It was a year ago today that I did my third and fourth OW cert dives, and became a certified diver.
What a year it's been! I went from not knowing if I even wanted to LEARN to dive, to not being sure I COULD learn to dive, to being fairly sure I didn't WANT to dive in Puget Sound. I finished OW without ever doing a successful descent without holding onto my instructor's BC, so I immediately did AOW because I was afraid to dive without an instructor. It didn't help a lot. I did the PPB dive holding hands with my instructor, and the night dive, too. I couldn't hold hands on the scooter dive, though
I had my first underwater argument with my husband (but not my last). I had my first internet diving date, when I met up with a lovely lady from my LDS who took me on my first tour of "the office" (No, Bob DIDN'T get that honor). I had my first Scubaboard diving date with Bob, which started my serious diving education and brought me a new and now very dear friend.
I had my first tropical diving trip, to Maui, where I learned that diving where you can actually see where you are going is trivial in comparison with Puget Pea Soup. And I dove in Australia and in the Caribbean, and revelled in minimal weight, minimal exposure suit and no hood.
I got introduced to the BP/W/long hose configuration, and got to hear the DMs say, "Be careful you don't strangle yourself on that." I got introduced (darn you, Bob) to HID lights, and have now spent more on them than I did on my first car. In fact, I bought all my gear for diving, and then I bought it again, and now I'm on the third iteration (doubles). I've taken OW and AOW and PPB and Deep and most of Nav and Rescue and, most importantly, DIR-F. And most excitingly, PASSED DIR-F. And realized what a first toehold on competence that actually is . . .
I found Scubaboard (thanks to the same lady who gave me my Cove 2 tour, and turned me on to spring straps, thank you Jackie) and have spent WAY too many hours reading threads and digging through the archives and learning tons. I've made friends in real life from SB (Bob, Rick Inman, Snowbear, JasonH20, stardiver, blitz, kidspot, Justleesa) and friends who remain internet presences for now (Diver0001, PerroneFord, Thalassamania, catherine, Tobin, cerich among them).
I found out you could dive in caves . . .
And I found my dear dive buddy Kirk, with whom I have shared a lot of frustration and fumbling and few delightful high points in the last six months.
I have no idea where the next twelve months will lead me, since I'm completely nonplused at where the last twelve months has led. But I'm sure it will be fun, it will almost certainly be expensive, and a good deal of it will be underwater.
What a year it's been! I went from not knowing if I even wanted to LEARN to dive, to not being sure I COULD learn to dive, to being fairly sure I didn't WANT to dive in Puget Sound. I finished OW without ever doing a successful descent without holding onto my instructor's BC, so I immediately did AOW because I was afraid to dive without an instructor. It didn't help a lot. I did the PPB dive holding hands with my instructor, and the night dive, too. I couldn't hold hands on the scooter dive, though
I had my first underwater argument with my husband (but not my last). I had my first internet diving date, when I met up with a lovely lady from my LDS who took me on my first tour of "the office" (No, Bob DIDN'T get that honor). I had my first Scubaboard diving date with Bob, which started my serious diving education and brought me a new and now very dear friend.
I had my first tropical diving trip, to Maui, where I learned that diving where you can actually see where you are going is trivial in comparison with Puget Pea Soup. And I dove in Australia and in the Caribbean, and revelled in minimal weight, minimal exposure suit and no hood.
I got introduced to the BP/W/long hose configuration, and got to hear the DMs say, "Be careful you don't strangle yourself on that." I got introduced (darn you, Bob) to HID lights, and have now spent more on them than I did on my first car. In fact, I bought all my gear for diving, and then I bought it again, and now I'm on the third iteration (doubles). I've taken OW and AOW and PPB and Deep and most of Nav and Rescue and, most importantly, DIR-F. And most excitingly, PASSED DIR-F. And realized what a first toehold on competence that actually is . . .
I found Scubaboard (thanks to the same lady who gave me my Cove 2 tour, and turned me on to spring straps, thank you Jackie) and have spent WAY too many hours reading threads and digging through the archives and learning tons. I've made friends in real life from SB (Bob, Rick Inman, Snowbear, JasonH20, stardiver, blitz, kidspot, Justleesa) and friends who remain internet presences for now (Diver0001, PerroneFord, Thalassamania, catherine, Tobin, cerich among them).
I found out you could dive in caves . . .
And I found my dear dive buddy Kirk, with whom I have shared a lot of frustration and fumbling and few delightful high points in the last six months.
I have no idea where the next twelve months will lead me, since I'm completely nonplused at where the last twelve months has led. But I'm sure it will be fun, it will almost certainly be expensive, and a good deal of it will be underwater.
)
:cheering:
It may be a while but I would not be surprised to see it happen.
