When did you get bitten by the bug?

[MXGratefulDiver]

Right about then ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[paradicio]

The sad part is everywhere I look now, it is a potential dive site....."Oh look, a rain puddle, I wonder how I can dive it."

Guess that means I've been bit as well. I can't think of anything else that could get me up at 4am with a big smile on my face...

 

[htweeo]

I started diving in february and have now logged 30 dives. Last thursday morning I was sitting in my car waiting for some divebuddies to show up. Nothing very special only it was 2 AM and raining cats and dogs. We met so early because high tide was at 4:30 AM and we needed to dive 'on' the tide because the current is very strong there off tide.

While driving to the diving site (130 miles one way) in a real downpour at night with only 2 hours of sleep to do a dive to see cuttlefish mating I looked at my very experienced buddy and told him that I suddenly realised how crazy we are doing this... and he laughed and said... Beester... the bug has bitten you good... and yes we are real loonies !

So my question is... when did you realise that this hobby realy is more then just a hobby... but a real addiction?

Cheers!

Zo herkenbaar ...

When I wake up in the middle of the night, drive 2 hours,walk half a mile to dive in cold water , vissibilty is 2 feet ...
the bug has bitten me .....?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

... (old thread)

 

[tomboyy]

Started snorkeling at 16 in a quarry in N.Y and wanted to scuba so bad I would buy "little" stuff like a nylon weight belt( no lead ) neoprene gloves and never did it because of money

Got certified in Jan. 2003. It was sprinkling snow and about 38 degrees. I never got REALLY bit until this year when I got to dive in Belize and Roatan. Haven't stopped buying and reading and taking courses since

 

[300bar]

... (old thread)

Yeah,don't you just love them new members,they find stuff we had lost. :mooner:

 

[kathydee]

Did lots of snorkling in the Fla Keys as a kid (lived in miami) but my real love is rock climbing (96-present).

Starting diving in Bali in 06, it was kinda fun but nothing compared to living on a 2,000 ft cliff. 1st time down to 65 feet I had a pretty good feeling & though the deep might have something exciting to offer.

Summer of '08 stumbled into Sipadan in Malaysia Borneo on a backpacker trip. 100ft + vis, breathtaking scenery, 9ft sharks, countless turtles, intoxicating blue - I was hooked. Huge mantas in Bali and crazy critters in Lembeh Straights sealed the deal. 34 dives durring the next 4 weeks - I am still hooked & the obsession does rival rock climbing!

 

[DamselDoc]

I think I got the first bite in my discover scuba on Maui in '97 or '98. As soon as learned that all I had to do was clear my ears, I was ready to go. Then our instructor showed us a few fish on a reef and I was a goner.

I knew that this bite was serious when my husband and I spent 45 minutes trying to dive Mexico Beach (FL). I say trying because we spent 45 minutes crawling around in water that might have been 4 feet deep and all we saw was sand. But I logged it...

It hasn't gotten any better. A few weeks ago, we dove 4 tanks on French's Reef (Key Largo, FL) not long after Fay (after waiting out the whole week of bad weather). The vis was the worst I have ever had in the Keys, but I am still editing the pics, have filed my REEF reports and told all my friends about all the cool stuff I saw.

And all I can think is that it is a loooooooong time until March (when I can go again).

 

[TSandM]

Well, I got up ungodly early for my first OW dives, but I wasn't hooked then.

I got up at 5:00 to do my 10th OW dive in Molokini crater, and that was closer.

I got to the dive site at 9 am in 42 degree drizzle to do Fundies. There wasn't much hope left at that point.

That winter, I dove when it was 21 degrees out. Prognosis was pretty poor.

But I was lost, I'll tell you -- completely lost, beyond hope, obsessed beyond reason, the day I did my first cenote tours. It's all Danny Riordan's fault . . .

 

[PR_SMITH]

I got my first snorkel/mask in 1971, at 10yrs old. Wanted to be Jacques Costeau as a kid. Favorite show, no prizes for guessing, Seahunt! Getting my OWD this February was definitely on my bucket list. After my first reef dive in Cuba, my girlfriend asked me if I liked the diving and I couldn't reply right away, as I was pretty choked up about realising a life-long dream. Got a few ear infections as a kid, from having my head in the water most of the summers. I used to float on an air mattress, fins off the back, mask submerged at the front for hours. Just couldn't stop looking at fish, clams, anything, everything in the water. I still have that boyish sense of being mesmerized by the underwater world and its creatures.

Finding Scubaboard was like discovering a treasure chest. I'm an addict, for sure, eh?