Who or What Inspired You to Dive?

[JimHar99]

Diving is something that I have wanted to try ever since I was a child and watched TV shows like SeaHunt, Flipper and DiverDan. When I was young I lived in the water and I could swim like a fish. I did some snorkeling but I never got the chance to try scuba.

Last year my wife and I were in the Bahamas. I wanted to give it a try, but she wasn't interested in trying, due to a fear of deep water. When we got home I still had the bug. I did a lot of research the signed up for a PADI open water course. At 49 years old I finally got to try SCUBA.

In the last year I've done beach dives, boat dives, reef dives, wreck (no penetration) dives, night dives, cold|warm water, frsh|salt water. I keep finding more and more things to keep me stoked. I have picked up the AOW & Nitrox certs. And with all of my new gear that I have purchased I really feel like I'm helping the economy. What a great new hobby.

 

[616fun]

I have wanted to since I was a kid. At age 18 I tried to sign up for OW class and was turned down because I was diabetic. I waited for another 10 years trying to figure out how I could get my cert without fibbing about my condition. A buddy of mine I met in grad school is an instructor and he helped me find DAN and get all the info I could. A few years ago I got in with a doctor that is diabetic as well and helped me set up some parameters to make sure I'm diving safely. He signed off on the medical waiver and as of last July I'm and OW diver. I'm taking the enriched air class on Saturday and will be in Florida the first week of May to do my first salt water dives.


I guess you could say I'm one determined cuss!

 

[molksmith]

I have wanted to since I was a kid. At age 18 I tried to sign up for OW class and was turned down because I was diabetic. I waited for another 10 years trying to figure out how I could get my cert without fibbing about my condition. A buddy of mine I met in grad school is an instructor and he helped me find DAN and get all the info I could. A few years ago I got in with a doctor that is diabetic as well and helped me set up some parameters to make sure I'm diving safely. He signed off on the medical waiver and as of last July I'm and OW diver. I'm taking the enriched air class on Saturday and will be in Florida the first week of May to do my first salt water dives.

GOOD FOR YOU!!!!

 

[lorien]

My son started diving many years ago and he encouraged me to get certified which I wanted to do but somehow never got around to for years. Two years ago my father passed away. As we were preparing for his funeral I was going through photos to put out at the funeral home. I came across one of him scuba diving at around 80 years of age! That did it, if he could do it at that age what the heck was I waiting for? I got certified the summer right after that and instantly became addicted. Rather be below water than above. Sorry I can't tell my dad how he inspired me to start diving.

 

[Pratesi]

As a child I was always enthralled by the mysteries of the ocean. Its creatures and plant life. Jaque Cousteau would be my inspirational drive. I believe diving is like yoga-you are floating in a quiet abyss and all you focus on is breathing in and out. I find it verrrrrrry relaxing.

 

[gypsyjim]

Last week I ran across two photos in my Mother's estate, of my original YMCA open water dive in 1970. (I posted the photos in my gallery for kicks: talk about primative gear!) It got me thinking about how I got the bug when I was a teenager. I too remember Sea Hunt as part of my inspiration, but I was also partly motivated by my Explorer Scouts involvement: we were training in firefighting, rescue, first aid, and Red Cross lifesaving, and I added scuba diving, as part of my specialization. Now my involvement is stictly recrational. Things are coming full circle though, as my kids just joined a local Explorer Post, and they too are interrested in getting their certification.

 

[ScubaDoobaDo]

I had never really done anything "exciting and daring" which is how I would have always described scuba... I am not extremely athletic, no even too good at golfing..
On a family vacation in Maui I tried Snuba..., then the next year I talked my husband into signing up for a scuba with sharks (behind plexi glass) dive in Curaceao (sp?), he actually loved it too so before our next trip we did all of our book work and pool dives and did our open water certification in Coz... WOW... I was a diver at 42! Been diving for 2 years now. Me, I'm playing in Jacque Cousteau's playground.. Showing my grandson's pictures of sharks and cute little fishies that I actually took underwater...
What a great mid-life experience this has been, now if we could only find the perfect scuba/golf location to retire to in 10 years we will be very happy campers... We will just have to keep looking until then, darn!

 

[Turtle Diver]

The Flipper TV show. Although Flipper was actually a freediver, his friends Bud and Sandy were scuba divers.

 

[doole]

Love of critters. (In the platonic sense, I mean.)

As a tiny twerp in the 50's I was always feeding birds through the bedroom window and so forth. I can also remember my dad taking me to Whiteshell Park (the local lake district) and every time we drove past a lake I would wonder what was underneath. Got a pair of fins for Christmas when I was 10 or so.

At 12, I rigged up a garden hose for breathing in an attempt to go to the bottom of the neighbor's pool, thus discovering the true meaning of 'ambient pressure' at an unusually early age.

At 13, started my first aquarium.

Somehow never got into scuba until the eary 90's. Had some money yet wasn't terribly interested in the 'Winter vacation', but my wife was. She said, "Why don't we go somewhere warm, you could go scuba diving". So we booked a trip to Bahamas and I took a referral. Saw a big hammerhead on one of my first dives. Got addicted to that as well as the zero-gravity thing immediately.

Later learned to enjoy cold water diving even more. (But THAT took a while.) Got into instruction initially because I couldn't stay wet enough any other way. (But then got addicted to instruction as well.)

 

[MontyPython]

Jacque Cousteau and all other underwater documentaries I ever saw.
Always thought it must be amazing to be able to be able to swim with the fishes.

Never saw the Sea Hunt TV series a lot of people here seem to mention. But I have another one that stuck with me since I was about 6 years old; ‘The man from Atlantis’ with Patrick Duffy (yeah – Bobby from Dallas)(round 1981-82).

I can not actually remember much about this, other than that “Bobby” was able to breath underwater and had this amazing ‘house’ built under water, complete with all the furniture you would expect to find in a normal house. One vivid picture in my mind is of him sitting on this couch reading the newspaper under water. That’s when I thought, I want to do that. Wouldn’t it be nice to swim from the living room to my bedroom, being able to swim around your garden, and for that matter, down the street. All Under water!!!
OK , that is where my SpongeBob Square Pants fantasy starts. I’ll spare you that one for now.

Generally I’m always the last one in the pool, loved water but didn’t enjoy the feeling of cold water under the arm-pits. Once in I’m like a baby seal, Ok, Walrus, but the point being -- I’m happy.
Then about three months ago my best friend mentioned in passing that he’d love to dive. I was astonished, we had never discussed it before as that was a dream of mine I never thought would get realized and never talked about. More of an active daydream, and not knowing anybody that dives or who was interested, I never followed up.

Well , we got certified 3 weeks ago and this past weekend we did the ‘cut the umbilical cord and do our dives solo’ thing (without any instructors present).

WOW, the freedom I was hoping for and dreaming about all these years. OK, there is no living room too swim through, Yet, but there is a computer station to play around on, and a Public BUS to play around in. Also an aircraft, a car and a yacht, but these are still slightly out of my depth. (only cert up 18m without an instructor)

Can not wait for any opportunity to dive again, and can not wait for my first ocean dives.
I’m going to do my best to take my certification to the max, and have now started daydreaming of owning my own live-aboard.
First I think I’ll really enjoy going instructor, no one should be denied experiencing the under water world.