JohnVranesevich
Registered
Greetings All:
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has been participating in these forums for the past year and a half. That's about how long I've been visiting this site on a regular basis as a lurker.
I've always been fascinated with the ocean, and started keeping a reef tank a few years ago. I absolutely love them! In the process of learning about marine life, so that I could do justice to the wonderful creatures that were entrusted into my care, I started reading more and more from people that not only kept tanks, but that also were into scuba. Which brought me to these forums....
At the time, I was living in Pittsburgh, PA. I had a busy schedule, and couldn't really travel, and there isn't exactly anything beautiful to look at in the area (except maybe some of the world's largest catfish that were created do to strange combinations of toxic pollutants in the Ohio River).
About 8 months ago I moved here to Orlando Florida. Needless to say, this is a diver's Mecca, with shops all over the place, and dive clubs taking day and weekend trips all the time. Boy was I excited!
One problem, I realized that hey, I can't swim, and had only been in a swimming pool maybe 4 times in my entire life. So, I have spent the last 7 months going down to the pool here at the complex where I live every day religiously, sometimes 2x a day. I also made the occasional trips to the local wave pools, and the beach, just for good measure..
After 7 months, I am now proud to say that I am 100% comfortable in the water, and consider myself a very strong swimmer as well.
Last week, I finally went down to my local PADI dive shop (The ExtaSea Dive Center. Incredibly friendly and knowledgeable individuals!), and signed up for private one-on-one lessons. I've watched the videos, been through the books, and on Monday I'll start my pool dives!
Again, I can't thank everyone on here enough for helping to both educate and inspire me. I have learned so much from the collective experiences that have been shared on this board, that I feel I couldn't possibly be more prepared to begin what I'm sure will become a life long adventure under the water!
Now that I will be entering the world of scuba diving, you can look for me to be more of a participant, instead of a lurker, on this forum in the future.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has been participating in these forums for the past year and a half. That's about how long I've been visiting this site on a regular basis as a lurker.
I've always been fascinated with the ocean, and started keeping a reef tank a few years ago. I absolutely love them! In the process of learning about marine life, so that I could do justice to the wonderful creatures that were entrusted into my care, I started reading more and more from people that not only kept tanks, but that also were into scuba. Which brought me to these forums....
At the time, I was living in Pittsburgh, PA. I had a busy schedule, and couldn't really travel, and there isn't exactly anything beautiful to look at in the area (except maybe some of the world's largest catfish that were created do to strange combinations of toxic pollutants in the Ohio River).
About 8 months ago I moved here to Orlando Florida. Needless to say, this is a diver's Mecca, with shops all over the place, and dive clubs taking day and weekend trips all the time. Boy was I excited!
One problem, I realized that hey, I can't swim, and had only been in a swimming pool maybe 4 times in my entire life. So, I have spent the last 7 months going down to the pool here at the complex where I live every day religiously, sometimes 2x a day. I also made the occasional trips to the local wave pools, and the beach, just for good measure..
After 7 months, I am now proud to say that I am 100% comfortable in the water, and consider myself a very strong swimmer as well.
Last week, I finally went down to my local PADI dive shop (The ExtaSea Dive Center. Incredibly friendly and knowledgeable individuals!), and signed up for private one-on-one lessons. I've watched the videos, been through the books, and on Monday I'll start my pool dives!
Again, I can't thank everyone on here enough for helping to both educate and inspire me. I have learned so much from the collective experiences that have been shared on this board, that I feel I couldn't possibly be more prepared to begin what I'm sure will become a life long adventure under the water!
Now that I will be entering the world of scuba diving, you can look for me to be more of a participant, instead of a lurker, on this forum in the future.
