How Did You Find Your First Scuba Class?

[charlier]

I grew up in NYC. At age 13, I was inspired after listening to a presentation by Bob Marx regarding underwater archeology in NYC. Afterward, I purchased a wetsuit (all rubber with heavy metal zipper), booties, a tin of talcum powder, and mask/snorkel/fins. Since we had little money, we used scrap iron and made our weights in 7th grade metal shop. We started to skin dive in the waters off of Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island, taking trains and buses. The following year, I saved enough money to purchase my own scuba equipment. I visited a shop in NYC and plucked down my meager life saving for regulator, cylinder, etc. Well, by dad heard about my plans and was not happy. He dragged to me to the store and asked that they refund my hard earned saving. Apparently my father did not think that a 14 year old should breath compressed air. I continued to skin dive and spearfish. We used to spear fish and used the local beach BBQs that were set up by local fishermen. They thought we were a hoot.

Scuba came later in Los Angeles, while I was attending graduate school in 1985. A scuba class was offered by a NAUI (ex LA County diver) as part of the PE curriculum. Since our instructor could only teach six of us, he had us swim 1000m and the first six to finish were accepted into his class.

The first three months consisted of two days/week in the pool with numerous drills and good natured harassment. During second semester, two days per week shore diving, mostly @laguna Beach. With freedive gear only, we had to ditch our weight belt, mask, fins and snorkel, surface, freedive back down and don it. Later, we did similar drills with our scuba gear. The class included shore dive rescues and night dives with unspeakable drills and scenarios. The last semester, we combined shore dives with boat dives to Catalina and Channel Islands out of Ventura (?). My nemesis was the water temperature. I used a 7mm rental wetsuit that flooded each time I moved underwater.

 

[Boglefish]

I lived next to the Red Sea for 2 years and never thought about diving. Was happy and satisfied with snorkeling (excellent snorkeling btw). Later moved near the Arabian Gulf and one of my colleagues was a Scuba instructor. He kept encouraging me to try it and after a intro dive I was hooked. The training did not come easy for me, but with my instructors patience, I finally pulled through.

 

[stretchthepenn]

I grew up landlocked in the deserts of Arizona, and although I'd always liked the idea of scuba diving, I never thought I'd get the chance to try.

Years later, I graduated college and instead of getting a real job, found myself poverty-stricken and lifeguarding/teaching swim lessons at a SoCal YMCA, surviving on Banquet frozen dinners, day-old bagels, apples, and free samples from the supermarket deli. Life sucked.

My boss, the branch's Aquatics Director, had a brainstorm. We had an indoor, heated pool with a deep end...so why not offer scuba lessons? I think his motivation was mostly to get himself and his brothers certified, but he hired a NAUI instructor and started running classes. Scuba diving? Here? That sounded sooo cool...but I was flat broke. I knew that I couldn't afford it. But then my boss told me that I qualified for a hefty staff discount.

Decision time. Even with the discount, I really couldn't afford the tuition, let alone the required snorkeling gear. And if I put the class on credit, the interest payments alone would kill me. But this was my one and only chance. I whipped out the only credit card I had, made it squeal in agony, and took the OW class. Holy crap... Scuba diving was awesome! The next month, I and my supervisor (and his relatives) took the AOW course.

Twenty years have gone by, and I've been diving ever since.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Thank you everyone for contributing your stories to this thread. It's been one of the most enjoyable and on-topic learning experiences I've read in social media. Each post reunited me with our common bond of taking that first step toward being scuba divers and reconnected me with the initial excitement and joy of diving. I "liked" everyone's post because each was different, yet exactly how I hoped people would share their experiences of where we all started. It truly is interesting to read these. Great job! Thanks again!

 

[BabyDuck]

i was between jobs but still had some money, and was cruising the yahoo personals. one guy's profile said he was a scuba instructor, so i messaged him and asked what he thought about a specific shop in florida because i was thinking of getting certified. he messaged back that he was in florida right then and would cert me for expenses if i came down.

so i did.

that was marc cruciani in january 2005.

 

[nadwidny]

Introduced to Cousteau shows when I was 8 and got the fever, and the cure was not more cowbell. Got a mask, snorkel, fins right after that and snorkeled in Alberta and BC lakes whenever I happened to be at one as I was growing up. Went to Hawaii in 1980 for a month with some friends and an intro course was on my list of things to do as scuba was something I always wanted to try. Signed up for the full course the next day. My bank account has never been the same.

 

[DiverGC]

I first became interested when looking for easy college credit to balance my coursework. I couldn't afford it at the time and wasn't thrilled about being certified in a cold Midwestern lake so I held off. After graduation, I moved to the desert southwest. A coworker mentioned he was a dive instructor and I figured, it's pricey but been in the back of my mind for years. I got certified through his shop and been diving since.

 

[scrane]

I was living on St Croix and my girl friend bought me the NAUI OW course for my 22 birthday. Last month I hit 68 and am scheduled for two weeks in Roatan in October. Life is good!

 

[Cr.padlo]

i had originally planned on going to the same scuba shop that my cousin Nicole had gone to to get certified, but when my mom mentioned it to a friend, it turned out her sister was an instructor!! I was absolutely lucky my mom mentioned it to her friend because my instructor was phenomenal and I still dive with her to this day.

 

[Neilwood]

I did a DSD while on holiday quite a few years back and loved it (always was a water baby) with the ability to breathe underwater. Ended up sitting on the bottom of the pool watching everyone swim laps around me - awesome.

Then quite a few years passed where real life got busy and didn't manage to even think about it again. Then a couple of years ago, I ended up with a weeks leave from work and some spare money in the bank. Looked about to find somewhere that would let me learn during the week and found a place a couple of hours drive away where the instructor would take me on 1-1. Turned out that the instructor went to university in the same city as I had stayed all my days so it made for a pretty chilled class. Did my pool stuff ok (apart from a hiccup with the hover) and then into open water. On my first OW dive, he swam over to some rocks, reached down and pulled up a huge lobster. That followed by looking a number of decent sized fish straight in the eyes hooked me on diving.

Now just shy of 50 dives later and still loving it. Went with that shop to the Red Sea last year and dived some wrecks and reefs - boy does that spoil you for perfect conditions!