parrottheaddiver
Contributor
I was not drawn to diving out of anything like snorkling (still have never done it) or watching Sea Hunt (it was just a bit ahead of my time.). For me it was just something that I always wanted to do for as long as I could remember. Like many of you guys, I too was a water baby, spending almost every waking minute of my summers in my family's pool. It also didn't hurt that time I spent a lot of time reading books on shipwrecks or going to aquariums, but to me life always seemed more interesting underwater than above.
One year my wife kept asking me what I wanted for Christmas. Kind of off handedly (sp?) I said that I wanted to learn how to dive. We had never before talked about it before so I was a bit surprised when she said that she too had always wanted to learn. Lo and behold on Christmas morning, I open a gift and inside are two gift certificates for OW classes at a nearby dive shop. We were estatic.
We took our class over the winter and lucked out that there were only two other students in it with us. We practically had private instruction, which gave us lots of extra time to practice our basic skills and ask questions during the classroom portion. A few months later we travelled to Texas to visit some of her family and did our checkout dives in the warm waters of Lake Travis. The idea of diving in the cold New Jersey water was just not too enticing to her. I remember descending to the first platform and staring in wide eyed wonderment at the number of fish that were swimming around. It was absolutely beautiful. I was in heaven. I didn't even mind the bluegills attacking my ears, probably getting me back for all their breathern that I have pulled out of lakes and streams in all my years of fishing. We breezed through our skills on our checkout dives without so much as the slightest hiccup. Even our instructor remarked that we appeared quite comfortable underwater. While he may have been just saying that to boost our confidence, I truly did feel completely at ease underwater...almost like I belonged there.
Well its been a few years since we were certified, and unfortunately work and life just doesn't allow us to get out more than maybe once or twice a year. I guess that relegates us to the status of "vacation divers", but it also just makes us savor the time that we do get to go...even it if is only for one day. After reading some of the other stories here though, it actually bolsters my morale to see that we are not alone and that others have been through diving droughts before. It will be easier when our son can dive with us (in two years), so until then I just live vicariously through all you guys here.
I just think of this as on long surface interval
.
One year my wife kept asking me what I wanted for Christmas. Kind of off handedly (sp?) I said that I wanted to learn how to dive. We had never before talked about it before so I was a bit surprised when she said that she too had always wanted to learn. Lo and behold on Christmas morning, I open a gift and inside are two gift certificates for OW classes at a nearby dive shop. We were estatic.
We took our class over the winter and lucked out that there were only two other students in it with us. We practically had private instruction, which gave us lots of extra time to practice our basic skills and ask questions during the classroom portion. A few months later we travelled to Texas to visit some of her family and did our checkout dives in the warm waters of Lake Travis. The idea of diving in the cold New Jersey water was just not too enticing to her. I remember descending to the first platform and staring in wide eyed wonderment at the number of fish that were swimming around. It was absolutely beautiful. I was in heaven. I didn't even mind the bluegills attacking my ears, probably getting me back for all their breathern that I have pulled out of lakes and streams in all my years of fishing. We breezed through our skills on our checkout dives without so much as the slightest hiccup. Even our instructor remarked that we appeared quite comfortable underwater. While he may have been just saying that to boost our confidence, I truly did feel completely at ease underwater...almost like I belonged there.
Well its been a few years since we were certified, and unfortunately work and life just doesn't allow us to get out more than maybe once or twice a year. I guess that relegates us to the status of "vacation divers", but it also just makes us savor the time that we do get to go...even it if is only for one day. After reading some of the other stories here though, it actually bolsters my morale to see that we are not alone and that others have been through diving droughts before. It will be easier when our son can dive with us (in two years), so until then I just live vicariously through all you guys here.
I just think of this as on long surface interval
.
