Why do you dive?

[Simone]

I took this as a serious question, and so I gave it serious thought. Why DO I dive?

When I was a little girl, I somehow came up with three things I wanted to accomplish in my life ... I wanted to scuba dive, sky dive, and go to Africa. I have, of course, added more things to my list since then, but I never waivered from those original three goals.

I signed up for scuba classes after I was divorced. It was the first thing I had done for myself and on my own in many years. I will never forget my first ocean dive ... it was mind blowing ... a new world, with everything rockin' and rolling beneath the waves.

I have loved it from the beginning because I feel free, and because I feel privileged to be in a world most people never see. I love the diving itself ... the weightlessness, the multi-dimensions, the anti-gravity. I love the grace, fluidity, the way I can control my location in the water column with just my breath. I love the silence. I love the beauty I see in the ocean ... I wept on nearly every dive in Fiji because I felt I was in a holy place.

I love diving because sometimes, when it's really perfect, we can be part of the sea world ... the vast school of big-eyed jacks that has no beginning and no end but is always there at Dirty Rock off Cocos Island will silently part and let me in ... so I am part of the school. I look down at my own legs at Alcyone and see morays, free swimming, passing between my ankles ... no threat and no fear ... my beloved new husband and I "surf" in the bottom current off the bow of a tugboat that sunk off Cape Hatteras, within an arm's length of two big sand tigers ... we could reach out and touch them, but we treasure their presence and so we just surf beside them and breathe and smile. And so on and so on.

I love diving because I can always be better ... and because I learn something from every diver I meet, and from every dive I make.

(By the way, I did a tandem sky dive from 12,000 feet on my 46th birthday and was shocked to discover that I didn't like it at all ... for me, when I actually went out the door of the Twin Otter, it was instinctive fear that left no room for thought, and when I found I could form words in my mind again, I became motion sick ... totally unexpected! I have yet to get to Africa, but it's on the list!)

Thanks for asking this question!

 

[wackodacko]

i like diving because.. ___what everyone said up there__ !!

my favorite feeling is when im about 100 ft or so on a wall then i turn on my back and face up..wuhoo! its the best feeling in the world cuz you get to see all the blue and funky stuff. here is a picture, it came out bad, but in real life its awesome.

diving in boston is great too.. catching lobsters is fun.. and getting poked by sea urchins in 42F degree water while in a 2pc 7mm wetsuit with 30+lbs of weight cuz the diveshop ran out of steel tanks.. it makes me feel like the michelin man or a squashed marshmallow hauling tons of lead... then crawling out on slimy rocks with a stick, a bag of lobsters, a float, a flag, and all my gear.. yeah.. i question myself every time on why i like to torture myself but i do it anyways, cuz.. i like the Pooooof sound my bc makes when i release all the air to get down.. and then some

 

[El Orans]

No pagers, cell phones or email.

To boldly go where lots of divers have gone before...

So far I have only done local dives but even then the amount of sea-life was amazing. The local lakes are less interesting as far as fish are concerned.

 

[5615mike]

I love the tranquility and time spent with my wife. We both love the view and wonderful eco system that most people have no idea is there to enjoy.

 

[scuba_junkie]

I dive because its another thing that gets me away from the everyday world that most people live. Its also another thing that requires my focus, which frees my mind from all the things it is usually bogged down on (work, bills, life in general)... all I am thinking about is what I am doing at that moment. I ride motorcycles for the same reason...

 

[medical1]

I dive because if you can't be ON the water with a sailboat you might as well be IN it

For me it was just a natural progression. Somewhat of an adrenalin junkie and love just about anything that deals with the outdoors!

Some of my hobbies include sky & scuba diving, horseback (Western only-thank you), climbing, sailing, swimming, kayaking, biking, & now I want to get into hand gliding.

God I need a bigger garage

 

[crazed_dolphin]

I like the dive for the experience of diving itself but only if I don't have too much equipment on. I like tropical divces because I don't have to wear any wetsuits. Couple of weeks ago I went diving in Central Japan. The water was a lot colder than Guam, Malaysia, Costa Rica and Thailand and I wore a 8mil full body wetsuit. Arrgghhh... I didn't like how it felt. I felt claustraphobic! 2nd dive I just used my 3mil shorty. I was the only person there out of hundreds wearing a shorty. The water was COLD but bearable. I enjoyed that dive a lot more. What I saw wasn't bad...lionfish, multiple varities of moaray, clownfish and others that I haven't seen before in other locations. Some cold water dives do have a lot of wildlife. Vancouver Island in Canada is supposed to be one of the best cold water sites. Jacque Crousteau considered it 2nd only to the Red Sea.

 

[inkabodpain]

I like to dive (naked) because everything looks bigger under water and i always wanted bigger ...tattoos. Diving is the bomb,I like the animals,the comradery among divers,the treasures,the adventure of it all,the learning and new experiences...but mostly because i love the way i look in a wet suit... lol.

 

[Fishbait99]

Everyone has pretty much covered my reasons...and there isn't really an single thing that makes me love diving. It's the combination of all of it. Everything from experiencing the sea life, to the freedom and peacefulness, to the excitement of adventure and never knowing what you might find, to a hard to define love of the water. It's the total experience.

One thing I've never really gotten off on is the "deep" diving. I know guys who care about little else...it's all a competition to have bragging rights about who has the deepest dive. Personally, that's the least important part of diving to me. In fact, I don't often go much deeper than 100 feet (I don't think I've ever been deeper than around 120).

Why? I just don't see much point. I'd rather stay at 90 feet and have more time to poke around. In fact, it seems you can find as much to explore at 60 feet as you can at twice the depth. Of course, I know you can go deeper longer on gas mixes and do decompression diving, but I guess after 9 years of diving and somewhere in the range of 2000 dives, I've just never had that desire. So you can call me an avid diver, but probably not an extreme diver.

 

[pwfletcher]

... just trying to hide from the IRS.