What got you into diving? ?

[crowleyW]

I was walking patong beach,phuket with major hangover looking for my morning beer, when some DM lured me in the shop and started talking about diving. Only thing what i was thinking that i wanna get out of here fast, so signed myself to OWD course and have been hooked since

 

[ScubaSam]

A colleague heard I was headed to Australia and New Zealand for vacation, said I must, must, must dive GBR. I told him I'm not certified, he said do a Discover Scuba at GBR. I did and fell in love with breathing compressed air.

I went from warm water vacation wuss diver to diving all environments, whether it's cold, warm, salt, fresh, reef, wreck, kelp, lake, quarry, ocean, cavern....I'm there!

 

[ligersandtions]

My husband and I almost bought a house and then it all fell through....we had a extra money literally burning holes in our pockets (down payment) and were about to get married and go on our honeymoon to Playa del Carmen. He suggested we get certified so we could dive while we were there.

We got certified fully assuming we'd be purely warm water vacation divers....as soon as I figured out how to equalize (and it actually took a long time), I was hooked. We came back home to socal and started diving locally....now you practically have to drag me out of the water. I can't believe how much diving has taken over my life in the past year and a half.

 

[JonBath]

What got into diving was a love of snorkelling as a kid and the chance to try it on a family holiday.

What made me decide I wanted to be an instructor?

Seeing the instructor's girlfriend was Jessica Alba in 'Into the Blue'

 

[Buoyant1]

I guess it started with my mother always watching the Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, and anything related to undersea life...I read The Deep at a very early age (one of the first books I ever read that didn't have pictures!) and then saw the movie. That piqued my interest, but living in landlocked Pennsylvania, I never gave diving more than a passing though, other than owning a mask and snorkel, and diving for junk at the bottom of my pool. (In fact I even had a small blow up boat that I used to practice back rolls)

I ALWAYS has an affinity for the water, and sea life, I was the one on aquarium trips that would hold up the rest because I was actually reading the information on the tanks.

Anyway...fast forward to the early 2000's and a friend moved to the Florida Keys. We took trips to visit every 6 months, and on one trip when we had some time to kill and decided to take a glass bottomed boat out to the reef. After that trip I decided that the next time we came down, I was going to go snorkeling. That trip came (ironically for my 40th birthday) and I was given "carte` blanche" to purchase my snorkeling gear at Divers Direct in Key West (because my wife thought it was gross to rent it, and figured that since our friend was going to be living there for at least another year or two, I'd get my money's worth out of it) So I went snorkeling on the reef and saw a few divers down below and thought "I can do that!" So I talked to a friend that I knew was a diver (ironically she was also an instructor) and she sent me an old PADI manual to start learning. We tried to set up times where she could give me private instruction, but pools were not easy to rent, especially since she wasn't affiliated with a shop at that point.

I almost signed with one local shop that had classes set up (at inopportune times, and inconvenient locations) but found a new shop that just opened up closer to home. I contacted them, and took my basic OW and it snowballed from there!

Five years, and a much thinner wallet, and I can't get enough of it!

 

[SurDo2]

To pick up chicks.

 

[SkimFisher]

To pick up chicks.

...you beat me to it.

Hot dive chicks.

 

[David_57]

The wife, I had no interest at all but she purchased the PADI course for me and I had no choice once I took my first breath underwater I was hooked. If only she new at the time she would be creating a dive fanatic now I dive every chance I can get, she is becoming a dive widow ;-)

 

[scubadiver888]

Watched the show Man From Atlantis. Thought it would be really cool to be able to breath underwater. On my honeymoon the resort had Discover Scuba Diver for free. Two weeks later and I'm an Open Water Diver.

 

[Blackwood]

Always been fascinated with shipwrecks.