What's your most memorable, non-life threatening dive?
When I first got trained I had a good OW course and felt (and still do) that I was well trained for a beginner in the context of the time. But just like the first time you drive your car solo on the freeway, there are nerves. The weekend after we got certified I went diving with one of my OW class-mates at the same site where we had last check out dives the week before.
At that point I had a little trouble with navigation and wasn't very sure of myself without the instructor to lean on. My buddy was even worse. I noticed him looking to me for a plan.....
So we entered the water and swam a similar line to the last OW checkout dive we did. During the dive I got ... well ... lost. Instead of surfacing to see where we were I started working my way to the shallows. The dive went from a dive at about 50ft to a dive at about 10ft of water -- or less -- and I had the most surprising revelation. In the shallows we had *the most* amazing time.
I'll never forget that dive. On a scale of 1-10 for complexity this dive was a zero but it taught me that having a lot of water above your head doesn't make the dive more interesting.
R..