So why did you do it?

[TMHeimer]

Ironically, it was because I couldn't find an Internet snorkeling forum. After all, everything worth doing (and plenty of things that aren't) have enthusiast Internet forums, right? After some snorkeling experiences that were truly incredible (St. John, USVI and Kona, HI) and some that were terrible (Nassau, Bahamas), I looked around for a snorkeling forum and could not find one. Basically everyone who really enjoys seeing things in the water becomes a scuba diver, apparently!
Then I searched on these forums to find a good dive shop to get certified at, being prepared that I'd probably have to spend at least a couple weekends in Monterey. but it turned out that people recommended Dive 'N Trips, which is practically next door to me in Pleasanton. The rest is history...

Snorkeling is so important. It addresses basic airway stuff and gives you a heads up when starting OW. I had snorkeled for decades before taking OW. I almost think it should be a prerequisite. I snorkeled at St. John as well back in 1999 and found a great Queen Conch in 8 feet of water.

 

[Storker]

When I was a kid, my siblings and I spent most of our summer vacation in the water, wearing swimming trunks, fins, a mask and a snorkel. I made my own spear from a stick and a straightened-out fishing hook. Caught one or two minuscule flounders and was proud as heck. When we got too cold, we got out of the water, donned our track suits believing they'd work somewhat like wetsuits and jumped in again. When our mother finally got us out of the water, we were blue around the lips and shivering uncontrollably ("n-n-n-no, n-n-n-not c-c-c-cold at all!"). By the end of summer, we were chestnut brown on our backs and milky white on the chest and stomach. I devoured J-Y C's books. One of my uncles was a diver, he gave me a book about diving as a birthday present, and I devoured that as well. (On a side note, I still have it, and it's pretty fun to open it to read about the gear they had back in those days). I was convinced I was going to start diving.

And then life¹ happened. Puberty, girls, booze, college, serious girlfriend, marriage, home, mortgage, kids, career. Time became a precious commodity. Starting diving became a distant dream, and I sort of resigned to the thought that it wasn't happening in this life. Maybe in my next one? Then, when one of my kids was in their mid-teens, they got the bug as well. And they got a dive class as a b-day present from my parents. Well, you shouldn't dive alone, so the kid needed a buddy. And since my SO was less than thrilled with the thought of venturing underwater, and that just that had been my dream when I was young, it was obvious who should make the sacrifice. So, I certified OW just one year before the big 5-0. Now I'm Rescue certified, working on my 3* cert and have been seriously involved in the local diving community for some five-six years.

It's funny how life¹ changes.


¹ It's what happens while you're busy making other plans

 

[BikerBecca]

So why'd I do it? Because I love the ocean and swimming so very much. I grew up on Long Island and have been in the ocean since I was two years old. There's super 8 film of toddler me jumping off the back of our boat into the Great South Bay at two years old with my life jacket on. I learned to swim by age four and the only sport I did in Jr and Sr High School was the swim team. In the late 80's I did a discover scuba in Cozumel and was immediately hooked. When I returned from my vacation I immediately signed up for my open water certification. I think the dive shop was in the flat iron building in NYC, does anyone remember that shop? Anyway, the next night I broke my ankle and had to cancel my open water class because I couldn't dive with a broken ankle and I needed the money for medical bills. I didn't sign up again when I got well because at the time I was focused on flying competition aerobatics and was doing that regularly through the entire 1990s.

Fast forward to 2016 and a good friend of mine wanted me to get certified because his wife didn't like diving in the cold water in Monterey. I said, "OMG YES!!!" I've always wanted to get certified and I promised him it would be my 2017 new year's resolution. True to my word I was certified in April 2017 and he ended up creating a monster. I fell in love with diving far more than I could have ever imagined. I was diving every weekend. I was taking specialties. I was AOW by 2018 and my dive shop noticed my passion. They told me of an upcoming meeting about going pro and they told me to attend. I did and thought it would be just a pipe dream. Me? A Divemaster? Me? An Instructor? Well, I decided to go for it because I love diving so much and wanted to share it with everyone. Now i'm a Divemaster and I'm staring Assistant Instructor soon.

Better late than never I guess, but I am so glad I did get certified because it changed my entire life in all the best ways possible.

 

[jonhall]

Our friends invited us to go to Grand Cayman with them and 2 other couples during spring break 1998. They decided to take a scuba course at a local dive outfit which we also did so we could all do some dives in GC. My wife and I had been water safety instructors, coaching and teaching swimming, and managing some of the city's swimming pools, so we were around water a lot. The scuba skills came fairly easy but it was a lot of money (also purchased masks, fins, and snorkels.) and we really didn't know if we would dive beyond the 4 checkout dives in GC.

As it turned out, circumstances led us to St. Croix 7 years later where we dove again, and again the next year, and the next. Now we travel 2-3 times a year, and although my wife had to give up diving (ear issues), I still dive most places we go.

 

[loosenit2]

I initially got certified in college. I had extra scholarship money so said what the hell, used it all the way to through rescue course. Then took a good long break because I didn't live in places where diving was readily accessible.

Flash forward 20 years, my 13 year old daughter expressed an interest in becoming a Marine Biologist. In an attempt to find more things that she and I could do together I suggest that she learn to Scuba Dive as a way to support her interests. I take a refresher while she takes Open Water. Wallah...she loves it, I rediscover that I love it, and a lot $$$ later we are discovering it together.

 

[Adam Wright]

Never had the means or opportunity to get certified until I ended up on a long term Job in Maui. Foreman found a local PADI instructor that certified us for $400 and been hooked on diving ever since.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

My first wife grew up in the Nevada desert. She watched Sea Hunt every week and wanted to dive, despite living hundreds of miles from the ocean. I grew up mostly in Los Angeles County and San Francisco until I was thirteen. I loved playing in the ocean, but the thought of sticking my head under water scared me to death. When we got married, she suggested we try free diving. I had never even snorkeled before. Every time I heard a drop of water in my snorkel, I gagged. I just could not do it. She was really disappointed.

One day while she was working late, I went down to the beach and forced myself to hold my face underwater. I heard the dreaded water in the snorkel but kept at it until a light went on in my head. I ran home, called her with the good news and we became free divers the next weekend. We would climb down goat trails and swim past crashing waves over rocks just to see what was out there. One day we saw a Leopard shark and a batray (both harmless) and wanted to spend more than a minute or so with them. We signed up for a one month course and made 628 dives together before we began diving solo as well as making our marriage solo.

Five years later I read about a new diver who was fascinated about the marine life she was seeing. I really wanted to meet her. She showed up with her club at my favorite local dive site, Marineland. A week later I asked her to dive with me. Merry and I have been together ever since and have made 977 dives with each other.

Our common interest in marine life has kept our love of diving going strong. I'm as excited about most of our dives as I was when I was a new diver. I've known a lot of divers who were in it for various reasons. Some just liked the feeling of floating in three-dimensional space. Some wanted to become "elite" divers. After they achieved their greatness, there was nothing else drawing them to the water so they moved on. I think it will take a catastrophic health event to stop me from doing what I enjoy most, spending as much time underwater with Merry as I can.

 

[Pullnglide]

My wife took a semester SSI ow class in college. We went to Nassau for our honeymoon. 8/20/10 she said “let’s go try this diving thing”. Those 6 words have cost us $100k+ . We went down to the dive shop at the resort for a DSD. It lasted all of 20 mins. An hour later I was in 40’ of water. Looking back it was definitely not a good idea. I was hooked immediately. 11/20/10 I completed OW in a 52 degree lake w/ terrible vis and high temps of mid 30’s, low teens in the mornings. We were just talking this morning about how much money we’d have if it weren’t for diving. If given the chance to do it all over again, I’d do the exact same thing.

 

[JamesBon92007]

Our common interest in marine life has kept our love of diving going strong. I'm as excited about most of our dives as I was when I was a new diver. I've known a lot of divers who were in it for various reasons. Some just liked the feeling of floating in three-dimensional space. Some wanted to become "elite" divers. After they achieved their greatness, there was nothing else drawing them to the water so they moved on.

So the next thread will be "What's Keeps You Diving."

I am also very fortunate to have a girlfriend dive buddy. I must say I was very surprised when she first said she wanted to try it at about age 64. We both love it mainly because of the incredible beauty in the oceans plus, more recently, we are doing a small part to help preserve and possibly even restore a few little pieces of it*. In the beginning I just plain loved being underwater and seeing everything, all the time thinking I would like to take pictures of what I saw. After trying a couple of instant cameras I finally housed my Canon SLR. The wide-angle port never got much use but the macro lens sure did. I also built a housing for a Super 8 movie camera but that was surprisingly expensive. Now I spend much of my time taking videos, which is very inexpensive and it's fun to watch the videos between trips. I also like to fiddle around with various gadgets and modifications of my dive gear so I always have some kind of project going and something new (or perhaps re-introduced) to try out on the next dive. Some of it amounts to building a better mousetrap but I sure enjoy the experience, from conception to finally trying it out. Several years ago I ended up living too far from the ocean so I tried going to some dive club meetings. It turned out that I didn't really relate to anyone there. The motivations for scuba diving are quite varied but I didn't meet anyone that simply loved to go scuba diving. A few of the other reasons that I learned for becoming a scuba diver are: Identity--belonging to a specific group; fascination with the equipment; as mentioned, to get every certification card as a personal achievement; prestige; dying with the most toys; sharing the underwater beauty through photography; the thrill of danger; trying to make a living doing something you enjoy; to save the world*; and to boldly go where no man has gone before. Different strokes for different folks.

Meanwhile, like you said, it would take something extremely major to stop me from diving. At 66 I no longer do the beach dives that require scaling the bluffs and prefer not to dive any more during major storms. I keep thinking the doctors are going to come up with some magic to restore my endurance but meanwhile I eat right, get lots of exercise, and try to keep things going for as long as I can. After seeing videos of a woman scuba diving in a wheel chair I'm confident that I have many years of diving left!

 

[Darcimus]

Wife and I got married in January 2017 in PDC. Our resort had a diving school attached to it. I'm not a "sit by the pool and drink until I pee myself" guy, and it was damn hot down there. Also, she wouldn't let me rent a seadoo for eight hours a day, so I took the plunge and did my OW there.

Wife probably should have let me rent the seadoo. It would have been cheaper over the long run. I think she kicks herself every time I order something new. As soon as we got off the plane I was searching for dive shops to buy stuff at. I don't even think we were fully unpacked and I had already spent about $3000. Yikes.