Why did you become a diver?

[vam302]

I actually didn't know what I was getting myself into. I have always loved working on my project mustang, and shooting my firearms - two hobbies that aren't very cheap.

I always knew that SCUBA diving was something that I would like to try out. When I was in the military I had a guy in my platoon that was real into it, but he went on to do bigger and better things right after I found out he was into diving. After I got out and went to college, I saw that SCUBA was a course offered through the school. Since my coursework consisted of all chemistry, biology, and math, I thought I should take a course "for me", so to speak. After doing my open water, I was hooked. My instructor had already informed the class that next semester the AOW was going on. So, I registered for that class first and worked my science labs around that class time. During the AOW class, my instructor said that, though not offered for college credit, he did teach Nitrox, Rescue, and even Divemaster to qualified AOW graduates.

So, that's how it went with me. I now have 3 different hobbies to spend my money on. It's always a hard choice for me when I have to decide between a new rifle, new set of heads, or a SCUBA trip to somewhere I've never been. Next on the list...BASE jumping.

 

[fnfalman]

I did it because of the babe. There was this hot babe that I dated who was a diver and I've always had a hankering to try out scuba diving. Now, the babe is gone and I'm still diving.

 

[kanonfodr]

My constant snorkel/free-dive buddy and all-around partner in crime jumped me into it. We were hitting Electric Beach on Oahu and he brought Scuba gear. Tried to slave dive off him, but didn't make it too far down. I was hooked and walked into the LDS the next day to sign up for classes.

Peace,
Greg

 

[DOkie]

I never had a love of water or a desire to see what was under it. My name was on the board. No seriously. My husband had been a diver for many years also and it was the same old story of "you should really try it". I went to the LDS one day with my husband and my name was on the board for the OW class. Since then over the years I've walked in to find it up there for AOW, Rescue, Ice, Nitrox and DM. It's been a journey...

 

[Ed Palma]

Got into diving because I'm a gear junkieeeeee....

Seriously though, my brother first took the course, and he was all gung-ho about it. I was busy studying at the time, and cash was hard to come by. Few months later, he took me on a discover scuba-diving dive. Fell in love with it right there and then. Was squealing my head off on the boat trip back to shore.

Its something not everyone can do. It lets you see things others cant.

And it involves a lot of gear

 

[k ellis]

Just my added bonus to why I fell in love with diving. When I did my Molokini Dive and now the Grand Cayman dives I recently dove on there is nothing like looking down 60- 100 + feet and seeing the bottom and watching it come in to focus as if you were parachuteing in.

There is nothing like the view of being in crystal clear water in the world!

 

[I Dive]

I was on a boat one day and lost a penny over the side. I got certified so I could go back and get that penny...

 

[Prostar]

So there I was teaching martial arts with a freind of mine and...Say what?

Really. The guys in the dojo were talking about this quarry. It turns out my freind's father owns a quarry in NC and she went up there some weekends to manage it as it was open to the public back then.
I went up there one weekend and was just kind of hanging out when I saw a group of guys bring another guy (a BIG guy) up from the bus at the other end of the quarry. They towed him all the way across and proceeded to haul him up onto the dock. The big guy was playing dead very convincingly so it was a lot of work for the Rescue Diver class to get him up there. We just sat there and died laughing.
It turns out her dad owns a SCUBA shop and uses the quarry for OW checkout dives.
The rest, as they say, is history.
I turns out that the same person who can teach you a kata or sort out your side kick is the same type of person who can teach you to clear a mask or to not freak out in a pinch.

 

[Blu Diver]

Growing up there were always National Geographic magazines in the livingroom of our house. As we all know there is usually an article or two about some sort of sea life. The pictures and articles fascinated me as a young kid and still do to this very day. My family was always doing something outdoors. My father would take us camping, fishing and water skiing. It was a combination of National Geographic magazines and natural curiosity that drove me to being a diver. The basic question still remains..."What's down there and what's it like?" I got certified when I was 15 years old and have been hooked for 16 years now. There is nothing else like it!

 

[JohnQPS122]

I loved watching Jacques Cousteau on TV in the '70s. My dad was a diver then, too, and although I don't remember ever seeing him dive, I hung out at the dive shop with him a lot in the Summer.

When I got a job at Musicland in the mall my senior year in 1985, the dive shop had moved to the mall and I stopped in there often to talk to the guys I remembered from my youth, and started diving with them that summer.

Diving in quarries here in the Midwest wasn't exactly what I dreamed of when watching Cousteau, but I loved being underwater anyway.

I dove 97 times in two years (only June - October of each year, never under the ice for some reason) and completed my Divemaster certification, hoping to become an instructor someday. But for whatever reasons, I got interested in other things and didn't dive from 1988 to 2008, when I convinced my wife to get certified.

I'm very glad to be back to diving. It's every bit as wonderful as what I remember seeing on TV 30+ years ago.