Why do you dive?

[carldarl]

Four years ago we sold our two-story house and bought a single-level with wide halls and french doors. Read... handicap/wheelchair accessable. I was down to using a cane/walker due to multiple (5) failed back surgeries. I went into my "last" back surgery expecting to come out in a wheelchair but hopefully painfree. It was worth the chance.

I was fortunate and have had an unexpectedly successful recovery. I am back to working full-time, but needed to find a new dream-sport. I have had to give up both water and snow skiing, golf, backpacking, softball, tennis, etc. Basically any and all activities that put stress on my spine.

With good bouyancy and the slow, relaxed pace of diving I am pretty much equal to others. Getting to the dive spot (especially shore dives) is the tough part. But, combine that with a 150# weight loss I am feeling pretty lucky.

THE SHORT VERSION? SCUBA ROCKS!!!
I always wanted to try it. My reward for weight loss was to get certified and see if my back would hold up. Here I am. Diving is probably the best therapy I could ever have.

 

[ScubaJewel]

The Men, Divers are so sexy

 

[747pilot]

In the ecosystems that I see underwater I have a reaffirmation that God is even more wonderful than most people (myself included) can imagine.

 

[jeckyll]

I'd already bought the dive watch. I figured, what's an additional $4,000...

 

[toby81]

Diving is a way for me to experience the beauty of nature. You meet interesting people and, of course, it's loads of fun!

 

[superstar]

For me it's the boat ride. I love dive boats, no prissy Burgers, Fedships or yuppie rag baggers for me. I wan't a slow moving deisel burning soot smoking salty ocean smelling cattle boat full of happy story telling divers. I have more stories to tell about the people and events on the boats as I do the dives from the boat. It's all about the boat ride.

 

[whatdecostop?]

Because I'm scared of heights and too sh@# scared of jumping out of a plane, and what if my 'chute don't open ??
Seriously though, in my 15 plus years of diving it's gone from a case of peer pressure to do a OW class when I started, to the 2nd love of my life after my family. You just dont see the things above surface that you see below.

 

[ManTeeRay]

Diving is always a unique combination of serenity, beauty and the thrill that you can't find anywhere else. If anyone has found an activity that compares please clue me (us) in. (I wonder how many smart a-- remarks that'll get me?)

Every time I dive I look forward to a new experience. So far I haven't been disappointed and probably never will.

Actually it might just be the idea of being able to look into the face of something you could have for dinner as well as something that could have you for dinner all within a matter of minutes. (Food for thought).
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A wish for all you all in diving and life:

"May the best you've seen be the worst you'll ever see."

 

[TSandM]

I dive because I've gotten to the point where I can't look at a body of water and not want to be underneath it.

I love the sea life . . . I've always loved science fiction, with strange planets and alien organisms, and never really understood that the alien landscape and strange organisms were only a few feet from the shore. Even a "rubble inspection dive" like the one I led today can have its surprises -- a beautiful nudibranch (nature gave beauty to SLUGS?), a gunnel holed up in a beer bottle, or a remarkably friendly ratfish. But that's not why I dive.

I've always loved challenges, and I've hooked up with some people who are working at making diving an art. Becoming elegant and graceful and absolutely in control in the water is a huge aspiration, and the practices and drills that are helping me along the way are fun in and of themselves. Diving with great, motivated, disciplined people, and fine teachers, is a joy. But that's not why I dive.

From the day we are born, gravity is a relentless dictator. We have to learn to walk, and it costs repeated falls. Our muscles have to work to hold us upright, and over time, all the soft structures of the body (and some of the bony ones) undergo inexorable, gravity-induced change. Those of us who are not astronauts cannot hope to escape the bonds of gravity . . . unless we go underwater. There, for the first time, we can render gravity virtually irrelevant. We can soar and hover and spin, tilt head down to look under something or go vertical to look above. We can pick up a scooter and do barrel rolls. For the time the air in the tank lasts, we are free in an unprecedented and unique way. But that's not why I dive.

I dive because I find myself standing in my kitchen and breathing quietly, in in in pause; out out out pause. Because seeing the scuba gear in my basement makes me want to PM somebody to go diving. Because driving across the Lake Washington bridges makes me wonder what's under there. Because when I'm not diving, I wish I were diving.

Scuba's a drug, and I'm a junkie.

 

[ScubaTwo]

The critters and the peace.