Why Diving & Not Tennis?

[Green Hand]

I dive AND play tennis, and cave, and ski, and all that other stuff. I love getting outside and.... doing stuff.

But how far are you prepared to push your diving? People climb Mt.Everest [believing that they will be OK - many who are not fully proficient for such a climb but have
US$60,000 to pay a guide] when the hard cold statistics are that historically 1 in evry 2 climbers on Everest will die.

I know we all love being in the water, but some divers [specifically technical divers & cave divers] are constantly pushing the boundaries of their personal safety and I find the pyschology of their self belief and confidence in their abilitities [their motivations as well] fascinating.

Some of these people visit Scuba Board and I would love to hear their personal thoughts on what drives them.

Are they adrenalin junkies, control freaks, tech heads, or just pioneers and adventurers?

 

[Diver0001]

Sports are meant to be played outdoors.

Mountain climbing, scuba diving and skiing are sports. Anything you do outside that involves a level of risk and a level of physical effort are interesting to me.

In my world squash, tennis and badminton are pastimes....games.... They're great fun and very physical but they'll never hold my interest because you're not outside.

Riding motorcycles (speaking from experience) is great fun too but is about as much a sport as sitting on a boat fishing or playing chess, which for some odd reason someone also labeled a sport.

R..

 

[ZzzKing]

Sports are meant to be played outdoors.

Mountain climbing, scuba diving and skiing are sports. Anything you do outside that involves a level of risk and a level of physical effort are interesting to me.

In my world squash, tennis and badminton are pastimes....games.... They're great fun and very physical but they'll never hold my interest because you're not outside.

Riding motorcycles (speaking from experience) is great fun too but is about as much a sport as sitting on a boat fishing or playing chess, which for some odd reason someone also labeled a sport.

R..

On the other hand, golf is played outside. Can anything that you do while riding in a cart and drinking beer be a called sport? Fishing? How can there be any such thing as "Sport Fishing"? It occurs outside too.

Basketball and Volleyball are both sports but occur inside a gym. Football now occurs inside. You just can't win a Superbowl if your team plays inside.

I think if you're breaking a sweat from your own exertion and competing, you can call it a sport regardless of venue.

 

[Mrs.Prages]

I find that I do things liek this to keep myself out there in the world. I love the exhiliration that comes with the things I do...scuba, rafting, kayaking, motorcycling and the such, and when I'm doing these things I can be fun and outgoing and friendly with other people. I love the challenges that come with all of these and I love the concentration and mental hard work that comes with all of these things.

I find that if I don't keep myself busy and challenged, I will sink myself into my house and my job and not come out. I don't really socialize much at work and when I go home at night, I go home. I can stay in my house and not talk to a living being for days at a time if I let myself.

Doing these things keeps me connected to the world and puts me on places like this where I can connect with others who like to do these same things.

 

[Diver0001]

On the other hand, golf is played outside. Can anything that you do while riding in a cart and drinking beer be a called sport? Fishing? How can there be any such thing as "Sport Fishing"? It occurs outside too.

Basketball and Volleyball are both sports but occur inside a gym. Football now occurs inside. You just can't win a Superbowl if your team plays inside.

I think if you're breaking a sweat from your own exertion and competing, you can call it a sport regardless of venue.

Yeah, you're right. I guess what I was trying to say is that indoor sports don't really appeal to me.

Another aspect to this is that sports like mountain climbing and diving are things you do in a team but you're not competing to "win" anything. Only the accomplishment matters.

I like games (sports...) with an element of competition but the competition element isn't enough to keep me motivated, especially if the game is repetitive.

For me the challenge to personal boundaries motivates me more and to do it on mother-nature's turf is the ultimate.

R..

 

[Wayward Son]

It's the fact that it's constantly changing. No 2 dives are alike. Every dive holds the promise of something new, for the very 1st time. The 1 manta ray, the 1st goliath grouper, the 1st bull shark, the list goes on. It's just an adventure that never ends, and even though there are a lot of divers, those of us who get bottom time are still a very small percentage of the population. Most people will never seen any of what we see.

 

[RumBum]

Why do you SCUBA dive and not spend your weekends playing tennis, or growing orchids, or painting etc.etc.?

My orchids grow just fine without me staring at them all weekend. I can't paint worth a darn.

I think I know why most of you physically dive, but why did you choose diving from an emotional and pyschological perspective? It isn't the safest past time and it certainly isn't the cheapest.

I want to be able to enjoy and savor my life and the richness that being alive on this beautiful planet can offer. Diving isn't the only way to achieve this, there are many routes. But diving is one path. Life should be enjoyed. I would hate to sit on the couch every weekend.

Are you an 'A' type personality who is all action and adventure, or more of an introverted person who likes the skill's of photography?

I am an introverted person who likes adventures. Why can't I be both?

Does the aspect of danger and controlling it excite you? Do you love the technical aspect of the equipment [read some of the Hogarthian threads]? Does the sheer beauty of being underwater impact on you so much that you just can't stay away? Or are you just a lousey tennis player?

Gotta do something to get off the couch. Diving is way more fun than alot of other things I could be doing. And I kinda suck at tennis.

Be honest and let us know why you part-take in this sport. Some of you will have had scary and dangerous experiences, some of you will be happy sticking to 15Mt. reef dives and others will have been to the edge diving in caves and pushing their skills to the limit - in some cases just surviving, and then returning for more - why? aren't you just tempting fate?.

This same question has been asked of mountain climbers and is often posed after a fatal accident. Many of their spouses say 'I wish they didn't climb, but it is who they are, their make-up and without it they woud be a different person'.

I guess you are trying to get someone to say that scuba has altered their life, that it is a religious experience. It is all that, but I think it is more of an attitude that divers have that alters their life, not really the act of diving itself. Most divers are laid back, appreciate and respect nature, value life. These are attitudes that help one to savor life, diving is just one of many means to that end.

Would you give up diving if your spouse and kids begged you too? [a hypothetical only, my non diving wife is happy if I am happy - but I am sure some of you would have experienced some questions that would have required some deep soul searching].

If they begged me to, yes. I love and respect my family. But I would find something else to do that gave me the "life is good, good, good" feeling.

A quote that points in the direction I hope we will head:

Mountains are the means, the man is the end. The goal is not to reach the tops of mountains, but to improve the man.
WALTER BONATTI, Italian climber

Let the thread begin!!

The journey of life could be considered to be that mountain. We continue to live and learn and climb every day.

How's that for waxing philosphical for ya?:07:

 

[TSandM]

Why diving and not tennis? Lousy eye-hand coordination

It's actually an interesting question to me, why this particular activity has hooked me as much as it has. And the original poster's thoughts about risk come into that . . . I realized the other day, as I drove to the dive site, that the way I felt was very familiar. It was the way I felt when I got up in the middle of the night to drive to Harborview to do a trauma case: excited, exhilarated, and just a little apprehensive. I used to say (and still believe) that trauma surgeons are adrenaline addicts, and I suspect there is a little of that in diving for some people, too. A lot, for those who pursue the high-risk areas of the sport (which I don't need to, because I'm getting enough apprehension already )

In addition, diving, like tennis, is something you can work to get technically better at . . . with the difference being, at least in my view, that you don't have to have a huge amount of athletic ability or talent to improve your diving. This is where the eye-hand coordination comes in (really!). No matter how hard I worked, I would always be a mediocre tennis player. But I can believe that, if I work at it, I can become a very good diver.

And finally, in addition to weightlessness (and where else can we non-astronauts get to experience THAT?), diving has the quality of surprise. Every time you go down there, you have the possibility of finding or seeing something you haven't seen before, whether it's a different creature, or an interaction, or part of the cave that you haven't gotten to before, or the inside of a new wreck. I'm sorry, but after a couple of thousand games, there just CAN'T be anything surprising about tennis . . .

 

[drbill]

Because diving is much closer to a Zen state than any other sport I've tried. It relaxes me and takes me away from the everyday world (oops, it IS the everyday world).

Besides, my grandfather used to beat me regularly at tennis. He and Bobby Riggs had this little "game" they'd play. Gramps had a very unorthodox (but very effective) style. You couldn't read his shots very well. Riggs would bet with the younger players that they couldn't beat my grandfather. Very few did not accept the challenge! He could also beat me at golf, and I was worthless at baseball (too boring) or football (too rough to be relaxing).

 

[downdeep]

Maybe it's because we originally came from water.
There is something comforting and familiar about it.
My spirit is at peace at 100+ feet. Or exploring a wreck. Or on a beautiful wall.

Is that Zen dr bill?