I had never thought about diving much since I live in Illinois, but after working on staff at a Boy Scout National Jamboree my thinking changed. At the Jamboree they gave staff a chance to go to the scuba pools after hours and try it out. Needless to say I caught the bug. Then after my wife and I had the chance to go to Hawaii in 2005 I really had the bug. I told my wife that if we had the chance to go back I would be certified. As we started to plan for a trip in November of 2009 I started to search for a place to get certified. I was able to get certified May 2009 through a local university. Since then I have logged about 30 dives. To date the most spectacular has been off the island of Kauai, Hawaii.