I started diving in 1996 just before I got married. Like all my hobbies in the past, I pursued this one with a tenacity. I wanted to see it all, do it all, experience it all. And I wanted it RIGHT NOW.
I had probably made 80+ dives before seeking actual instruction (no, I don't recommend it, I got really lucky). When I did finally seek instruction it was from this crazy PADI instructor who had been diving for 50+ years and teaching for almost as long. And he did this crazy stuff. He dove in caves.
Well, honestly compared to my dives in the Key's and off Daytona shooting fish and reefs, wrecks, and wildlife, caves were not that pretty. Granted I've never been to Mexico, Brazil or the Bahama caves. But so what, you are underground, there isn't many fish or wildlife. It's just rock and sand, mud or silt. Pick a color, big deal.
And then in 1996 diving in the Ocean in Florida was crap for what seemed like an eternity. Waves were high, lobster and fish were scarce, conditions sucked forever. My friend who instructed me through OW, AOW, Rescue and DM was having fun cave diving while the ocean was crap, so finally I got jealous and took Cavern & Intro with Bill R.
I really didn't care about caves for the aesthetics of it, but it was better than diving the same old springs. Granted there was some eliteness to it and a little bit of an adrenaline rush, but really, shooting fish or being 150' deep on a wreck was cooler. But as I got better at cave diving and doing more and more cave dives something started to change.
What changed was my focus. Being in a cave was serene. My focus wasn't on 10 other people from a dive boat and how what they're doing messes my dive up. My focus wasn't on the arguement me and my wife got in. Or did I remember to make that deposit. Or will I have enough money to get new tires or did I submit that bid for the housing project. Hundreds of stresses and worries that plagued me day to day every day would vanish. In a cave, I had a singular focus. That focus was the cave. That epiphany changed my world. I could submerge myself in that brisk 72 degree water and all my worries, all my stresses, and all my troubles would fade away. I would finish the dive and break the surface of the water and breathe fresh cave country air and feel renewed. I'd feel like I could survive another week. Life was good.
I love cave diving. Even if it is just a rock and dirt underwater.
Why do you do it?
I had probably made 80+ dives before seeking actual instruction (no, I don't recommend it, I got really lucky). When I did finally seek instruction it was from this crazy PADI instructor who had been diving for 50+ years and teaching for almost as long. And he did this crazy stuff. He dove in caves.
Well, honestly compared to my dives in the Key's and off Daytona shooting fish and reefs, wrecks, and wildlife, caves were not that pretty. Granted I've never been to Mexico, Brazil or the Bahama caves. But so what, you are underground, there isn't many fish or wildlife. It's just rock and sand, mud or silt. Pick a color, big deal.
And then in 1996 diving in the Ocean in Florida was crap for what seemed like an eternity. Waves were high, lobster and fish were scarce, conditions sucked forever. My friend who instructed me through OW, AOW, Rescue and DM was having fun cave diving while the ocean was crap, so finally I got jealous and took Cavern & Intro with Bill R.
I really didn't care about caves for the aesthetics of it, but it was better than diving the same old springs. Granted there was some eliteness to it and a little bit of an adrenaline rush, but really, shooting fish or being 150' deep on a wreck was cooler. But as I got better at cave diving and doing more and more cave dives something started to change.
What changed was my focus. Being in a cave was serene. My focus wasn't on 10 other people from a dive boat and how what they're doing messes my dive up. My focus wasn't on the arguement me and my wife got in. Or did I remember to make that deposit. Or will I have enough money to get new tires or did I submit that bid for the housing project. Hundreds of stresses and worries that plagued me day to day every day would vanish. In a cave, I had a singular focus. That focus was the cave. That epiphany changed my world. I could submerge myself in that brisk 72 degree water and all my worries, all my stresses, and all my troubles would fade away. I would finish the dive and break the surface of the water and breathe fresh cave country air and feel renewed. I'd feel like I could survive another week. Life was good.
I love cave diving. Even if it is just a rock and dirt underwater.
Why do you do it?
