OK OK, ... I apologize... I Iive and dive Foridia which means I'm lazy, spoiled, blah, blah, blah...But today the Gulf Stream is more than 20 miles off the east coast, water temp is 79 degrees at depth, and a NW wind is giving us beautiful conditions for 3-5 miles off the coast. So my observation may not make any sense for the the macho divers from New Joisey, or the divers in square states who dive on the internet more than they dive in water...
What a wonderful thing it is to dive... and when "enjoy" is not part of the dive report, something is wrong. We ain't supposed to be writing and discussing dying... We ain't supposed to be wondering why we survived the dive. WTF!?!? Diving is exploring, and that is not a life-threatening event. Of course land mammals are ill-suited for UW activity. Of course this is a foreign environment. But good training, and even a modicum of self awareness should result in behavior and dispositions that allow us to enjoy this activity!!
So today I spent time with good friends. We ate brekkie. We loaded gear on the boat. We plodded out to a lovely reef. Descend. Explore. Visit the yellow ray. Laugh at a filefish. Make sure the ghost trap is not holding any sea life. Ponder the + and - of recovering an anchor that has grown into the reef. And then stop and chat with a turtle that is older than all of us. When the barnacles are bigger than golf balls, and when the turtle's head is bigger then the divers' heads, s/he has earned the right to be left alone, so we avert our path and let this old man / old woman be.
16+ kayaks were in the area, so of course the conditions were "soft". And nobody on this trip thought it was wise to yelp, squawk, complain, or bitch about conditions, other divers, or other boats... because a dive is a fortunate opportunity to explore, and that's what we did today. It we're lucky, that's what we'll do tomorrow as well!
May all your dives be enjoyable... and may you learn to enjoy them!
What a wonderful thing it is to dive... and when "enjoy" is not part of the dive report, something is wrong. We ain't supposed to be writing and discussing dying... We ain't supposed to be wondering why we survived the dive. WTF!?!? Diving is exploring, and that is not a life-threatening event. Of course land mammals are ill-suited for UW activity. Of course this is a foreign environment. But good training, and even a modicum of self awareness should result in behavior and dispositions that allow us to enjoy this activity!!
So today I spent time with good friends. We ate brekkie. We loaded gear on the boat. We plodded out to a lovely reef. Descend. Explore. Visit the yellow ray. Laugh at a filefish. Make sure the ghost trap is not holding any sea life. Ponder the + and - of recovering an anchor that has grown into the reef. And then stop and chat with a turtle that is older than all of us. When the barnacles are bigger than golf balls, and when the turtle's head is bigger then the divers' heads, s/he has earned the right to be left alone, so we avert our path and let this old man / old woman be.
16+ kayaks were in the area, so of course the conditions were "soft". And nobody on this trip thought it was wise to yelp, squawk, complain, or bitch about conditions, other divers, or other boats... because a dive is a fortunate opportunity to explore, and that's what we did today. It we're lucky, that's what we'll do tomorrow as well!
May all your dives be enjoyable... and may you learn to enjoy them!
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