How you met scuba diving

[MrChen]

I was born in San Diego, grew up in a swimming pool, spent a lot of time at the beach, competitively swam, and always had an aquarium. I loved my aquariums! I remember going to Disneyland and taking a ride in the "submarine" and it was this world that I just wanted to explore. One of my favorite places to go as a child was Sea World to see the animals swim under water. I remember wanting to be a trainer as a child. We didn't have Blackfish back then. My family didn't have a lot of money nor did my friends, so there was no way I was getting certified young. As I grew up and eventually joined the service, I got stationed in Hawaii. Oh how I wanted to get certified, but I was only making $18k a year and had a wife. 7 or 8 years ago I met a trainer at a job site and she said she'd train me for $450, well I still wasn't making but $30-40k at the time and now had a family. It was hard to justify spending that much to get started. Then one day, 2 years ago, I got the email from Groupon, $185! I was on that deal so fast. Plus now I was able to afford purchasing gear since my salary has increased significantly.

So here I am, loving it.

 

[ermaclob]

A few years ago I got into an adult Learn to Swim class at the local university(I think I was 59 or 60 at the time) and even though I wasn't very good at it, realized that I would be able to pass the PADI swim test, so I showed up at the local dive shop more or less as a lark. Between the end of the classroom/pool sessions and Lake George warming enough for the open water dives, I found Scuba Board. I had a BP/W and long hose on my first regulator set before the OW card came in the mail. I come from an EMS/technical rescue background, so SCUBA gear was just another application of equipment keeping me alive in a hostile environment. A trip a couple of years later to Mexico and the cenotes with Ed Hayes' shop really set the hook. Here I am at 67 with cave and trimix certs, and a rebreather, and I still don't much like to swim, at least not on the surface.

Lol one could say you just said forget swimming and got really good at sinking...

My first ever encounter of the idea of scuba or breathing underwater was probably when i was a kid. The old tv show Jonny Quest had an episode form 1964 The Mystery of the Lizard Men. im not that old tho, i watched this in the 1990's

[video]http://uploadsociety.com/video_v52533[/video]

later on alot of discovery channel and shows like Blue Planet Seas of Life and trips to the seaquarium here in miami got me really into marine life. ive wanted to learn to dive since i was like ~ 11 but could not till i was ending highschool mostly because me parents have no love for the life aquatic :/

3 years later im know starting my technical diving career.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

My mother couldn't get my out of the bathtub as a baby. Then, bought me a mask for the little plastic kiddie pool you find in backyards. GI Joe in SCUBA gear was my favorite toy to play with in the pool. That turned into snorkeling for real in OW. The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau was my favorite TV show. When I was 13, I went to a KFC with my grandfather and we passed a dive shop on the way. Went back later and found out I could start taking classes. I was 13 and since age 14 was the minimum for Jr. OW and my birthday would be coming up that year, I started classes!

 

[jimbeeler]

I first got interested when growing up in the 60's and watched Sea Hunt and the Jacques Cousteau documentaries. Later I watched the "Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau" series and was really hooked. Meanwhile, I got drafted and did my bit for uncle Sam. After that in the mid 70's, I migrated to the Florida Keys (Big Pine) and worked odd jobs there and in Marathon. Some of the activities included some diving (I was not certified).

Things went on with my life from there and took a direction unrelated to diving. Now about 40 years Later I've gotten certified and am enjoying the heck out of it.

Jim

 

[j2s]

Grew up in the Florida Keys.....Natural part of the life style there, like float planes in Alaska, snowmobiles in Michigan....Right person, right place, right time......

 

[swimmer_spe]

As a kid, I love the marine life. Marineland in Niagara Falls had something to do with that. Finding out that the entire east coast of Australia is a massive reef added to it. Now throw in things like cenotes and underwater habitats and you have a kid watching shows like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, some of the James Bond videos(the underwater car) and you have a kid wanting to experience it.

Crazy idea... How crazy would it be to sky dive from the ISS and end up in Challenger Deep, and LIVE to tell about it.

 

[tplyons]

Thunderball was my first exposure to scuba diving, but I've always been one of those people who wants to try everything.

I chose pursuing scuba diving before my private pilot's license because the PPL was going to run me around $15,000. I'm now convinced the PPL would have been cheaper

Long story short, it was a bucket list item and I fell in love.

 

[iamjblevine]

My wife and two daughters had been going on cruises every year as a vacation for about 6 years. Then my wife invited my inlaws to join us one year. Then they invited my 2 nieces to join us, then they invited my sister-in-law. At that point i decided I needed some dedicated "AWAY" time and figured if I got certified and didn't tell them they couldn't come with me on the excursions. My intentions were to only dive on the cruise and never again. That was about 4 months before I even set foot on the ship.
Well I fell in love with Great Lakes diving and recently finished my Dive Master Certification. I enjoy ocean reef diving, but still find prowling inland lakes and wrecks on the Great Lakes the best diving in the world!

 

[WetLens]

Many influences in my youth - Sea Hunt, Jacques Cousteau (books and TV), the Cleveland Aquarium (on the lakefront), and my dad's stories of his WWII time in the South Pacific - combined to form the "perfect storm" with competitive swimming, life guarding, working at the Y, and teaching aquatics. My first swim team coach and lifesaving instructor was a YMCA Scuba Instructor and it just flowed, one to the next. Took the class first in '67, again in '68, helped teach in '69 and was finally "certified" in October 1969. Became a YMCA instructor in '73; crossed over to NAUI in '83 and taught diving through the mid-90s. Doing more diving now that I have retired and loving every minute spent UW. Greatest joy has been introducing my granddaughter (then 10) to diving.

 

[Young33]

Well, I caught her eye from across the bar...

I first gained an interest because I wanted to be a S&R diver for the fire department. This was a couple years ago it started, then Christmas 2012 my girlfriend got me my OW classes and books and I have been enamored with it ever since