How do you think people really think when you mention you scuba dive?

[FinnMom]

I once wrote an article for the newsletter we print for our workers. I wanted to decribe what's fun about everyday, basic, local diving. I said it's fun to dive because: (1) The scenery is cool. I described rocks the size of houses in a field of white sand with wave patterns in it that looked like a neatly raked zen garden. That's an underwater moraine just 30 mins from where we all live. Obviously there are "big ticket items" like wrecks, but completely aside from all that the very everyday stuff is amazingly neat looking too, esp. just the scenes created by water and light and how the two interact. (2) Watching and playing with critters is fun. I descibed how fish will "hide" at night next to the most ridiculously inadequate cover, like a hopelessly fat boy hiding behind a sapling. I also described how lots of fish like to take up position and swim in formation with you like some kind of teeny-tiny wingman. (3) It's like flying. I described the fun of floating over a mere 12' dropoff in a quarry, how you can hang and look down into what seems to be a slightly scary bottomless blue, then zoom down the cliff to find the bottom, later floating effortlessly up, down and around any intesting structures. Just the act of floating or moving underwater is incredibly entertaining. And of course learning to do it with more skill and control is also quite entertaining. Oh, and failing in your attempts to demonstrate skill and control can occasionally be very entertaining for all present ;-) I got a lot of positive feedback about the article.

The thing I have a hard time with is people who just can't get the "adventure sport" idea out of their mind. Some folks just won't give up on the idea that diving must make you feel wildly alive with the taste blood and fear through every minute. And in their point of view nothing else could possibly be remotely interesting. You just can't talk to folks like that, they won't listen because everything I try to say is so incredibly far off from what they've decided to believe.
Thank God I've never had to dive with someone like that.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

I once wrote an article for the newsletter we print for our workers. I wanted to decribe what's fun about everyday, basic, local diving. I said it's fun to dive because: (1) The scenery is cool. I described rocks the size of houses in a field of white sand with wave patterns in it that looked like a neatly raked zen garden. That's an underwater moraine just 30 mins from where we all live. Obviously there are "big ticket items" like wrecks, but completely aside from all that the very everyday stuff is amazingly neat looking too, esp. just the scenes created by water and light and how the two interact. (2) Watching and playing with critters is fun. I descibed how fish will "hide" at night next to the most ridiculously inadequate cover, like a hopelessly fat boy hiding behind a sapling. I also described how lots of fish like to take up position and swim in formation with you like some kind of teeny-tiny wingman. (3) It's like flying. I described the fun of floating over a mere 12' dropoff in a quarry, how you can hang and look down into what seems to be a slightly scary bottomless blue, then zoom down the cliff to find the bottom, later floating effortlessly up, down and around any intesting structures. Just the act of floating or moving underwater is incredibly entertaining. And of course learning to do it with more skill and control is also quite entertaining. Oh, and failing in your attempts to demonstrate skill and control can occasionally be very entertaining for all present ;-) I got a lot of positive feedback about the article.

The thing I have a hard time with is people who just can't get the "adventure sport" idea out of their mind. Some folks just won't give up on the idea that diving must make you feel wildly alive with the taste blood and fear through every minute. And in their point of view nothing else could possibly be remotely interesting. You just can't talk to folks like that, they won't listen because everything I try to say is so incredibly far off from what they've decided to believe.
Thank God I've never had to dive with someone like that.

That is so true, most people thinks it is a non-stop adrenaline rush down there, as if it is we are doing a long bungee jump through airspace swarming with deadly birds, and only our fearlessness and self control in such panic inducing situation is what's keeping us alive. The fact that there is alot of non-adrenaline fun such as looking at critters, drifting in space and magnificent scenery is only known to the divers themselves. If we were in such situation as what they think we are in, we would have sucked up our air in 10 minutes.

 

[1davey]

I get the aren't you afraid of the sharks questions. I volunteer dive at our local aquarium and people get a real kick out of seeing us in the exzibits. When I get achance to go into the tunnels and talk to them I get bombarded with all kinds of questions Do you get to dive with the sharks, are you afraid, etc. Mostly the kids aree the ones with questions. I try and explain to them how much fun it is! I tell them it is like flying. I tell them to go check out a local dive shop and do a discover scuba for them selfs.

 

[Hank49]

The whole concept that diving is for rich people makes me giggle.



My other sport is dressage. There's no "class" you can take and be done with it. Lessons, which most people take once a week or more, run $50 - $100 apiece. A low quality but serviceable horse is going to run at least seven or eight thousand, and if you intend to compete, you are looking at AT LEAST twice that and up. Board where we are is $700 a month, and then there are shoes and supplements and all other kinds of miscellaneous expenses. Yet the majority of people who ride are normal working folks -- they just budget that much for their addiction.

If you don't run around the globe looking for exotic destinations, scuba is a cheap sport.

Can you adopt me? In my neighborhood, ping pong, basketball, sand lot football.....those were cheap sports.

 

[SeaHorse81]

That is so true, most people thinks it is a non-stop adrenaline rush down there, as if it is we are doing a long bungee jump through airspace swarming with deadly birds, and only our fearlessness and self control in such panic inducing situation is what's keeping us alive.

That sums it up nicely. Most people look at me like I'm an extreme sports fiend, and are quite surprised when I try to tell them about the main draw for me being the Zen-like, meditative, one-with-the-universe thing.

I have also heard the inference that scuba is the domain of the wealthy. I tell those people the same thing I used to tell those who thought that about horse people (I used to be into horses, too): "We don't do it because we have money. Because we do it, we don't have money."

 

[TracysaCADiver]

I've talked with a few of my friends about the sport (these people are not divers). Where I live, we are about two hours or so away from the ocean - but about an hour or so away from a big lake in the area. One person in particular is afraid of the aquatic life, at least IMO. His typical response is "It might eat me!" Now that is in regards to anything that is bigger than him - and it doesn't matter if it's freshwater or saltwater. (In the lake that's about an hour away there has been reports of someone seeing a catfish about as big as a bus.)

I've tried to show him the opposite, stating the facts that the aquatic life down there normally is scared of us, and will go the opposite direction at the sound of a regulator. He still doesn't believe me, but he's also a tough cookie to get to believe anything.

 

[Davemohio]

I once wrote an article for the newsletter we print for our workers. I wanted to decribe what's fun about everyday, basic, local diving. I said it's fun to dive because: (1) The scenery is cool. I described rocks the size of houses in a field of white sand with wave patterns in it that looked like a neatly raked zen garden. That's an underwater moraine just 30 mins from where we all live. Obviously there are "big ticket items" like wrecks, but completely aside from all that the very everyday stuff is amazingly neat looking too, esp. just the scenes created by water and light and how the two interact. (2) Watching and playing with critters is fun. I descibed how fish will "hide" at night next to the most ridiculously inadequate cover, like a hopelessly fat boy hiding behind a sapling. I also described how lots of fish like to take up position and swim in formation with you like some kind of teeny-tiny wingman. (3) It's like flying. I described the fun of floating over a mere 12' dropoff in a quarry, how you can hang and look down into what seems to be a slightly scary bottomless blue, then zoom down the cliff to find the bottom, later floating effortlessly up, down and around any intesting structures. Just the act of floating or moving underwater is incredibly entertaining. And of course learning to do it with more skill and control is also quite entertaining. Oh, and failing in your attempts to demonstrate skill and control can occasionally be very entertaining for all present ;-) I got a lot of positive feedback about the article.

The thing I have a hard time with is people who just can't get the "adventure sport" idea out of their mind. Some folks just won't give up on the idea that diving must make you feel wildly alive with the taste blood and fear through every minute. And in their point of view nothing else could possibly be remotely interesting. You just can't talk to folks like that, they won't listen because everything I try to say is so incredibly far off from what they've decided to believe.
Thank God I've never had to dive with someone like that.

Well said.

In Ohio we have some huge quarries where we dive. Some were dug to crate the interstate road system we have here in the US.

When the light hits the cliffs of the quarries just right, it is almost surreal. I just like looking up and down at em for the view. I just float and take it all in.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

That sums it up nicely. Most people look at me like I'm an extreme sports fiend, and are quite surprised when I try to tell them about the main draw for me being the Zen-like, meditative, one-with-the-universe thing.

But the vac dive scenes always has the ex navy seal or brutish guys that doesn't seem to be the relaxing kind. Either they are using the excuse of seeing fish and corals as the reason so they can do something challenging underwater, or maybe they are just taking a break from tech diving relaxing a bit with these easy dives.

 

[farsidefan1]

I'm sure that when they find out I'm a diver they assume I'm an awesome sex machine but then they look at me , bald, kinda chubby, 60 yrs old and they decide I'm just an interesting old fart.