How old were you?

[simbrooks]

I was deathly afraid of the water up until i was 9, partly due to a near drowning experience i believe. I then learnt to swim and was quite good at it. I paddled around in the UK waters, but even with a mask and snorkle when i was in my early teens there wasnt much to see just off the beach - i was more interested in every sport on top of the water at that time

I learnt to dive when i was 26, seemed quite natural to be down there and the feeling of floating like a bird (not in the positive buoyancy sense ) is undescribable!! Its been about 2 years and i finally got my GF into it this past year when she was still 25. How i would have loved to start earlier, but i am glad i got into it when i decided too.

 

[Dave Zimmerly]

My father took me on a trip to Tahiti and Australia at the age of 10. I remember snorkling every day that I could and wanted to learn how to dive. At the age of 12, he took me to a dive shop in Erie. This was back in 1972. The training involved ditching your gear in 20 ft of water and going back down and put it back on. Wasn't ready for that.

In the Marines, I was a Marine Security Guard at the embassy in Caracas. My buddy took me out a few times to the coast, no training, (STUPID!!!). I couldn't figure out why my ears hurt when I started to descend. He never explained about equalizing or any else for that matter. Ah, to be young and stupid.

Fast forward to 2002. Age 42. My girlfriends best friend boyfriend was coming up to Pittsburgh to visit. He is from Bonaire and is a DM. Never heard of the place. Nice guy. He told me and GF that if we got certified and came to Bonaire, he would show us around.

Well, we got OW cert, went to Bonaire and now have been to Coz x 3, Roatan x1 and looking forward to someplace new this March.

Hooked for life and thats fine by me.

Dave (aka "Squirt")

 

[gangrel441]

13 - My freshman year of High School. SSI Certified through a SCUBA club at the school run by a faculty member. Dove a few times that year, a few times the following year. Then a 14 year hiatus. NAUI cartified with then-fiance in 2001 at age of 29. Been diving ever since.

 

[stiebs]

Got dragged along to the the high-school dive club by a friend who didn't want to join alone. He lasted two weeks, I got hooked. I was spearfishing at least once a month between 13 and 15, and then got cert'ed. Now, fifteen years later I'm still at it, but with a few breaks of a year or two in between

 

[pyrite]

I came late to the sport - 45

 

[captain]

I was 13 years old in 1957 and I talked my parents into buying me a Voit two hose regulator and tank. Been diving ever since. Got certified in 1970.

 

[Ishie]

How old were you when you first discovered snorkeling and diving?

Snorkeling in a pool for as long as I can remember. It did endlessly frustrate my parents (both former divers) that I couldn't clear a snorkel until I was about 13, and would instead, swim around like a fish, start treading water, take the snorkel out of my mouth, dump it behind me, and repeat. LOL

First ocean snorkeling was in Hawaii when I was 8. That's also when I saw my first lionfish. That's also the first time I've walked on water. Got to snorkel with dolphins when I was 11, so I've always been hooked on that line.

Started to get certified in NC when I was 14-15 with the Explorers. Loved it, did well in the class, excited to go do my check out dives and...

Got my tonsils out instead!! How unfair is that? And by the time I was healed up there weren't any more dives until November in a lake (BRRR).

Never did finish it up and wasn't really around the ocean much. Then on a cruise to Catalina, I was snorkeling and it was the first time I REALLY felt like I was missing something and it was like "All right, that's it".

 

[Charlie99]

49. About 4 months after I retired and just before PADI would require additional medical releases for having the "medical condition" of being 50 or older.

 

[m3830431]

Signed up for a class when I was 16 and there wasn't enough people to hold the course so I got a refund. Didn't get cetified until I was 52.

 

[Buoyant1]

41! Best thing I ever did, I'm having the time of my life!