What a difference two years makes

[TSandM]

I went diving with Bob today.

That would hardly merit a Scubaboard post (if it did, I'd have an awful lot of them) except for this: I planned the dive, at a site neither of us had dived before. I got the directions and the site map, read the reviews, and planned the time. When we got in the water, it wasn't as mentor and learner, or instructor and student -- It was as fellow divers and friends, bent on exploring and seeing what was there to be seen. The visibility was fairly poor, and as it turned out, despite the directions, we managed to miss the rock reef we were after. But we wandered around underwater and found a bunch of beautiful alabaster nudibranchs, some crabs and clams and sea cucumbers, and generally enjoyed ourselves. We discussed our direction from time to time, and on the way in, agreed to surface and check our relationship to the exit beach at one point. And we were pretty much right on.

Two years ago, I would never have been brave enough to go dive a site where neither of us had been. I would have been stressed by the poor visibility, and terribly worried about the navigation. The surf we ran into at our exit would probably have knocked me down, and carrying the gear up the hill to the car would have been all I could do.

What a difference two years makes!

 

[almitywife]

What a difference two years makes!

 

[crazyTomato]

Congratulations!!!!!!! I can only hope I'll be fifth of a diver that you are.

Every single point you made in your post hit home, and hopefully I'll reach the same road that you're on now. Techie excepted.

 

[jbd]

I went diving with Bob today.

That would hardly merit a Scubaboard post

It would for me. Its a goal I hope to achieve before my sands of time run out.

As for all the rest of your post----very, very nice!!!! Especially when one is aware of your beginnings in scuba. What a wonderful progression!!!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I told Lynne two years ago that she would end up teaching me things ... and she has, and she continues to ...

Sometimes payback's a pretty cool thing ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[HybridDiver]

Nice , TSandM has taught me alot of things and I mean ALOT of things. She pretty much taught me Gas planning, Bob Sent me his hand out. Very nice people

 

[opalobsidian]

TSandM is my hero!
As a poster, she always has gives fantastic information, and is NEVER condescending! I imagine that as a diver she is exempliary and I would love be able to learn from her in an actual dive situation (but in warm waters!)

Pamela

 

[Rick Inman]

I went diving with Bob today.

What a difference two years makes!

And a few hundred dives!

Considering the classes you've taken and the people you get to dive with and your attitude and tenacity, it is inevitable!

 

[ClayJar]

Congrats, TSandM!

One year ago right now, I was on the boat with J. coming back from the last dive of our checkout trip. A few weeks later, she and I did three dives on Memorial Day weekend, and as she's currently teaching in Japan, that's been the sum of her diving.

Meanwhile, I'm in the low three digits of logged dives, I have a backplate and wing, a drysuit, lots of other stuff, and the training and experience to use it all wisely (and well, I'd hope). Someone at one of the dive sites this weekend even complimented me on my form. (He said he thought I was a cave diver at first, until he noticed the single on my back and the slung pony. )

Someday, I'll have to get up there to dive with all these names I see. (You can teach me about surf entries and exits, since I don't get those here.) For now, however, I'll just note that at the end of my rinse dive in the springs (to get the Gulf salt out of my gear), I just *had* to pull out my lift bag and practice shooting it in full dry-gloves-and-all regalia (while holding a stop).

 

[TSandM]

ClayJar, watch out . . . The suction of the dark side is getting to you

the people you get to dive with

That's the key. I'm incredibly lucky to have some superbly skilled buddies. (Why they put up with me, I don't know, but they do!) I owe a lot of thanks to the people who have patiently watched me yo-yo while trying to do stops, or people like my dear dive buddy, who contrived the SMB-shooting assembly line (I shoot, hand it to him, he gives me his, pulls mine down and deflates it and rerolls it for reshooting) so I could get more than one bag shoot done in a dive . . . And it all pays off in days like yesterday, or experiences like our cenote tours, or the lovely team diving we did on the Cozumel reefs.