how did you get into scuba

[The Kraken]

I was in flight school at Ft. Rucker, Alabama. We'd go down to Panama City on weekend passes and do some snorkeling at the jetties. One evening after diving and over several cold, cold beers, a couple of us decided we'd get certified, so we did. That was back in '69.

Needless to say, I grew up like every other boy my age watching Lloyd Bridges play the part of "Mike Nelson" on the TV series "Sea Hunt".

Flying is great, but scuba diving is better.

 

[emtdan]

My dad is a diver, he has been diving since before there was certifications. I used to always watch him go out with his gear, and come back 2 hours later with a smile from ear to ear. I would always take care of his gear, wash it, and pack it away. It all seemed like a lot of fun, and by the time i was 7 i had promised myself that i would be certified. I then started going out on the boat with him. I would set up his gear, and either spend the time while he was down reading on the boat, or i would snorken above him, watching everything.
On on of my birthdays, i dont remember which, he gave me as a present the course book for certification.

I did all of the course work in Boston, then did my confinded water dives and OW dives in Florida. I was so excited! I did my dives, made a complete fool of myself, and got my c-card.

After that, my whole family started to take dive-oriented vaciations. We went to Maui, and did 2 shore dives, then Molokini, and Lanai, and I knew i was hooked (I was a terrible diver and wanted to improve, anyway). That summer, i signed up for Action Quest, and the rest is history!

 

[fmw625]

Wanted to dive since watching "Sea Hunt" as a child. Between work and raising a family the $$/time never came together. Last year on our 30 wedding anniversary my wife and I took a cruise. An Introductory course was offered and I loved it. When we returned I finished my OW on my 53 b'day.

 

[scubasean]

how did you all get into scuba diving

I was in college and a really cute woman I fancied told me about a scuba class she was thinking about joining that wasn't far from campus...

 

[Bob3]

Many years ago when I was barely over ankle-biting height I'd get miffed at losing my 25 cent Daredevils (fishing spoon).
There was a big flat rock in the river that the big guys liked to ambush their dinner from, so a cast past it would usually produce the desired results.
Snagging the rock a few too many times prompted me to hit the sporting goods store & get some snorkeling gear to get my lures back.
I found a treasure trove in fishing tackle, and the rest is history.
It took a few years to save up enough $$ but one summer a semi stopped & dropped off my $125 set of scuba gear ordered from a Sears & Roebuck catalog.

 

[shugar]

i was about 5 or so when i started to notice my dad's old scuba magazines lying around both at home and my grandparent's place (my dad's other brother was also a diver)... i'd go over them again and again and again...

as a reference point, this was when the bent snorkel was an innovation!

ever since that time i wanted to be a diver... i was super confident in the water and learned to swim and snorkel all on my own

when my friends and i put up our own video production studio i thought i'd be able to afford my OW course, but when all your time and money are wrapped in a business there was no money (and/or time for an OW)

then a year ago, a DM friend of mine referred me to a resort who needed maintenance work done on their website (simple stuff really) and i offered for an OW ex-deal instead of cash... they covered my OW, materials, and the resort checkouts... VOILA! i'm certified!!!!

dream come true!!!! every moment i can get underwater is sheer magic for me... hell, stick me on a sand dune w/ a pebble to look at and you can leave me there for the next couple of hours

Jag

PS
resort renewed their contract... now i've got a consumable bulk of credit at the resort... YAHOOOOOOO!!! (who needs to get paid in cash if you can get paid in resort stay + dives???)

 

[The Chairman]

I was twelve years old (1969) and went into Hal Watt's Scuba Store to oogle. Ended up buying some Jet Fins, a Scuba Pro Tri-Window mask, a snorkle and some smelly, smelly anti-fog. I still have the Jet Fins and what's left of the smelly, smelly anti-fog! Since I had base privelges, I found myself one day in a machine shop of sorts. They were cobbling together dive equipment. Being mechanically minded, I was able to pick up on what they were doing and started to play. My first tank was salvaged from a crashed helicopter and a j valve from Hal. My first reg needed me to press a button to actually get air. Every dive was more an exercize in trying not to die!

I had started to work early on as a mechanic, and when I was 15 or so, I had to drop off a car for a local instructor at Mrs. Heard's Pool. There was the whole class in full scuba gear (weights, tanks, rubber wet suits) doing push ups on the pool deck. I simply shook my head and kept on diving without a cert, getting fills from the Navy Base. It's not that I lost interest when I went to college, I was just finding this sport WAY too risky for your's truly. Mid to late 1990's and my best friend took the class... hey these guys had these cool things called BCs and SPGs. How neat! So I certified by a friend of a friend and went all the way to Dive Master.

Then I found this board and a year later, I went diving with Walter and my long lost manatee brother MB (who I had never met). Well, he converted me to doing things the NAUI way and I finally found a "Diving Mentor" that I felt comfortable with.

 

[Kennedydive]

Hard to top Net Doc on that one.
I was 3 maybe 4 years old in the mid 70's when I use to go out with my grand father and my uncle (his son) in the boat. My uncle would gear up and fall backwards into the water. After watching him snorkel along the surface I'd watch him disappear and then surface with a bag full of scallops and crabs. This captured my interest and after going home I would gather up all my stuffed toys (Ernie, Bert and Grover I think) and these would be my dive buddies. I'd sit on the couch (my dive boat) and after my dive buddies entered the water I would sit on the edge of the couch and fall off it and into the water. Not being trained at the tender age, I was never taught to look behind me and one day I hit a rock (the coffee table) with my head and had to be rushed to the hospital for stitches.
I walked into the dive shop when I was 15 but having no money and a path of personal destruction growing up it amounted to nothing.
I quite smoking 5 years ago and as an award to myself and with the encouragement of my wife (boy she's kicking herself for that one) I took up diving. I started with the thoughts of splashing around in 30 feet of water looking for scallops. I found out quickly how addictive it is. I now dive wrecks in 200+ feet of water and have spent more money on dive equipment than I have ever spent on a car.
Isn't diving wonderful!
Jason

 

[miketsp]

In the early 70s I was running marine operations for a multinational company and I kept getting stuck in exotic places with the diving teams I was contracting. So they started giving me some tips and one thing lead to another. Anyway some 30 years later these new fangled LDSs started introducing bureaucracy so I had to go and get a c-card to prove I was duly "certified".

 

[rubbachicken]

What in the beer triggered her allergy?

she had a nut allergy, and the guy next to her had been eating peanuts, they all were drinking out of the same type of beer mug, it never occoured to her to drink from a different shaped beer mug, it seems that the nut content of the saliva around the beer mug was enough to set off her reaction
that's one day i will never ever forget, i have never been so scared in my life