Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
This is kind of a poll I'm taking to find out if there's a common denominator on how and why people start diving. I want to know what you saw, heard, or what it was exactly that planted the seed in your mind to become a diver. This is not an official poll, rather something I just have an interest in personally.
I'll start.
I grew up in Monterey California back in the early 60's. We used to go to the beach quite often because my parents were european and the real outdoorsy type. We were either at the beach or hiking somewhere in the wilderness every weekend. My mom however was terrified of water and never let me body surf or get in the water past my knees.
One day we were at Carmel river beach and I watched a guy swim in on the surface in full scuba gear and get out of the water. I vividly remember the chrome 2nd stage and the metal backpack he was using. I realized later from memory that it was probably a Conshelf or Dacor and a Voit snug pack. He was a tall guy, about 45 years old, skinny, in excellent shape. All the kids ran up including me and started asking all sorts of questions, "Hey mister, what do you see down there, what's that for, ever see a shark?". Skin divers and scuba divers were considered really cool back then and anybody that could do that and brave the cold and all the sea monsters was a real hero in our minds. Like a real life GI Joe. I remember the long knife he had on his belt. He told us about all the cool stuff down there and told us a few harrowing stories, probably for our enjoyment. This was about 1966.
A few years later Jacques Cousteau had his show on TV and I remember thinking how cool it would be to be able to do that. I never saw Sea Hunt, that was a few years before my time, unfortunately.
Fast foreward to about 1973. My mom gets remarried to a guy who has a boat moored at the Monterey Marina.
He takes us out almost every weekend to go ocean fishing for rock fish and whatever else. That opens up a whole new world that I never would have participated in otherwise. I am now hooked on fishing and love to be out on the ocean on a boat. I loved everything about it, the fresh salt air, the birds and the mystery of what was beneath the waves.
Early 90's. I was married with a kid and was living in Sonoma County. The ocean is much more remote and wilder than Monterey but offers some good fishing off the rocks. I take up shore fishing again to get away from the wife for a few hours a few times a month. While I'm out there I see abalone divers coming in with their tubes and abalone. Mmmm Yumm Abalone! I flash back to the diver coming out of the water in 1966.
Next thing I know I look up all the dive shops around my area and start shopping for skin diving gear so I can be part of this abalone diving thing. I get all the stuff and happen to know a few guys that are into it, so I start going out to the ocean with them. As stuff get's lost or I need something better I start hanging out at the LDS more and more. Next thing you know I'm checking out the regs and other stuff and getting nauseous looking at the price tags. But after acclimating to what everything costs and what's involved I sign up for open water. They tell me it will only improve my freediving so that's what sold it (A line of BS but it worked) There was no online gear stores, everybody went to their local dive shop, paid the price and that's how it was. The dive shop was a center of activity then and I started meeting more people who went in there. I talked to many good people and had a lot of fun standing around waiting for a tank to be filled.
Class after class got me up to DM and I did some tech stuff too.
I've come full circle. Now I dive just like that guy I saw coming out of the water in 1966.
I'll start.
I grew up in Monterey California back in the early 60's. We used to go to the beach quite often because my parents were european and the real outdoorsy type. We were either at the beach or hiking somewhere in the wilderness every weekend. My mom however was terrified of water and never let me body surf or get in the water past my knees.
One day we were at Carmel river beach and I watched a guy swim in on the surface in full scuba gear and get out of the water. I vividly remember the chrome 2nd stage and the metal backpack he was using. I realized later from memory that it was probably a Conshelf or Dacor and a Voit snug pack. He was a tall guy, about 45 years old, skinny, in excellent shape. All the kids ran up including me and started asking all sorts of questions, "Hey mister, what do you see down there, what's that for, ever see a shark?". Skin divers and scuba divers were considered really cool back then and anybody that could do that and brave the cold and all the sea monsters was a real hero in our minds. Like a real life GI Joe. I remember the long knife he had on his belt. He told us about all the cool stuff down there and told us a few harrowing stories, probably for our enjoyment. This was about 1966.
A few years later Jacques Cousteau had his show on TV and I remember thinking how cool it would be to be able to do that. I never saw Sea Hunt, that was a few years before my time, unfortunately.
Fast foreward to about 1973. My mom gets remarried to a guy who has a boat moored at the Monterey Marina.
He takes us out almost every weekend to go ocean fishing for rock fish and whatever else. That opens up a whole new world that I never would have participated in otherwise. I am now hooked on fishing and love to be out on the ocean on a boat. I loved everything about it, the fresh salt air, the birds and the mystery of what was beneath the waves.
Early 90's. I was married with a kid and was living in Sonoma County. The ocean is much more remote and wilder than Monterey but offers some good fishing off the rocks. I take up shore fishing again to get away from the wife for a few hours a few times a month. While I'm out there I see abalone divers coming in with their tubes and abalone. Mmmm Yumm Abalone! I flash back to the diver coming out of the water in 1966.
Next thing I know I look up all the dive shops around my area and start shopping for skin diving gear so I can be part of this abalone diving thing. I get all the stuff and happen to know a few guys that are into it, so I start going out to the ocean with them. As stuff get's lost or I need something better I start hanging out at the LDS more and more. Next thing you know I'm checking out the regs and other stuff and getting nauseous looking at the price tags. But after acclimating to what everything costs and what's involved I sign up for open water. They tell me it will only improve my freediving so that's what sold it (A line of BS but it worked) There was no online gear stores, everybody went to their local dive shop, paid the price and that's how it was. The dive shop was a center of activity then and I started meeting more people who went in there. I talked to many good people and had a lot of fun standing around waiting for a tank to be filled.
Class after class got me up to DM and I did some tech stuff too.
I've come full circle. Now I dive just like that guy I saw coming out of the water in 1966.
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