Wonderment

[denisegg]

I was diving a site with a whole BUNCH of classes, and they had totally mucked up the visibility. But you can't be upset with them, because you were there once, and because the smiles on the faces of the new divers just remind you of the joy of those first dives.

That is so true. I cringe at people who yak about the new divers mucking up the vis at a spring or doing something wrong with trim or equipment. None of us have a right to feel superior..how can we ever feel we have learned it all and are superior to someone else...

 

[El Orans]

Eager Eddie comes to mind...

Eager Eddie
Every committed diver goes though an "eager" stage when even a dip in Stoney Cove is a magical experience. Eager Eddie buzzes with enthusiasm and is always desperately keen to prove worthy of any challenge.
Tell-tale signs: Talks incessantly about diving. Often labelled as "badge-collectors", Eager Eddies sign up for every course going.
Closely related to: Zero-Tolerance Diver - an Eager Eddie with a little bit of knowledge.
Most likely to say: "I've just bought this Halcyon dive harness but I'm not sure how to fit my AutoAir."
Least likely to say: "Can we just talk about something other than diving?"
Mixes well with: Captain Clipboard, an object of admiration, and Tekkies and Gadget Geeks, objects of fascination.
Can't abide: Non-divers.

Divernet | People | The A-Z of divers

I felt that way today. I was diving a site with a whole BUNCH of classes, and they had totally mucked up the visibility. But you can't be upset with them, because you were there once, and because the smiles on the faces of the new divers just remind you of the joy of those first dives.

Just pick another part of the dive site to explore. No problem.

 

[DESIGNERDIVER]

Well, that's nice and all but you did let your feelings about gear choices and colors show through making such items seem silly or worse. It takes a clever writer to mask their own feelings. I think they teach those classes as well.

Seemed you had two themes going on; 1. A nice story about the excitement one experiences very early on, and 2. How you view certian gear choices and how you associate those choices with newbies.

#1 was good but weaving in #2 just didn't seem necessary to telling the story. Just my opinion.

Safe diving to you too and thanks.

I think it is truely sad that some people can not just read something and take it for what it offered and not look for a hidden agenda. Not everyone has one. CD(john) just want to thank you again for that post. I thoroughly enjoyed it !

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

You know what? I loved it, CD. You have it spot on. And I have had the same rush of happiness at each one of this last thousand dives, that I did on my very first.

Let the ones who are trying so hard to troll around for contention, denigrate your post to their heart's content. If they didn't get it, then they never had that love and euphoric feeling of release yet connection when diving, to begin with. And they will never find it, no matter how they come back in answer to my post here.

I teach for the sole reason of seeing that look. Of watching that nervous diver descend for the first time and seeing their eyes go round and stare at our blue world. I love seeing them explore for the first time, and upon ascent, giggling and shouting about how incredible it was. I teach because of that dorky, adorable newb.

Thanks for reminding everyone how those days were, and how beautiful it still is. Don't change a single process or thought. You were perfect.

 

[vixtor]

I think this thread would deserve to be pinned. It is the best description of the whole "Basic Scuba Discussions" forum.

 

[funkcanna]

Im shocked that some people took this negatively. Someone must have pissed on the politically correct crowds chips.

 

[letterboy]

Well written John!!

and to think here I thought you were born a pig headed DIR diver

 

[SkipperJohn]

...an old toilet that a small crappie now called home...

how appropriate...


In regard to the rest... I strive to not be that obvious, alas, it is my destiny.

 

[Diver0001]

I bet I'm not the only one with photographic evidence of a time we'd rather forget. I mean, really, what were we thinking back then to document that kind of silliness? I dunno, but damn was it fun!

Why on earth would you want to forget times like that.....

The saddest thing about diving is that, as we get "better", we forget how much fun it should be.

So many people take this sport too seriously. We forget why we started... we judge when we should smile, we condemn when we should congratulate... we frown when we should laugh along.... We "analyse" what we should simply accept .... perhaps like any endeavour

R..

 

[cavew0man]

I had the good fortune of being able to dive, for the first time, with a fellow SB'er last week. (Thanks, SB!). Ed Hatfield and I met up last week for an ocean dive to get started, and then a couple of days later, a cenote dive.

As luck would have it, the day we arranged for a cenote dive was just Ed and I and my usual cave partner (and cenote guide), and no one else. So... pick the destination! So we suggest to Ed, how about "The Pit", and then Mystic River?...

So.. if you have been there, you know what comes next. Past Dos Ojos, on the worst road imaginable, and look for the tree that marks the hike in to The Pit. As we are driving in, feels like what it must be like to be a passenger in the Mars Rover, Ed's grin is getting bigger and bigger, and so is mine. I say to Ed - this is "Indiana Jones" day - just you wait!

We park, more or less, and get out to suss out the situation. Ed grabs his camera and says, "no one is going to believe this!". And he hasn't seen the dive site yet. So, we hike in to the cenote. Thing is, once you get there, it's actually too high to even jump with your gear - so you have to bring it in, take it off, lower it on the rope and pulley, then either climb down the sheer sides holding on to roots and rocks (like 25 feet or so? please forgive if exaggerating!) or jump in with a whooping yell (which is way more fun) and your mask and fins. So after hiking in, then out, then back in with a great deal of tanks and neoprene and jungle heat, the boys lower the gear, I catch it, they whoop and yell and jump in, and we get kitted up in the water, and do a fabulous dive.

And then... you have to get out. And so Dario and Ed climb up, I am floating in the cenote putting the ropes on the gear, and they are hauling it all out, one piece at a time. It is quite possibly the most effort you can put into a recreational dive I have ever seen. Oh, and then you put your gear back on, and hike back out...

And here is the point that I am getting to in a very roundabout fashion....

At the end, having humped my doubles back on to carry them out, I look at Ed, and I say...

"WHO GETS TO DO THIS!?" And he looks at me, and I have forgotten what he actually said, but I am sure he will post a trip report soon.

Second dive, short version, 15 foot ladder down (and, of course, up - later) through a hole you barely fit through, and an incredible blind cave fish sighting.

Here's the point of my rambling story.... I woke up the next day, STILL, with a grin on my face, thinking about what an amazing thing it is to do this... so my story is not about what a goofy noob I once was, it is about what a goofy noob I hope to be every day I get to dive.