Remember your first dive?

[DawgFan]

I took a scuba PE class in college. Seemed like a good idea when I started the class in September. Realized it wasn't such a good idea when I did my check out dives in the cold of Virginia in December in a wetsuit that didn't really fit and water with 3 foot viz. Breathing underwater was really cool but mostly I remember shivering. My girlfriend at the time (now wife) was smarter and took the class in the Spring semester with May dives but the same 3 foot viz. We both got our PADI c-card and never dove with it. That was 30 years ago.

Last summer with our 2 boys in their teens we started over and all 4 of us got certified. Did our classroom and pool work at home but learned something from the prior college experience and we did out check out dives in Grand Cayman. First dive there with the wife and kids, warm water, high viz and cool marine life is definitely memorable. We're approaching 50 dives over the last year but that first one got us hooked.

I love this thread. As a new diver it often seems that some on ScubaBoard came out of their mother's womb as a diver knowing everything. Good to know there's some memory that we all started with a first dive!

 

[TMHeimer]

First dive that made an impression---I don't know.
First dive post-OW cert. (ei. Dive #1) was at Vortex Spring on the FL panhandle in Jan./2006. I was told I could easily find a buddy there, but found that everyone was buddied up and already in groups. As a brand new diver I didn't want to just bust in and ask to join a buddy team, etc. As well, I was a little concerned that I might look "awkward" gearing up for my first time outside of class. So, I dived SOLO! Mostly 20-30 feet, but I did go down the line to 54' and thought I may have had DCS afterward when doing my dive tables--well I was only down 54 feet for like 3 minutes, then back up to "safety" where divers were all over the place. I did manage to have my tank slip on that dive. Next time I dived solo after that day was after dive # 75.
Then they sold me the wetsuit I RENTED, but didn't give me credit for the rental as part of the sale price. But hey, everybody's got to make a living..
I did a few more courses there in '07 en rte. to PADI MSD.
For me, beginning to dive was not an otherworldly experience. I had snorkeled ("free dived", though very shallow) for like 40 years. Having a tank just meant the freedom to stay down and of course go a lot deeper.

 

[seeker242]

I remember my first deeper dive in open water training. It was on a 70' wreck that every local dive shop uses to do open water training. Saw several people wandering around with no buddy. Saw several people unknowingly kicking sand and silt everywhere. Saw one lady with her tank strap loose and the tank floating away from her, without her even knowing about it. My instructor swam over and grabbed it after it was upside down, just as it was about to pull the regulator out of her mouth. Saw two people bolt for the surface, both of which had a guy hanging on their BC trying to slow them down...Very memorable dive! Ultimately, it was the dive that convinced me to do GUE fundamentals because I decided I was never going to be one of those people!

 

[mcpowell]

I remember my first deeper dive in open water training. It was on a 70' wreck that every local dive shop uses to do open water training. Saw several people wandering around with no buddy. Saw several people unknowingly kicking sand and silt everywhere. Saw one lady with her tank strap loose and the tank floating away from her, without her even knowing about it. My instructor swam over and grabbed it after it was upside down, just as it was about to pull the regulator out of her mouth. Saw two people bolt for the surface, both of which had a guy hanging on their BC trying to slow them down...Very memorable dive! Ultimately, it was the dive that convinced me to do GUE fundamentals because I decided I was never going to be one of those people!

Good Lord! In my mind, this is all happening at the same time. Kinda like that scene in Jaws where all the boats are going after the shark at the same time.

 

[stretchthepenn]

My first actual dive outside the YMCA pool is etched in my mind. The date was December 21, 1996. I picked up my dive buddy--a fellow YMCA lifeguard--at his house, and we met up with our classmates and instructor in Corona del Mar, CA, at a place on the beach called Reef Point. (I couldn't find it again if you paid me.)

I felt nervous. The ocean wasn't exactly roaring, but I didn't much care for the foot-and-a-half breakers washing ashore, and the combo of a chilly breeze and slate-gray sky didn't help matters much; it was pretty much the opposite of a pleasant SoCal day. Plus, the turbulent, sandy beach water gave me the shivers. I'd always (always) hated being in water where I couldn't see the bottom. God alone knew what was underneath. Stingrays. Crabs. Great white sharks. Or even worse, seaweed! Ewwwwwww! Every time I'd ever gone to the beach and boogie-boarded, I always got the heebie-jeebies and had to psych myself up in order to get beyond the shallows and catch a decent swell.

Did I really want to do this? Well, I paid for it. It was probably going to suck, but I wasn't gonna chicken out. Might as well do it.

We students donned our rental gear, did our checks, waddled into the gray surf after our instructor like ungainly ducklings, and turned to meet the Pacific. Oh, great. The waves were thumping me. I couldn't see ****. It really did suck.

But then, once I got out about twenty feet from the shoreline and descended below the surface wave action, things got easy. Instead of whirling sand, I could actually see my buddy, and whaddya know...that there wasn't anything freaky waiting to nab me. Sand, that's all there was, and the sand was on a gentle slope, too. That wasn't so bad. And I wasn't getting washed around so much; the little bit of surge was totally no big deal. Oh...and over there, down at about thirty feet, there was a big-ass rock. It looked kinda cool...and what was that around it? Orangey fish?! Those must be garibaldi! You mean there were real live fish out there? Coooooool.

Twenty-nine minutes and a handful of skills-drills later, we dragged our waterlogged carcasses out for a surface interval before our second dive. I'd had an amazing-good time, and I've been diving (not always as often as I'd like, of course) ever since.

 

[Resqdivemedic]

My first dive was in 1987 in a lake in eastern Connecticut. I still remember how clear the water was. Went back there last year and it is still as clear as I remember it.

 

[drbill]

1962 and have been trying to forget it ever since. Not hard to do at my age. Tee hee.

 

[covediver]

I do indeed. 1984. I just celebrated its 34th anniversary, hope to return to the spot (or nearby) next year to celebrate the 35th. Wasn't much of a log book keeper back then, even less so now, but I do keep a travel journal today for trips. I had a basic diver certification, one skin dive at Arroyo Burro Beach, two boat dives at Anacapa Island and I was certified. I figured that I would just quit after that in a been there, done that, bucket list moment. " Dozens of friends, thousands of dives, hundreds of thousands of miles getting to and from dive sites later, I was mistaken in my initial belief.View media item 206082

 

[ZzzKing]

Like the OP, my first dive was at John Pennekamp. My wife splashed first, took a very small giant stride and had her tank hit her in the back of the head. She then proceed to begin sinking because she didn’t have any air in her BC. Ever since, I have been designated first in the water. 20 minutes into the dive, we were buzzed by a pod of dolphins. I thought, “this diving stuff is going to be pretty cool”. I didn’t see dolphins on a dive agin for 10 years.

 

[ml47542]

1986, Black See, USSR. Instructor:“Now you go diving. That is your buddy, he is experienced, has 40 hours under the belt. You get one tank for you both. Should be full. One dives, another secures from the surface, so don’t go too deep. If there’s a problem with air, pull the reserve cable. After some time you change. Have fun. Ah, BTW, the mouthpiece is missing, but this is good, you wouldn’t bite it off. Hold the second stage with a hans at you mouth.“ No BCD, no SPG, no depthmeter, no watch. Tons of fun. I was 22.