How many of you wish your spouse would dive with you?

[Peter69_56]

I came to see what the general consensus would be

I have two friends who are avid divers and they've been married for years. They do quite a few dive trips within SEA every year, and they often blast out invites to all the diver friends. So I get to tag along without being the third wheel...Thank God!


From what I see, it's a pretty sweet deal they got there, and perhaps I should ask "do you dive?" next time when I meet a guy ... or would I be seen as show off??

Not at all. My daughter talks with her prospective boyfriends about diving. Her current one is a commercial diver. They get along great.

I also think being a third in a party of divers is not a problem ever. Not for us anyway.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Id love for my wife to dive. She has had ear problems that prevent her from equalizing.

 

[maat1976]

I was the spouse that didn't dive. My husband went off on two dive trips on his own and I didn't like getting left behind so I tried the Discover Scuba class. I thought I would be claustrophobic, but once I was in the pool, with all the gear on, it was ok.

My biggest piece of advice- whatever course you get the other partner to try (DSD, OW, whatever) get recommendations on an instructor and pay for them to be 1 to 1. Made the world of difference for me. Also, my husband and my instructor were both in the water with me, but my husband never got involved, or critiqued me. He let me pick what I was comfortable with dive trip wise, and now I'm the one pushing for a liveaboard and he's hesitating. And do it in warm water.

 

[Steve_C]

My wife while a very capable person in many ways has never been real comfortable in the water. She also has a bit of tendency to panic at nonmedical emergencies. (She is great at the medical). If I could persuade her to try diving I would be the worry wort. So given the person she is I saw no reason to try to push the scuba. (She did like to snorkel in calm shallow water next to shore prior to some knee issues).

 

[Z Gear]

Id love for my wife to dive. She has had ear problems that prevent her from equalizing.

Well incase this is not a definite physical constraint, I would like to see if we could give you some ideas on how you can still give this another try.

First I want to say thanks for chiming in and telling us your thoughts on this. I regard equalizing one of the biggest hurdles I had to overcome. It really is something that one can believe is impossible to achieve because it is just so painful. I can really relate with those who have very sensitive ears, but most importantly as maat1976 suggested, was to get recommendation on a good instructor. Pay them for a private lesson, I think you should take the time talk to them first, regarding your main concern which is her difficulty to equalize. It would really be a good first step if you can ask some reputable instructors on how they plan help your wife master equalizing. Again that is if it is not a physical condition that is impeding her ability to equalize.

This is just something to think about in case she ever wanted to give it another try.
Maybe others have a better suggestion that can help.

Thanks
Frank G

 

[billt4sf]

How many of you wish your spouse *didn't* dive with you?

 

[drrich2]

I suspect for some people it'd be a bit of a mix. If diving is your passion, sharing that with your spouse could be a wonderful thing. And makes pitching the idea of dedicated dive trips funded by family money easier. What trouble in paradise could there be?

I get the impression some of the 'oh, we never dive without each other' crowd probably have fairly compatible diving goals/pleasures. That's great, but it's hardly universal. A repetitious theme I've noticed amongst some posters goes like this - 'I enjoy diving a broader range of conditions, but my wife only wants to dive tropical aquarium type conditions - warm, high viz., low current, pretty reef and fish, not too deep...'

Another issue, one every married couple works out for themselves, is the answer to the question 'How enmeshed are we?' Are you one of those couples hardly ever seen apart outside of work? Do you sort of lead separate free time lives & check in once in awhile?

Finally, in some diving couples, there is a substantial discrepancy in experience/ competence between partners. If I intuited correctly from some posts, there are couples where, for example, the husband is a much more seasoned diver and acts more like a dive master to the wife than an equal partner. (Flame disclaimer: yes, I know it could be the wife who's the more seasoned 'baby sitter,' but that's not the story in most of the threads per my impression; yours may differ).

Case in point: my wife dove for awhile, and was one of those tropical aquarium condition dabblers. We've got a toddler and she's been out of diving quite awhile as a result. On a Bonaire trip, if she did 8 or 10 dives in a week she'd be fine with that; under 15 and I'd be shrieking to the sky 'Why?!?!?' My most anticipated trip for 2016 is planned to be, Lord willing and providing, to try the Southern Channel Islands out of California (via Truth Aquatics live-aboard). I'd be nuts to book that trip with her along.

Richard.

 

[Freewillow]

My wife is my best under and above water buddy. We qualified al the way to DM togheter. We have more that 500 dives together. I have another 250 dives without her but always feel that something is missing on these dives