What inspired you to start diving?

[meagicano]

Clive Cussler books....

No, seriously. Clive Cussler books.

I was dying to dive shipwrecks... but I couldn't learn until I was living on my own as it's such an expensive sport... and I didn't have a car etc.

 

[jmdive]

My wife and I were on a cruise and in Grand Cayman we went snorkelling. While we were on the surface, below us, was a group of scuba divers exploring a ship wreck. I was fascinated by the whole scene playing out before my eyes and recall thinking that I should be down there. At that moment, one of the scuba divers looked up and flashed me the OK sign. I could see the smile behind his regulator and I knew right there, I had to learn how to scuba dive. It is the one decision I have made that continues to reward me through friendships, memories and good times.

 

[kathydee]

I got hooked on Scuba by accident.

After over a decade of vertical fun, a number of factors pulled me away from technical rock climbing & I started wondering the planet looking for some new inspiration. Crossed many countries and walked over the Himalaya for a month. Sampling this and that was cool but nothing quite inspired my passion.

While circumnavigating the Island of Bali Indonesia on a motor scooter, by random chance dropped into Tulemben Bali (home to the SS Liberty wreck). Some DM started pushing me to spend what felt like lots of cash then on a Discover Scuba Dive - but I refused because it was more expensive than snorkeling. (Little did I know )

Spent my whole childhood in So Fla with a mask/snorkel, so hearing that the snorkeling was nice in Tulemben, swam out to the SS Liberty. I could look down 10-15 ft to the shallowest tip, a ship that descended into about 100ft of water. It was teaming with fish and coral and quite beautiful.

The kicker was when that same DM swam under me with his scuba and motioned for me to follow as he descended. I dropped down 10 ft or so with him but of course had to surface in a minute. And in that split second where he descended and I ascended, I felt very left out, out wondering what I was missing.

It took another year of feeling that faint nagging longing and curiosity, to somehow find my way back with my partner the next summer to the Tulemben Bali and to the same tip of the SS Liberty. He was all for SCUBA and after our 7th DSD, a traveling DM told us to get certified. We listened.

Compared to other stuff, Scuba was still a ho-hum adventure and I only logged 27 dives in the next few years (all in Bali), Then I randomly found myself in July 08 in Borneo Malaysia with time and no plans, and heard there was good diving off some island up north called Sipidan. It was only a 12 hour bus ride .

I had no idea I'd fall head over heels in love/obsession with SCUBA in a few hours, but who could resist the passion of scuba as they dropped down those steep brilliantly colored coral encrusted walls into 130ft vis and peered into the bottomless deep blue filled with turtles, sharks and beauty beyond description – especially at Barracuda Point.

Got tired of dry regs and dreaming through you all on scubaboard so recently converted from a binge extended vacation diver to a local cold water drysuit diver & am loving it all !!!

My partner is still an occasional vacation diver and has only logged about 30 warm water dives in the past 3 years, but my love for technical climbing gear and technique has been matched in the scuba world so I'm luvin' more than just the scenery. Now I am out every weekend and have logged over 240 dives, mostly in the last year.

I've deffinately found my new inspiration and am luvin' it!

 

[Papa_Bear]

Years of Boating as a kid and more years sitting on a Surf Board wondering what was down there? Add being a Life Guard and it just seemed to be the next logical step? I really guess it would have been stranger to not have done it! 38 years and over 4000 dives it has stuck and the Surf Board is hanging in the Patio!

 

[HisLovelyBride]

What inspired me to dive? Growing up in a family with a 30' sailboat, I spent an inordinate amount of time on the ocean. My father was an old salt and would take all five kids to the boat each weekend to sail and maintain the boat. By the time I met and married my husband, I had had my fill of the ocean. I am not a beach babe and had no interest in laying out at the beach, so off to the mountains we went. We spent most of our married life camping with our kids if using RVs to camp counts. I had little if any interest in spending anytime at the beach!

We had the good fortune to visit Hawaii on business and since I thought it was just a pretty beach and without that push, I probably wouldn't have invested in a trip. While in Hawaii, besides realizing that it was much more that a pretty beach, I wanted to snorkel, but I injured my foot and the doctors said I could use the hotel pool, but the ocean was out.

When I was 46, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and after my treatment was complete, my husband took me to Hawaii for a vacation. Again, I wanted to snorkel, but this time there was an influx of box jellies and the beaches were closed.

A few months later, we went back and this time I was going to snorkel! I did some practicing in Waikiki and then we were off to the Big Island. There we went on a snorkeling boat called the Fair Winds and they had SNUBA on board. Dave asked me if I wanted to give it a try and I said sure. Well, I fell in love with not having to come up for air! Snorkeling after that was just anti-climatic.

When we got home, Dave gave me SCUBA lessons for Christmas and the following November, we went back to Hawaii for our 30th Wedding Anniversary with our kids and grandkids and I completed my Open Water Certification on my 50th birthday.

This year marks 3 years of diving and I have logged 98 dives, been Nitrox and Advanced Open Water certified. Our plan is to dive on 11/7 and get in dives 99, 100, & 101; all before my 3rd anniversary of diving.

I think SNUBA is a great way to introduce people to SCUBA!

 

[Thalassamania]

Back in 1956 my dad was an archaeologist. He saw Cousteau's Silent World and got the idea to attempt to recover Babylonian artifacts from a barge that sank in the mid 19th century at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. We were already avid freedivers. He bought two tanks, two regulators, and a copy of the Science of Skin and Scuba, and we learned how to use scuba. The planned Fertile Crescent dives never happened, but I continued to dive on a recreational basis in lakes in New York, the New England Coast, North Carolina, Florida, and California.

In high school I joined a group that styled itself, "Beta Oceanographic Research Inc." It was a scientifically minded dive club that had an agreement with the California State Parks people and the Pt. Lobos administration that, in return for mapping and doing some biological and geological baseline work, it would have unlimited access to the park.

When I got to university I was preparing myself for a career as a terrestrial zoologist, but I hurt my leg and was rehabbing it swimming in the pool. There I observed, learned about and ultimately became involved in the Research Diver Training Program. I took the 100 hrs. Research Diving Course in the spring quarter, was invited to do underwater research in Central America over the summer, was an Assistant Team Leader (AI) in the course in the fall, and a Team Leader (Instructor) for the next course. I remained active, both teaching and conducting research until I received my degree in Zoology. My senior honors thesis, an outgrowth of my term project for the Natural History of the Vertebrates course was on the foraging behavior of Brant's Cormorant. I spent over a year free diving in the area of the Monterey Breakwater to observe the birds. Yes ... I was an underwater birdwatcher.

I went off the grad school still never intending to do anything in diving, I was planning to work on the mathematics of artesinal fishtaps in the Caribbean, but twists and turns in my personal life resulted in my joining the university's management team, holding (amongst others) the portfolio for research diving safety. That was that.

 

[krawlings]

I have always had a fasination for the ocean . As a kid I loved to watch Jague Coustau and all his adventures . And allso the secrets that are held under the water has intrigued me for as long as I remember. I mover to Georgia and was just hours from good diving and my wife said do it so here I am diving . My life long dream.

 

[Doc Harry]

What inspired me? Sights like this:

 

[KY_BOB]

20 years of wanting to, a bad relationship, and figuring out that I didn't have to answer to anyone.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

This thread is going very good so far.
As some of you may have figured out, what I'm trying to do is see if there is a pattern or most common reason why people become divers.
So far childhood exposure through TV shows, parents or other family members seems to be the leading reason for what triggers people to become divers.
I saw a few "completely by accident" responses, a few respondents saw a poster or add.
Some by surprise by a gift, and several by a vacation impulse.

I hope more people respond. I'd like to actually talley up the responses in categories to see where and how most people get the bug.



Hey DEMA, I hope you're taking notes!