What gave you the itch or motivation to take up diving

[rongoodman]

I took an open water class as a lark back when I was about 60 but what really inspired me was hanging out with some GUE divers, Ed Hayes among them, over at the Scuba Shack near Hartford, Conn. I wanted to look like them in the water! I think about those guys every time I drop off a liveaboard these days on some warm water site and can end up hanging flat over the reef or backing away from some little something the DM showed me with my hands doing nothing at all.

 

[icechip]

Jacques Cousteau did it for me. What a great way to hook a kid!

 

[CuriousRambler]

No idea, honestly. My folks claim I was telling them about how cool scuba diving would be when I was four or five. First family vacation we ever took, I nagged and nagged until Dad agreed to get certified with me, when I was a wise and seasoned 13 year old.

 

[Hoag]

As a teenager in 1975 when I first saw "Jaws", I thought sharks can't possibly be that malevolent and my fascination with sharks and diving began.

It was several years before everything lined up and I found myself in a location where I could finally make it happen.

 

[eleniel]

I didn't grow up with cool shows or explorers to idolize and didn't know a single diver - but to me, it looked like it could be one amazing adventure.
I'm going to attribute my interest to accounts of dives gone wrong - as a child (and still to this day) I was always fascinated by disasters an accidents - hurricanes, tornadoes, people freezing to death or running out of oxygen or getting lost on Mount Everest, people being lost at sea, and so on. I grew up with it always existing as a thing, so it didn't stand out until I started learning about how dangerous it could be if things went wrong.
When I needed a phys ed credit in undergrad and saw that scuba was one of the offerings, I said "why not?" and went for it. I completed all the pool stuff and academics, passed the course, but didn't certify for reasons.
Years later, when I was strong enough to carry my own tank and gear all at once, I retook the course and certified. Ever since then it's been almost an obsessive need to add more and more experience so I can start pushing things further and further - carefully and within my skill and training of course.
Scuba appealed to me because of the potential adventure, and I fell in love with it for the serene tranquility... and for the hilarity of when a small fish nibbles on you.
Also I love sharks and have since I was very little, and the idea of seeing sharks in their natural environment is just amazing.

 

[ColoDale]

My future wife at the time was a diver and my future father in law was an instructor. I really liked it and it's their fault.

 

[Scuba Lawyer]

As a teenager in 1975 when I first saw "Jaws", I thought sharks can't possibly be that malevolent and my fascination with sharks and diving began.

When I saw Jaws in 1975 it scared the cr*p out of me. I actually forced myself to get up the next morning and go for a dive in the ocean because I figured if I did not I might put it off forever.

 

[Esprise Me]

I think Disney's The Little Mermaid was my Jacques Cousteau. I was six years old when the movie came out; I don't recall having any particular feelings about the ocean before then, but I've felt drawn to it ever since.

I didn't get around to scuba diving until my late twenties, when I did a discover dive with my then- boyfriend. I loved it--I don't remember seeing much, but breathing underwater was the most profound spiritual experience of my life. I didn't know much about diving except that I couldn't afford it back then. It took about a decade more for that to change, and then I was delayed a few years further when I found out my new husband wasn't medically fit to dive. Eventually I said screw it and got certified without him.

Mermaid stuff has weirdly become fashionable among a subset of my age group. Rainbow hair colors, known as "mermaid hair," is becoming increasingly common; you can buy a mermaid tail costume to swim in (and people get together to do this), and a couple of women I knew in high school have side hustles dressing up as mermaids for circuses or renaissance fairs (I don't get that one either). I played with some temporary blue-green and purple hair dye before my last trip, and it was fun. But for me, scuba diving really feels like living out my childhood fantasy. And I may or may not have a few photos of me collecting plastic dinglehoppers underwater. Still looking for a snarfblatt.

 

[Nemrod]

The swim team I was on was working out in the Y pool circa 1966. I was 12 yo and after we cleared the pool a SCUBA class entered the pool area. I asked if I could take the SCUBA class and the instructor said sure, jump in. My neighbor friend and I then signed up and my mother paid the huge fee of $45.00. It was an eight week long class, two three to four hours classes per week. My neighbor friend was two years older than me so achieved NAUI/YMCA SCUBA diver. The instructor did not give me my NAUI certification until the following summer when I beat the instructor in a mile swim and then bench pressed a steel 72 twenty times or so. I guess in 1966 there was no Jr. diver, do not know, I had trouble lifting the tanks, puberty solves a lot of issues in that regard. But, I can say, that while Sea Hunt, rather dorky, was occasionally on TV and I found the JC documentaries interesting neither motivated me. It was simply opportunity and I was a swimmer and swimming under the water was as cool as swimming on top of the water. And I still do both, some 54 years plus or minus later. N

 

[eleniel]

I think Disney's The Little Mermaid was my Jacques Cousteau. I was six years old when the movie came out; I don't recall having any particular feelings about the ocean before then, but I've felt drawn to it ever since.

I didn't get around to scuba diving until my late twenties, when I did a discover dive with my then- boyfriend. I loved it--I don't remember seeing much, but breathing underwater was the most profound spiritual experience of my life. I didn't know much about diving except that I couldn't afford it back then. It took about a decade more for that to change, and then I was delayed a few years further when I found out my new husband wasn't medically fit to dive. Eventually I said screw it and got certified without him.

Mermaid stuff has weirdly become fashionable among a subset of my age group. Rainbow hair colors, known as "mermaid hair," is becoming increasingly common; you can buy a mermaid tail costume to swim in (and people get together to do this), and a couple of women I knew in high school have side hustles dressing up as mermaids for circuses or renaissance fairs (I don't get that one either). I played with some temporary blue-green and purple hair dye before my last trip, and it was fun. But for me, scuba diving really feels like living out my childhood fantasy. And I may or may not have a few photos of me collecting plastic dinglehoppers underwater. Still looking for a snarfblatt.

Mermaids definitely here! The tail/swim fin costume got me into freediving - I haven't put the money into the custom fin yet but it'll happen.
I had the rainbow hair at one point too, but salt water strips all dye out of my hair pretty thoroughly so I have to settle for my natural reddish brown (or is that brownish red?). Even my wedding was beach/ocean themed (though less Ariel, more man-eating siren).