Tell us about your first time...

[paradicio]

…in the water! (Really now, what were you thinking…)

Being new to diving is very exciting. Being a new diver, I feel, makes me qualified to make that statement.

My first real open water dive was at the Casino Point dive park in Catalina Island, not far off the coast of California (for those who might not be familiar). Before we even got to Scuba our instructor told us we’d be going into the water for the PADI optional free dive, just mask, fins, and snorkel. Wearing my brand new 7mm wetsuit I jumped in, looked into the water and had to be restrained from running back to shore to get my tank. The view was breathtaking. There were fish EVERYWHERE! Calico bass, blacksmiths, and garibaldi galore! I tried to swim down, but that brand new 7mm wetsuit I mentioned was having none of it. All I could manage to do was thrash my fins about in the air (my instructor raved about how graceful I looked…).

We sprinted back over to our area and geared up in record time. This was it; this was what we’d been waiting for. All that time in the class and in the pool had brought us to this moment.

Back into the water and down the line we went, fish curiously watching us clumsily making our way down into their world. The amount of life laid out before me was staggering. The kelp, the macro algae of almost every color growing on the rock, the purple coralline algae (which I’d only seen in my fish tank prior to this)… It was all there, everything I had expected. Our visibility (to my untrained eye) was about 30 feet and the water (according to my DC) was a chilly 54 degrees. According to other divers at the site, not great conditions for Catalina, but to me it was perfect.

I will never forget my first dive… Tell us about yours!

 

[RyanC]

Good stuff!
I was working in a very nice lodge in Mozambique, things were a little wild there, it was a hard 2 day drive to the border, where the nearest supermarket was, old tanks trucks etc burned out on the side of the road, and very scary police with big guns at every river crossing!

proper wild west sort of stuff. On the other side, it was a privilege to have been able to spend a year there, The area was UN touched, the fish were huge, with no one around who knew how to catch the big ones. Absolut paradise!

There was an old DM there, I'll call him bill. I hassled and pestered the poor guy to teach me how to dive for months, one day he finally gave in.

He gave me a quick briefing on the beach, we got on the boat and went to the reef (probably the best Ive ever seen) and kitted up, we did a bit more chatting which I didn't pay any attention to, far too excited, and he gave me a push back wards. Next thing I knew I was about 10 meters down in incredible pain.

I hadn't listened to a thing Bill had said, so I'd never heard of equalizing, buoyancy control etc. Dive tables? DCS??? bugger that, Im under water!

I crawled around on the sand , my ears sorted them selves out, and I saw the fish, coral, creepy crawlies etc. I was hooked. still am, Thanks "bill"


PS Living in Zim a few years later.
We were going through a very rough time, lost pretty much everything in the nastiness there. I was about to buy a gun, for self defense etc, and I was offered a weeks free accommodation at the lodge in Mozambique, so I put the gun on hold and went. A few days later the gun money went toward my next dive course. Amazing how a simple decision can change your life!

 

[dlndavid]

let me see, I was thirteen years old, we were camping....oh this about diving

 

[Harshal]

Hmmmm ……… first time I was in water, water was freaking cold and it was quarry, I was complaining about water being cold and my instructor and class were laughing. Water was murky could barely see 5 – 8 ft. as we went down water got colder and darker and this was in TX can you believe it?
Saw my first fish, but I was more excited about breathing thru regulator. We got settled down on the platform waited for our instructor to bring more student down, while were under watchful eyes of our DM and another rescue diver.
I think that’s all I can think of my first dive. We barely saw few fish, it being quarry and it was full of OW students getting certified, I am sure ppl from TX here would know CSSP around May time………lol. J

 

[Oriskany Divemaster]

It was February and the air was freezing and the seas were up. We were diving the Three Barges. The instructor took his speargun down to "secure the anchor" and returned moments later with a nice red snapper. Though I hadn't even left the boat, I knew this was something I was destined to do. The dive went off without a hitch, and my life changed instantly. And now a few short (almost 20) years later of diving the same waters, I'm still hooked.

 

[Oregon Duck]

Great stories.

My first dive was as an untrained solo diver with no advice or prior experience except as a skin diver. I was a 16 y/o lifeguard in Chicago on a Lake Michigan beach. A couple of the older lifeguards had their very cool looking dive gear (black, of course) at our boathouse. I asked if I could use it and I guess they maybe assumed I knew how.

The next day they motored me over on an 11 ft. Whaler to a site off the Montrose Harbor entrance. I didn't even know how to put the reg on the tank. The suited me up and over the side I went - way over-weighted. Dropped down sans BC to around 45 ft. and finned around for about 20 minutes checking out the scene.

It's been 30 years, but I remember that swimming back to the surface was a struggle and I had a bit of panic but finally made it. I sat on the rocks and eventually the Whaler arrived and I swam over to it, handed them the tank, and climbed in. When we got back to the beach I went down again in ~ 15 ft. and (nearly) finished off the tank. Nothing like breathing underwater. It was totally cool. A few weeks later a bloated body floated into the same area with a full suit of clothes and patent leather shoes on. Interesting summer.

 

[dlndavid]

My first time we were on a charter boat in PV, the crew said they still had openings for another diver. I said how much, they said sixty, I said I have thirty, they said OK. Got my 5 minute mexican certification and plop, I was in the water breathing off scuba gear. The dive was pretty nice and have been diving now for four years, certified.

 

[Cacia]

let me see, I was thirteen years old, we were camping....oh this about diving

LOL..okay I'll take it from there...

I was 9 and we were camping somewhere along Chrystal River near Ocala, and there was a huge rainstorm and my tent filled with water. My parents were sleeping comfortably in the camper, and my dad would not get up, even tho there was two feet of water in the "kid's tent". later that day, he dragged me into the "boil" of the spring and made me follow him into the mouth of the cave. The water gushed outward and was very clear and cold. He had me by the arm and would not let me turn around, even though my new pink snorkel had dropped off. He had his thumb digging into my biceps and he dragged me in, I knew better than to resist. I looked around and finally he let us leave, and I hated him the whole trip. Every day he continued to talk about gators and drove me nuts about how bears could get in my tent with one "swipe" if they wanted too. Every day with him was like boot camp.

 

[gtalum]

I'm looking forward to my first open water dives this weekend for my certification.

 

[DaleHall]

My first time write up is on my website here.