When was it?

[ScubyDoo]

My moment of diving epiphany ocurred while driving home from work one day. A good friend and co-worker of mine had certified a year or so earlier, which got me thinking about it. He went to Cozumel to go diving and I was envious.. I love the islands, tropical weather...the ocean..beaches. I've always been a summer person and waterbaby.. One day in November I was driving home from work. The skies were gray...the air was coooolllllddd! I heard an ad on the radio for an Xmas special.."Learn to Dive" it said....Only $150. I knew right then and there I was gettin myself a Xmas present.. The next Saturday morning I was at the dive shop signing up. The rest is history.

 

[JMdiver]

Sea Hunt reruns in the mid-60s along with Flipper and of course, the can't be over-rated Jacques Cousteau programs, the last of which brought an element of science to diving. These programs (on major network television before cable) were very instrumental to wanna-be divers becoming such.

Dido on that especially Flipper. I did'nt wait that long right after graduating I went to the local LDS got my C-card. I dove off & on till last year when I got into it head on & got my AOW then right after that got my Rescue cert. & I did a Wreck class. I'm going to be doing a Nitrox class soon, a Dry suit class & am going to be working on a DM cert.

Happy Diving
John

 

[desperate4dives]

for anyone that knows can you be in instructor in more then one agency? im getting certified through NAUI but PADI is more popular in the caribbean and on many liveaboards that i plan to crew. Is it posible or not even worth the time? thanks,
Kurt

 

[micknewton]

I am surprised at how many people wanted to dive at a young age, but ended up waiting decades to actively pursue this dream. Makes me wonder, how many things will I decide later in life, that I wish I had done earlier. I hope not many, I know my bank account can attest to my weakness for caving into my whims.

I'll be turning 50 in March, and I just got certified. I would have loved diving when I was younger, unfortunately I wasn't born rich like I was supposed to be. It took a long time before I made enough money to be able to dive. I feel very fortunate to be able to fly to warm places and indulge a childhood fantasy. Maybe that old saying "Youth is wasted on the young." should be "Money is wasted on the old."

 

[Tristessa]

i grew up on a small island, so the sea is part of everyday life. Ever since i could remember i was infatuated with the ocean, and everyday i'd take my mask and fins, and hit the water. When i was about 12, i discovered a little wreck aboout 150 yards from the local beach, and holding my breath i would dive the 28ft and have a peek. When i moved to Athens right after i turned 17, the first thing i did was get certified. The Cousteau series also played a big role, as did local spongedivers.

 

[MissyP]

I never had an interest in diving but I decided to try snorkeling in La Jolla Cove one day just to see what was so interesting down there (it's a popular snorkel spot).... I thought it was pretty awesome to see all of the fish & plant life underneath me, but the moment a 4 ft leopard shark swam underneath me was *the* moment. I wanted to be down there with the shark, not watching it from above.
What I didn't realize was how much I would love diving

 

[Ishie]

I've always been interested since I came from a diving family, but my initial attempts when I was 15 failed because though I did great in the pool, I ended up in the hospital getting my tonsils out rather than getting to go do my checkout dives and it was over a year before I got the chance again, thus classwork expired. Sigh.

I was on a cruise to Catalina/Ensenada. I'd snorkeled in Hawaii and the Bahamas as a kid and never thought twice about it, but I also hadn't thought "I'm missing so much" because you see all sorts of bright pretty fish. I was snorkeling with my ex-boyfriend at the time, and though we were trying to pull ourselves down on kelp (no weight belt, 7mm wetsuit, you do the math), that was the first time I've been in the ocean and thought "I'm missing something... a lot". We'd see a garibaldi go shooting by, or there'd be the flashes of orange at the bottom, and the vis was nice, but since it's CA, you don't really have the abundant colorful fish near the surface like you do in the tropics.

Got back to Sacramento, and decided "Yup, I'm doing this", asked the ex if he wanted to do it too, which he very much did, and now both of us are certified and he's a DM.

 

[Nomad]

I was probably about 3 or 4, watching Jonny Quest on saturday morning cartoons...

I knew that someday I would scubadive just like Jonny Quest.

I must admit, however, I have been surprized by the seemingly low number of underwater voodoo priest encounters these days. Did anyone recognize the dive spot where Jonny et. al. encountered the voodoo priests?

 

[bruinfan]

SNUBA in ARUBA

 

[PhotoTJ]

I was 5 years old, watching 'The Undersea World of Jaques Cousteau.'

I was reading his books when I was 6, and wanted to dive ever since. Heck, I want to dive right now.