resolve weakening ... so I signed him up for a course with a really good instructor, with the promise that if he didn't like it, I would never mention it again. Fast forward two years, he is Tech1 certified and has overtaken me in equipment acquisition (he just got his new drysuit while I am still figuring it out). So, the message is, even the strongest denials might have a little crack in resolve. I should add that he regularly thanks me for "making" him try it out

 

[alibi 2]

As a woman i say. Leave her alone! if she doesnt want to dive , she doesnt want to dive..especially with her telling you she doesnt want to dive..don't push her to do something she doesnt want to do just because you wish she did...just be thankful she like the water enough to snorkle and watch you...

All you are going to do is make her mad and drive her totally out of the water..if she feels she is missing something she will realize it while she is watching the fun your having and deciede to dive on her own.....if you wanted a scuba diver..you would have found a woman who dove and married her..so that must not have been the driving force behind your getting married...don't force it now!

 

[tracydr]

I married a scuba instructor and already had been diving 12 years, myself.
My ex was a diver as well although a dangerous and poorly trained one. He returned to diving after a 20 year hiatus and never had a refresher.
I think, if your wife doesn't express an interest in diving that talking her into it could be a setup for failure, or worse. My husband has told me that the worst students, most likely to quit or panic are the spouses who get coerced into diving when they don't want to.
Offer to go on a Discover Scuba class with her but if she still says "no" leave it alone.

 

[Amphiprion]

Just keep taking the whole family on dive trips. You and the kids can scuba and she can either snorkel or read a book on the beack while drinking a rum drink and having alone time.

If everybody raves about the diving without pressuring her, and she feels she is missing out, then she may decide to dive. Otherwise, just be happy that she wanted to go on a dive vacation instead of touring Napa.

 

[Diver Kat]

As a wife that was 'pestered' unmercifully for a few years because the hubby wanted to learn I'd say don't give up! There may be hope yet!

We were both snorkelers and happy doing so until we saw some divers underwater in Grand Cayman. The hubby got it into his head that we needed to try it. I said no. I thought it would be too hard, I thought we were too old, I thought he was crazy ... and so on. I loved water but just didn't think I was up to diving. The subject came up frequently. I got off the hook that summer as he broke a rib playing baseball. Damn thing healed! Every time we saw a dive shop it would come up (and there are quite a few in Austin!) One day while getting my daughter soccer gear, he popped into the LDS next door. Came back to drag me over there to just look. (Yeah, right!) Finally I gave in and said that I would consider it if he could - #1 - get us a female instructor, and - #2 - shut up about it till class started. Didn't slow him down at all, and I was signed up about 30 minutes later. Smart man kept very quiet till class started. As feared, the class was 3 guys and me - but at least I had a female instructor. I still wasn't thrilled but did great at the classwork. The epiphany happened the first pool day. All it took was sitting at the bottom of an 8 ft pool breathing with a tank & regulator in the pouring rain and I was hooked!! It was total Zen for me. 8 years & 352 dives later and I've ended up being a much bigger addict than he is! Since then, we've taken lots of classes together, and lots of dive trips. After shipping the daughter off to college, it really gave us something to share - even if it was just diving in the local mucky lake together.

Find out what is stopping her .... and see if they're things that can be resolved. Is she really, truly not interested? Or maybe she has reservations like I did about being able to do it. If she has any interest at all, let her pick her instructor and do things her way. Who knows! Maybe she'll give in like I did and get hooked!!