Why do you dive?

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Tod:
I got tired of wearing that big watch and having to tell people "no, I really don't dive."

OMG, that is too close to the truth :D

That and "It always looks so cool on TV".
 
The closest most people come to sea life is on their plate. They don't know what they're missing ...

In no particular order:

No phones, no traffic, no noise, no ' non-diving' people, no one trying to sell me insurance, no email, no instant messaging, no blackberry's, no phone text messaging, no screaming kids, no nagging ex wife (no nagging lawyer from ex wife), no television, no radio, no newspapers, no Internet, no clients calling to complain, no brainless drive-through fast food people who can't get your order correct, no stoplights, no fedex deliveries, no siblings asking to borrow money, no more stupid aflac commercials .... no stress.

When you see your first Whale Shark gliding through the water graceful as can be (time stands still - it's a perfect moment in time), you won't have to ask why ... just when!

jcf


Regulator - $549; BCD - $639; trip to cozumel; $1759, first breaths underwater - priceless!
 
I grew up in the midwest watching Jacques Cousteau dreaming of doing what I was watching on TV. I've also had a life long obsession with the ocean, sharks and the Pacific Rim.

Then in 1980 I joined the Navy, I was stationed on Midway Island for my first duty station, the first day on the island I was told they had a scuba club and an instructor on the island...the second day I was signing up for scuba lessons. I couldn't belive it! I was actually going to do what I had only dreamed of doing back home.

I had no idea people dove in lakes and rivers for recreation, I thought that was only for police and fire rescue divers. It had never crossed my mind to try and get certified in Illinois.

Anyway, my fondness for the ocean has never waivered, I never feel more comfortable than when I'm on an island somewhere, diving, snorkeling and generally enjoying the whole atmosphere of the tropics.

It was the good Lord's plan to have me here in Texas, but he has also blessed me with the means to go to places like Cozumel and occationally Hawaii and regain the immeasurable peace of enjoying the oceans of the world I love so much.
 
There is no way you could come so close to so many different types of animals on land (without having them in cages). The freedom to move in 3 dimensions. The comraderie with other divers. The fun of learning to use equipment. The feeling of exploration and adventure. I actually have been avoiding the ocean most of my life (I get seasick very easily and my first memory in life was drowning in the family pool). However, I was sent on an assignment to overcome this fear by a magazine I worked for at the time, by getting certified. That was the end of my aversion to water...and the beginning of a newfound love!
 
I dive for one reason and one reason only...you just look so damn cool in all that gear it mesmerizes non-diving folk. (of course there are tons of other reasons, but that one is my favorite)
 
First time I dived I remember thinking that this was a whole new World - the closest I would come to travelling to another planet.

There are the air breathers of planet Earth and the oxygen breathers of planet Ocean.

It's much cheaper than paying US$40-70 million (?) to fly to outer space with the Russians.
 
I got into diving to a part of the Dive team In our local SAR unit. I was already part of the unit and I had wanted to try diving before I ever got in the unit so, why the hell not :D Now I just cant get enough, it is so relaxing to be where and see things most people never will Its amazing!
 
When I was 13, our family spent the entire summer on Puget Sound, between Anacortes and Deception Pass. I spent most of my waking hours investigating the tidepools, bringing home my finds, and displaying them on the front porch in what I thought was a wonderful museum.

That was the start of a lifelong passion for the sea. . . . tidepooling, snorkeling, and now diving.

But I know that the reason I love diving so much goes beyond the wonders I see underwater.

When I let the air out of my BC and sink below the surface, I'm in a different world, with different thoughts and feelings and realities.

When I'm diving, I forget I even have a worry box.
When I'm diving, I'm one with creation, hanging with the trumpet fish, swimming with the silversides, sparring with the clowns in their anemones.

Below the surface, I feel a visceral intensity I experience in few other ways; yet also a peace that I couldn't even begin to explain.

Cheaper than therapy? You bet! And a lot more satisfying!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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