What does the underwaterworld mean to you?

[pocky21]

It has taken me places I never knew existed, expanded my awareness of the sciences and arts, encouraged mastery of my physical presence and movements, motivated me to become more than what I am, and taught me the value of patience. But above all, diving has helped me find the confidence to overcome my fear of living.

I started diving to escape - from the world, and myself. But as I've grown I've realized I'm more connected to the world and in tune with myself than ever before, and I'm loving every minute of it.

 

[BluewaterSail]

Diving is the latest step in my love affair with the world's oceans. For most of my life I loved boats. I even spent 5 1/2 years traveling the world on a small sailboat. When I started diving 2 1/2 years ago, its like I had been standing at the door before, and finally I have been invited it. Its like walking through the door of the Tardis. Another world. A magic world. Where I want to be.

They say that life on earth began in the oceans, and then finally a sea animal slithered ashore and learned how to live on land. I wonder if some of us still hold that memory in our genes. We know that the ocean is really our true home.

 

[Searcaigh]

Like others I wonder if my travels would be so interesting if not for diving, the people that I have met over the many years since I first put my fins on back in '84, my brief career in commercial diving, living in Saudi Arabia with the Red Sea literally on my doorstep, well okay 50 meters away, for 5 of the 11 years I was there.

I cannot imagine living far from the sea, or ever giving up diving until age and physical fitness determine otherwise. Dealing with the pressures of work during the week would be impossible without my escape during the weekend to where no cellphones work. The explorer in me thrives when I travel to that other part of planet Earth that so few people ever experience, let alone understand. The temporary freedom we have to move in 3 dimensions is one of the most amazing feelings we humans can experience underwater.

The incredible pleasure it has given me to share this with other people through personal meetings, sharing photographs on websites, books and magazines as well as here on SB, but not least the relationship with my daughter who is also an enthusiastic diver, and I hope that world's oceans still have something for her to enjoy when she reaches my age.

 

[Tjack]

"What doe's the underwater world mean to you?"

Hmmmmm, the sub-aquatic realm is a sacred place for me. Where else can one be so close to nature? As an alien visitor marine life often seem oblivious to my presence.

Floating through space, weightless, is transcendental. Add a little nitrogen narcosis or rapture of the deep and innerspace gets real trippy fast. The underwater experience can bring a meditative state.

Successfully planning and executing a dive expedition is a great confidence booster, there and back again. A forbidden world?

For me the underwater world is a sanctuary, a playground and a classroom.

 

[plot]

Fulfills my desire to explore unknown worlds.

More importantly, the underwater world is peaceful, something I can't say about anyplace I've ever found above water.

 

[TMHeimer]

Fulfills my desire to explore unknown worlds.

More importantly, the underwater world is peaceful, something I can't say about anyplace I've ever found above water.

Agree. I have found peaceful places topside--they start about 1,000 miles north of you and seem to go on forever.

 

[Adventure-Ocean]

Diving was my meditation for 40 years. The ocean is truly another world and I found that world was better than any other I knew of. I spent all my adult life diving, fishing, windsurfing and boating. I found a paradise in the Marianas islands and spent my life there.

I made hundreds of dives alone because I felt one with the environment. The visibility was normally over 100ft. The things I've seen become less when I try to put words to them. It's like seeing things in living color but only being able to share it with others in black and white.

Diving is adventure and harmony mixed in one experience. I'm forever thankful for the opportunity to work and play in the sea. I was reminded daily what a wonderful and curious world we live in. Adventure-Ocean

 

[blauvelt]

No place I'd rather be

 

[Adventure-Ocean]

DCBC- This is a great thread. It makes us all consider the impact and joy we get from diving. Should post the results in the "new divers or those considering diving" forum.

 

[shoredivr]

Water is my religion. When immersed in fresh or salt water I feel the connection of the water to every water-containing cell in my body. The cycle of water evaporating, forming clouds, falling as rain or snow, landing on the earth, percolating down through soil and bedrock, down stream and river to the oceans again is to me a divine circle. Which I am a part of by virtue of the water in my body.

Last week I dived in a place called Silfra, Iceland. The water in this lake came from a glacier 50km away, and took 100 years to filter through the lava rocks and under a mountain before flowing into the crevice called Silfra. The water has 300 foot visibility. A breathtaking sapphire blue I haven't seen before. A sudden awareness of the time water takes to move. How absolutely clear and untainted this water is.

I cast my thoughts back to the discovery of the oldest water in the world, flowing up from two billion years ago through a borehole at the bottom of a mine in Ontario, those old rocks holding such old water, and I see water as a time capsule.

Every moment I spend under water is amazing, even if I'm cold or the viz is 2 feet or I'm being challenged by current or a tricky scuba course, or darkness at depth in a northern lake. I feel very fortunate to be alive, and to be diving.