Hi. I'd like to share with everyone my experience as a new diver completing one year of certification. I cerfified PADI OW in Islamorada, FL in October 2022. Upon my return home, my wife was diagnosed with cancer and so I spent the rest of October until December helping her during chemo and radiation. We spent nearly every waking hour enduring together and strengthening our relationship of over 40 years. Today she is cancer-free, but still recovering from the effects of her treatments. We are blessed.
During my in-between hours while she rested, I discovered Scubaboard and began reading and asking lots of questions. Since there are no dive shops in this part of Utah, I knew that I needed to start assembling a gear collection. The essentials of my kit are:
Deep6 Signature 1st and 2nd regs
Subgravity Paragon AlL BP/W with 30 lb wing
Faber HP100
Henderson Thermoprene 5mm full suit over 5/3 hooded vest.
Biggest challenges:
1. Finding a buddy. I live in the middle of nowhere and it took some time to find a buddy. He happens to be the person who took my position when I retired. We dive a local deep cold reservoir. He loves to dive and will go whenever and wherever. Yay!
2. Finding air. There is no shop nearby, but eventually we found that a mutual friend of me and my buddy is the fire chief at the VFD near the lake where we dive. He has been kind enough to fill our tanks.
3. Buoyancy and trim. I did a lot of experimenting with my harness and weighting. Things are better.
Best gear discovery: Steel tanks. The HP100 totally changed the way I dive for the better. Buoyancy and trim made a dramatic improvement.
New Addiction: Scubaboard
Emerging Addiction: Old Scubapro stuff
Future gear: Seaskin Nova. My buddy dives dry. I have to accept the fact that where I live, I'm going to have to get a dry suit to extend the diving season past the June-August window.
Hope for the diving future: a) I yearn for the day when buoyancy control breathing becomes second nature and a swim through the fishes becomes as natural and effortless as a stroll in the park. b) Meet some of you awesome SB people on a dive somewhere.
During my in-between hours while she rested, I discovered Scubaboard and began reading and asking lots of questions. Since there are no dive shops in this part of Utah, I knew that I needed to start assembling a gear collection. The essentials of my kit are:
Deep6 Signature 1st and 2nd regs
Subgravity Paragon AlL BP/W with 30 lb wing
Faber HP100
Henderson Thermoprene 5mm full suit over 5/3 hooded vest.
Biggest challenges:
1. Finding a buddy. I live in the middle of nowhere and it took some time to find a buddy. He happens to be the person who took my position when I retired. We dive a local deep cold reservoir. He loves to dive and will go whenever and wherever. Yay!
2. Finding air. There is no shop nearby, but eventually we found that a mutual friend of me and my buddy is the fire chief at the VFD near the lake where we dive. He has been kind enough to fill our tanks.
3. Buoyancy and trim. I did a lot of experimenting with my harness and weighting. Things are better.
Best gear discovery: Steel tanks. The HP100 totally changed the way I dive for the better. Buoyancy and trim made a dramatic improvement.
New Addiction: Scubaboard
Emerging Addiction: Old Scubapro stuff
Future gear: Seaskin Nova. My buddy dives dry. I have to accept the fact that where I live, I'm going to have to get a dry suit to extend the diving season past the June-August window.
Hope for the diving future: a) I yearn for the day when buoyancy control breathing becomes second nature and a swim through the fishes becomes as natural and effortless as a stroll in the park. b) Meet some of you awesome SB people on a dive somewhere.
