What sacrifices have you made for diving?

I guess you didn’t read my follow-up post. The loss of longtime friends was the sacrifice not the other extraneous stuff. Read between the lines!

 

Life, they tell me. Or what counts as "a life" among the landlubbers.

 

I used to climb mountains during many weekends and play baseball the rest of the time. At one point I was in two baseball leagues at the same time. I used to practice ten hours a day. Once I began diving I began cutting back on the other activities until diving became the only thing I do. Now when I'm not diving I'm either reading about it, writing about it or working on my underwater photography.

I don't consider giving up baseball or hiking a sacrifice, just finding a passion I enjoy more. To further my passion I did sacrifice spending money on going to baseball games, movies, concerts and eating out so we could get our boat.

 

I chose to focus on local shore diving early in my life. This has kept the expenses within my means & rewarded me with 3 decades + of fun California diving.

 

I do not fish as much as I used to so swapping hobbies is all. Plus once I started diving I realized what a bad fisherman I was.
I have made a number of new friends.
True friends tolerate each other having different hobbies. Otherwise they are just people whose names we know and are pleasant to chat with when all is going well.
It keeps me active and interested at 72.

 

Since the local dive op is only 30 minutes away, I sacrificed quite a few work days when the weather forecast is for sun and little wind in the middle of the week. But the exercise makes me sleep like a baby so it's worth it.

 

Could they have been true friends then? I dove 35 years ago with two buddies. We dove locally and took several trips together. We all drifted out of it because of life. With one of them I took up motorcycles for 25 years, with the other I golfed for many. I drifted out of those and back into scuba and they still pursue those passions. They have no interest at this time in getting back into diving. We've all been close friends for 40 years.

 

If they don't dive, it's not really a sacrifice, is it?

 

I used to have a garage....