Are you glad you didn't start diving in your 20s?

[garyfotodiver]

When I was seventeen, it was a very good year.
First I learned to drive, and then to dive.

But from 1977 to 1994, at the request of my GF/wife, I stayed dry.

 

[Skubaa_99]

Started diving diving at 21 and haven't stopped. Glad I took it up it was way more enjoyable than getting tanked at the bar every weekend. If I didn't give up diving for drinking then I never will. Back then it was the shark skin suits,what a pain to put on. My very first dive here I swam into a monofilament net someone strung across a cove. Yes I got quite wrapped up in it but cut myself out. That alone would probably have some people never dive again.

 

[AfterDark]

I learned when I was a kid, I was in full swing in my teens and twenties. I'm so glad that I got to dive back when diving was dangerous and sex was safe.

I'm going to quote Thalassamania and just add when before lawyers took a lot of the fun out of the sport. Started at age 16 in 1968.

 

[ComputerJoe]

Dam I'm jealous of you early starters. I grew up on Lake Huron. Snorkeled, sailed, swam in it until I was blue. Then I hauled myself out and flopped on the scorching sand...I was in heaven and didn't realize it. Would wake up at 5:30am and run down stairs to catch Loyd Bridges on the old B&W Zenith.

At 17 I was living on my own, working, and finishing High School...no time...no money. At 18 I started sailing on the Lake Freighters, lotsa money, lotsa of time. When I had time, the lake was frozen. When I had money, I was never in the same port for more than 12 hours. Then I started my own business to get off the Lakes and have a family...no time, no money again.

My Mother died and the reality of life settled in and I DID it. Now diving for 12 years and am going to enjoy it for as long as I can.

 

[mdb]

I was first certified @ 23. It changed my life. I have been in the SCUBA industry for almost 40 years.
Still diving. I also agree with Thal.

Whenever you learn to dive it is a good time. I've met folks who learned in their early teens, others in their seventies.

 

[pedo]

I wish I had started much earlier for a lot of reasons. Same for snowboarding!

 

[David_57]

Wish I had been certified in my 20's for sure could have taken on a lot more tech training, plus stronger fitter and able to carry more tech gear with less effort than I have to use now, would have taken on dives that require more physical effort added to this less aches and pains the next day, LOL.

 

[Gilldiver]

Wish I had been certified in my 20's for sure could have taken on a lot more tech training, plus stronger fitter and able to carry more tech gear with less effort than I have to use now, would have taken on dives that require more physical effort added to this less aches and pains the next day, LOL.

Remeber, "Tech" Diving didn't start till 1993 or so. We were all just wreck/Cave/etc. divers "Back in the Day." Our "training" was the diving and talking with the other divers.
Certs were

Open Water
Advanced
Dive Master
Aissistant Iinstructor
Instructor

I Started diving in 1976 at 15 with borrowed equipment, certified in 1979 at 18. That's 30 years of certified diving last November.