So, that is my point, when I was 12, I was certified. My friends too. We read everything we could find and pestered the library to get more, Scoured the magazine racks for Skin Diver magazine. We did not need anyone to coax us or send us pearls of knowledge because we sought it out on our own initiative. The interest was infectious at the time and explains the bump in that bell curve and why your "younger diver" needs financial resources that none of us had, yet we dove. We dove in lacks, rivers, mud puddles, not exotic trips to sunny warm places far away. I am sorry, but why is it different now? Why is there no or little interest?
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