Why do you dive?

[REVAN]

What are the reasons that you took up diving, and what reasons have kept you diving?

When I think about it, I find that I have had many different reasons over the years. My reasons have continually changed and evolved over time.

It started with adventure and exploration. I wanted to see what was down there. I went through a companionship phase, where it was something to do with new friends. I went through a learning phase when I got into tech diving.

Eventually I got to a simple enjoyment phase, where I was diving just for the enjoyment of being in the water. The tech diving is gone now. I just want to have fun like the sea lions that playfully dash about in the water. It almost doesn't matter if I'm in Hawaii with mantas or in a clear lake with little to see but rocks and sand. As long as I can see what's around me for spacial awareness, I'm happy swimming and experiencing the water.

I'm still in that phase. For whatever reasons, I seem to find enjoyment with the feeling of the water flowing past me and experiencing that feeling of flight underwater.

What about you?

 

[FinnMom]

It's a fun sensation, pretty scenes, interesting and even educational sights, enjoyable physical activity, enjoyable activity to spend time with others and an engaging challenge to perfect skills as a diver, naturalist and photographer. It also completely frees my mind from what ever stresses or problems might have been weighing me down.

It's absolutely amazing that for the per-dive cost of a gas fill (club membership 50 euros/yr allows Nx at 40 euros/yr) I can enjoy such an exceptional experience.

 

[Diver0001]

I was a water baby. From the time I was very little my parents couldn't keep me out of the water. I learned to dive when I went to university because I was living in Vancouver and it's on the coast. My uncle was a marine biologist and he insisted that I learn.

I keep diving because I'm addicted. It's a part of my life and my identity at this point.

R..

 

[BuguSK]

Like Diver0001 my parents could never get me out of water. Since I can remember I've wanted to learn to scuba dive. For some reason it was always kind of a distant dream though because living in the Northeast of the USA diving isn't exactly a normal hobby. After moving to a beach town in South Korea I finally got the opportunity to get certified. Since then just about every buddy and instructor I've had has told me that I always look happy underwater.

I dive because it makes me happy for so many reasons. I'm amazed by the animals I see. I love being in the water. I love finding out the amazing things my body can do (like withstand 4 bar pressure without me feeling any different). Everything about diving is enjoyable for me.

 

[Chip Elliott]

Since I've been 8 months old I have been going to a remote lake in Canada (not so remote anymore.) When I was 13 years old I had some friends who had some scuba tanks. (Yes, I know, no training and an impulse thing.) They asked me if I wanted to try them and I jumped at the chance. The peacefulness I felt diving, the fish who were not afraid of me, the new environment.....all combined to give me an extreme longing to scuba. Life intervened, school, being drafted, college, marriage, kids, etc. I have snorkeled since I've been 8, but after that experience scuba always called to me. Flash forward 50 years and here I am about to complete my formal training for OW and am starting to feel very, very good about it. I thought maybe I was "too old" to do this, but my LDS and my instructor assured me that I am not. I'm glad I listened.

 

[Centrals]

The main reason is physical fitness!
If I can still play badminton, football(soccer in certain country) and vacational skiing, scuba diving would never get a look!

 

[DustyC]

Best therapy in the world. When I'm underwater, the only thing on the planet is me and what's in the water with me. No bills, no job, no calls for stubbed toes on the FD, or ODs, or anything else. Just me and the water and the fish, turtles, sharks, etc

 

[mi000ke]

I was a long time snorkeler and wanted to get closer to the action. I was snorkeling in the Bahamas a few years ago and on a whim decided to take a resort dive course followed by a couple of 50' dives, and was hooked. Did discovery dives for a few years and finally decided to get certified a couple of year ago (and doing my AOW this week). Now that I am fortunate enough to spend winters on Grand Cayman it would be a cardinal sin not to dive.

 

[Killerflyingbugs]

I grew up around it, in fact my dad told me I was conceived on a boat, He was a Tropical fish collector, and I was "helping" him since I could walk. I was out on the boat with him and my mom every day until I was old enough to go to school. Then when I was old enough to actually help he taught me how to scuba so I could help him collect, so I did. After high school I moved to North Fla with a buddy and went to commercial dive school, and spent a few years working in the Gulf of Mexico. I then came back home and worked for my dad again. Now I took over his business and dive for a living and couldn't be happier, diving is in my blood.

 

[lowviz]

Top three: P&Q, critters, and a nitrogen fix.