Hojo in SC
Contributor
It's time to officially introduce myself; my eldest son moved to Guam and called and told me that there is a ship sunk in during WWI and a ship sunk in WWII, and they are close enough to each other to touch each other at the same time, would I be interested in taking dive lessons with him thousands of miles apart.
Naturally I said I'm all in and we started our quest. I took my lessons in a lake, while he took his in the ocean, so I felt he had a distinct advantage. To overcome this, I took class after class, I wanted to know as much as possible and be as proficient and safe as I could possibly be and took the following courses; Advanced, Deep, Nitrox, Peak Buoyancy, Navigation, Drift.
One year late my wife and I made it out to Guam and there were several firsts; my first dive with my son, my first ocean dive, I first dive without much more experienced divers around, my first non-boat dive (beach walk in), and after surfacing, my fist rip tide. Fortunately, I had a lot of lifeguard training and of course the rip tide was covered in OW, and there just happened to be an underwater pipe leading out from the beach to the ocean so we dove back down to it and pulled ourselves in.
A few dive laters we found ourselves with humble regard, touching the SMS Cormoran (WWI) and the Tokai Maru (WWII). It was both a solemn moment and thrill, knowing that the two of us had come a long way to both be able to pay our respects and see a bit of history, which we have done together so many times.
We did many more dives before my wife and I returned back home, my son and I both continued our training as we both took our Rescue class, and this past weekend, I finished up Sidemount.
Now that my son is living back in the states, we plan on getting in many more dives, let the travels begin...
Naturally I said I'm all in and we started our quest. I took my lessons in a lake, while he took his in the ocean, so I felt he had a distinct advantage. To overcome this, I took class after class, I wanted to know as much as possible and be as proficient and safe as I could possibly be and took the following courses; Advanced, Deep, Nitrox, Peak Buoyancy, Navigation, Drift.
One year late my wife and I made it out to Guam and there were several firsts; my first dive with my son, my first ocean dive, I first dive without much more experienced divers around, my first non-boat dive (beach walk in), and after surfacing, my fist rip tide. Fortunately, I had a lot of lifeguard training and of course the rip tide was covered in OW, and there just happened to be an underwater pipe leading out from the beach to the ocean so we dove back down to it and pulled ourselves in.
A few dive laters we found ourselves with humble regard, touching the SMS Cormoran (WWI) and the Tokai Maru (WWII). It was both a solemn moment and thrill, knowing that the two of us had come a long way to both be able to pay our respects and see a bit of history, which we have done together so many times.
We did many more dives before my wife and I returned back home, my son and I both continued our training as we both took our Rescue class, and this past weekend, I finished up Sidemount.
Now that my son is living back in the states, we plan on getting in many more dives, let the travels begin...
