Introverted Scuba Divers

[FPDocMatt]

A patient told me about a woman who came to live in this country for 6 months from another country, then went back. Anyway, scuba diving was her passion. Her dream was to go diving some place in Guam.

The interesting thing is that my patient says she was quite introverted, that she was not comfortable with being here in this country in the situation she was in, and seemed to not be very good with people. Knowing what I know about scuba diving, and the high respect I have for scuba divers, I think it's an interesting picture, somebody who's introverted but is an accomplished diver.

I guess what strikes me is that scuba diving is such an interconnected activity. You just can't do it without strong connections to other people. And to imagine someone being introverted but an accomplished diver seems weird to me--but oddly romantic.

There is a movie about 2 free divers and their lifelong comaraderie and competition. One of them is like that--introverted, feeling more at home with his dolphins than with people.

 

[drrich2]

I guess what strikes me is that scuba diving is such an interconnected activity. You just can't do it without strong connections to other people.

Yes & no. It is possible to get Solo-certified (e.g.: with SDI), and a number of people dive solo without being 'certified' for it. It's possible to boat dive without being especially social, and some destinations (especially Bonaire) offer enough shore diving to keep a diving introvert entertained for a long time.

I'm rather introverted. I recently cleared the 100 dive point, and I'd love to head to Bonaire alone, take the SDI Solo Course, and solo dive the mainstream west coast sites.

Bit of history: I spent a large chunk of my younger years in a very rural area (as in, Mom ran a deer through the front yard in a Jeep once rural - and no, I'm not making that up). I didn't care for hunting, school sports or gardening. Only child, too. Imagine spending a lot of time alone, in a person who historically tended toward a small social circle even beforehand.

I can have fun diving with my wife, brother-in-law or (my main buddy) a very good friend, but the idea of being able to go diving without depending on the active participation of another human being sounds WONDERFUL to me.

I don't consider myself all that 'accomplished,' but I've come back alive so far.

Richard.

 

[TSandM]

I'm introverted to the point of pathology by nature. I mean the kind of person who doesn't want to go to the grocery store, because she'll have to deal face to face with the clerk. And to this day, I'm almost phobic of the telephone.

But diving changed that. If you had told me, ten years ago, that I would meet someone I had never met before at a dive site on the basis of an e-mail, I'd have told you you were crazy. If you told me I was going to do that on a regular basis, and sometimes in large groups, I would have laughed at you. But that's exactly what I do now.

You wrote a while back about how diving had impacted your life in general. That's how it has impacted mine. I can't believe the network of friends I have now, or how often I talked to (and DIVE) with them.