Why did you become a diver?

[CrateCookie]

I got into it since my wife hates bugs (crickets, cicadias, anything that makes noise, et al) and she wanted to go on vacations. Now, I combine camping with diving when I go on trips without her. When I dive with her, the water is a bit nicer.

 

[dry heat diver]

I've had an interest since I was a teenager (about 50 years ago) but never got around to it until three years ago when we were making plans to attend our nephew's wedding in Australia. I decided I wasn't going to miss the chance to see the Great Barrier Reef and I wasn't going to see it from a glass bottom boat so we certified in a local lake (color that mudhole) with 2' vis and then six weeks later we hit the water on the Agincourt Reefs and were totally hooked. Been kicking my own backside ever since for waiting until I became an old gomer to get started. Now we're going every chance we get before we get to old and infirm. It's only time and money. The time is finite, there won't be any survivors and I can't take the dough with me. So far we've managed to do Oz, Fiji, Cozumel, and twice to
Roatan. Can't wait to get wet again.

 

[Dan Weidert]

Sea Hunt, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Flipper and later Jacques Cousteau's shows. My brothers and I would sneak balloons into the pool, blow them up then try breathing off them while holding ourselves underwater using the pool ladder. My stupidity didn't kill me so I grew up and became a diver

Dan

 

[SoCalDiverGirl]

I am a water baby. I have been swimming since before I could walk.

Me too! I've lived near the ocean for most of my life and have spent a great deal of time in it - swimming, body surfing, boogie boarding, snorkeling - as well as in swimming pools. I also enjoying watching the same shows other people have mentioned here, but the idea of scuba diving scared me, so I never really gave it much thought. That is, until a very generous female friend of my husband (then fiance) offered to give me all her gear if I promised to take an OW class. She used to dive but didn't want to anymore. It was an offer I couldn't refuse; I figured if I didn't like it, all I would be out money-wise was the cost of the class. I was hooked by the first breath I took underwater and by the first time I swam along the bottom of the pool without needing to hold my breath. My husband had gotten certified several years before but hadn't been diving for awhile, so he took the OW class with me as a refresher. Classes in the ocean didn't go so well because at the time, in March of '05, the bottom temp was 53 and vis was consistently bad, but fortunately we were going to Jamaica in May to get married, so we postponed finishing the classes until our trip. That clear, 87 degree water sure beat what we had at home. We mostly do shore dives at home now, as long as the bottom temp is above 60; we both dive wet and are too wimpy to get in if it's colder than that. Getting dry suits is on the to-do list.

One of my favorite things about diving with my husband is seeing him after a dive all wet and snotty-nosed, with messy hair and a big smile on his face. He looks pretty good in neoprene, too. :sappy:, I know.

And thanks for starting this thread, Bob. Reading everyone's stories has been fun.

 

[KY_BOB]

Me too! I've lived near the ocean for most of my life and have spent a great deal of time in it - swimming, body surfing, boogie boarding, snorkeling - as well as in swimming pools. I also enjoying watching the same shows other people have mentioned here, but the idea of scuba diving scared me, so I never really gave it much thought.
...

And thanks for starting this thread, Bob. Reading everyone's stories has been fun.

Your most welcome.

What I have learned by this thread is that I'm the odd-ball. Unlike you and most of the respondents, I was not a "water baby". I live in Kentucky, not near the ocean. Neither of my parents can even swim.

When I was about 8, I wanted to learn to swim. They allowed me to take swimming lessons. It was a 5 day class and I quit out of fear after the second day. I still wanted to learn and pretty much taught myself to swim in pools when we took a vacation to someplace that had a pool. As I got older, I went with friends to the lake near town (which I now own a house on) and got more comfortable in uncontrolled environments.

Ever since, I've had a love for the water, be it looking at it looking at it from my couch, a beach, fishing, in a boat, in the water, or (most recently) under it.

I'm not sure why I'm so fascinated by it. Maybe it's trying to overcome my childhood fears, maybe I should have been a water baby. I'm not real sure. Maybe that's why I started this thread.

The story that I told in the first post was 100% true. I'm just not sure why I wanted it so much.

I know that I continually become more comfortable under water and love it. I also love to travel and see new places and things. The two seem to go together well.

 

[tarekaly]

It goes like that:

I love swimming (no muscle strains and no sweat)
I go snorkeling
My Buddy is a diver
I go OW
I continue snorkling
I am also a free diver .......

 

[B.L. Justice]

Quick answer, Chicks dig fat guys in neoprene.

Actually, just wanted to get below the surface and hang out where all the cool critters hang out.

 

[tstormdiver]

Hey Bob! Good to see you in the Stress & Rescue class this week.
My story goes this way,...

I was on a Caribbean cruise that stopped in Grand Cayman. One of the excursions was a resort course. Since I was on vacation to have fun,... I decided "why not"? I went to the dive shop. They ran us through about 20 min. of lectures, 30 min of pool work & then turned us loose on a reef just off shore. I got down there & started looking around. All's I could think was "THIS IS SOOOOOOOO COOL!". To be in the middle of the things going on the reef, the weightless feeling, it was indescribable. I have always been around the water all my life, so being comfortable in the water was never an issue. The next year I was taking another cruise that was going to stop in the Bahamas, Aruba & Curacao. I HAD to get certified. I went through the course & thoroughly enjoyed it. On the cruise I dove in the Bahamas & Aruba. When I got back a local diver found me here on Scubaboard & told me about a local club that had started. I started diving with this gentleman & learned much from him & the others in the club. It was also my first contact with technical divers. I was both intimidated & yet in awe of them & their confidence they exuded. I went on & took continuing education courses & eventually got into the professional ranks by becoming a Dive Con & eventually on to Instructor. I also started to get interested in technical diving & have also actively been pursuing that. I have now been diving a little over 3 1/2yrs & have 315 dives to date.

That's my story & I'm sticking to it.

 

[KY_BOB]

Other than the lack of sleep that it has caused me, I have throughly enjoyed that class. I'll admit that it was a bit of a buzz kill that we didn't get to finish the pool work last night but I'm looking forward to finishing up Saturday at the quarry.

Thanks for your story.

 

[emoreira]

My story.
I'm more than 40 years old.
I have already bought my house, no pain with work, already manager in a Telecom company.
I spent my whole life saving money. After being 40 I decided it was time to spent some money in me.
First thing done, I bought my Jetski. However Scuba has been a pending matter for years. I did my first baptism dive in 1990, however, in summer 2007 I did my second baptism dive and I realized that that was what I wanted to do. Two months later I started the OWD course and in October 2007 I did the checkout in open sea off the coast of Brazil. Since then I been trying to dive at least once every 3 months.