Your very first and most recent dive

[ras]

Greetings,

This is my first reply, and it is about my first dives out of the pool. I just finished my certification at the Homestead Crater near Park City, Utah......Last Week. In fact, I just picked up my card from the shop! Picture is exceptable too!!!!

I am hooked, and I am proud.

I thought that the crater was unique and very interesting, not to mention it is in the mid 90's temperature wise.

RAS

 

[Atom]

1st Dive...

Took scuba diving in college, first dive was obviously in the pool.... WOW!!!!!! I can breath underwater!!!!! I really liked that class, just being underwater was enough to get me really excited (I mean this a pool, nothing to see). I remember the exercises being practiced a lot more than in my OW class, although this wasn't a real certification and the teacher had us for quite a while during the session in that pool so I guess we had more time to do stuff. The best one was, put your gear on, go to the bottom, remove gear, surface, then dive back and put everything back on.

At this point I decide not to do the certification because I don't have enough money.... a few years later I'm on a long vacation (after many years of not having any) in S-E Asia and I decide to do my OW class.


1st OW Dive...

We're off the boat near Ko Tao in Thailand, the water is very warm (29 C), I don't even need a wetsuit, there's no current, we jump off the boat, wait for the instructor to give the signal and start descending and equalizing.... WOW!!!!!! It's a cert dive but it's sure nicer than the pool, the ears actually equalize nicely, which was my biggest fear since I always had problems in the pool, turns out what the instructor/course told me (early & often, I surely don't remember being told that in college) is the way to get that done. I'm fascinated by what I'm seeing. At this moment I know I'm gonna be hooked on that. Dive went nicely, after 45 minutes everybody is back on the surface safely, everybody is smilling

Last Dive.....

Today, in the St-Lawrence river, water temp is 45F (7 C), it's sure colder than Thailand ; ) I wear a dry suit since the temperature outside is arround 24 F (-4 C), I just don't want to have to get out of a wetsuit at that temperature, and dry suits are very comfortable in the water. We dive the wreck of the Rhotesay near Prescott, Ontario. It's a shore dive, we swim to the white float marking the start of the underwater line to the boat, we descend in 0 vis (not deep enough and too much water movement) and follow the line to the wreck (well... after a false start). After a few meters vis starts clearing up (yay!) and after 300 feet we get to the wreck. The vis is really nice, and the wreck is nice too, it's an old wooden side wheeler who sank in 1889. We take note of how much air we used getting there and start exploring the wreck, there's some big fishes in there too. I found the place fascinating with many little corners to explore (and not enough time, should have brought more tanks). After a while air pressure says it's time to get back, so we wave the wreck goodbye and head back on the line. It was a very nice dive and not too much current down there (on the surface that's different). That's probably the last dive till we take the ice diving course, can't wait to try that!

 

[BabyDuck]

first post cert dive - jan 2005 - the run at ginnie springs. i was with bobby f and suthnbelle. we dropped down little devil to a place i could touch both sides, and i took off gobs of lead - like 20 lbs total - and then we went down the run. i loved the little bubbles coming up from the caves, and still do. but the revelation was bobby in the water. i *knew* i wanted to look like that, i wanted to be a cave diver, i wanted to be that solid & comfortable. short dive, but definitely life-changing!

last dive - last month. puked on the boat. inshore. was gonna be offshore, but the waves & wind dictated otherwise. inshore was cooler than i wanted, and there were basically no fish on the wreck. it was sorta a miserable dive. dive bud was waaay seasicker than i was, too. urp.

in between - many lovely cave dives. up next - 1st week of jan i'm taking adv nit & deco, app & full. what i pass is another story, of course!

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

1st dive: Leleiwi (near Hilo, Hawaii) in summer of 1976, 18 years old.

Last dive: Puako (on Kohala coast, Hawaii) 8 days ago, 50 years young

In between: Almost 20 years without diving. Began again a year ago. I still use (from time to time) the original steel 72 I bought in 1976. It shows less wear and tear than I do

 

[Dive-aholic]

First dive - 20 fsw for about 20 minutes in the Sea of Cortez just north of San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico. It was a shore dive off a remote beach. I remember being amazed at all the sea life we saw and just loving the feeling of being under water and wishing we could stay longer. The next day my wife and I did our first post certication dive to a max depth of 30-something fsw back to an area called Stingray Alley and actually got to see our first stingrays!

Last dive - Springboard, a freshwater spring cave just south of Marianna with an uncountable amount of fossils embedded in the walls and ceilings, an almost pristine floor, and one of the most amazing passage formations I've ever seen. I did a 90 minute dive penetrating 2 passages, the 2nd one 1900' back (just 300' from the EOL - I didn't turn it ), passing 2 Ts, starting and ending the dive in a syphon but crossing over into the spring at the 1st T, and having to do a 20 minute decompression on oxygen. It was a great dive!

 

[BTravlin]

Dive # 1
3/27/06 - Mr. Bud, Roatan, Honduras
60 feet max depth with 35 minutes total time
78 degree water, 70' vis, 3mm suit, 20 lbs weight
Nervous, a little scary but a lot of fun. Don't really remember much other than dealing with buoyancy, trim, watching air consumption, depth, where's my wife?, what the h*ll is that? So this is a wreck?

Dive # 116
6/27/08 - The Gulley, Turks & Caicos
65 feet max depth with 50 minutes total time
82 degree water, 80' vis, 3mm suit, 8 lbs weight
Wonderful dive with two reef sharks making numerous close passes. One has a hook stuck in the left corner of his mouth with about 50 feet of line trailing from it. DM has brought down some snips and carefully cuts about half that off on one pass. Tries for more on another pass but cheap snips buckle and catch on line, jerks shark's head. Enough of that! Can't believe this was our last dive of the week, where did the time go? I don't want to go home!

Next dive # 117
Coz on 12/26 - Man, time sure does seem to crawl.

 

[Aardvark]

I'm not skipping the pool, the pool was cool...

I remember clearly the awesome feeling kneeling down in the shallow end of the local pool and thinking (having been snorkling for a few years) "I can stay down for more than ninety seconds at a time now". Next thought was "errgghhhh, this pool is filthy..."

My first open water dive was in Terrigal Haven, we went out, did some skills then did a dive along the breakwall. I remember being uncomfortable with my tank slapping aorund behind me and my throat being sore and never wanting to get out of the water.

Yesterday:

I was in the same spot where I did my first OW dive. I was taking photos and an OW class went past me, arms and legs flying, bumping into the wall, bumping into the sand, basically all over the place. I really hope I don't look like that in the water now. Magic day to be in the water; warm and clear and I hope that there's six new divers on the 'coast that caught the bug that I did.

 

[Cairns]

Very first was an "intro dive" on the outer reef off in Australia, out of Cairns. I chose to do it after seeing that the dive masters were cool bunch of people and we had small groups of 4 so I went, and then I went again!

The coral down there is spectacular, so many colors it's unimaginable. The sea turtles and really majestic, huge angel fish or whatever they're called, giant clams, unforgettable.

 

[mistressmotorsports]

First Dive: Intro dive off our timeshare in Kaanapali, Maui. I remember being petrified of running into the coral. I didn't, but I'm pretty sure it was just luck. 24 feet max, saw lots of the same things I saw in the same place snorkeling, but CLOSER, and for LONGER. Almost a year later, my wife remembered how much I liked the intro dive and bought me certification lessons for a present. I love my wife.

Latest dive (#84): Guided tour of Chak Mool cenote near Playa in Mexico last month. This, along with the cenote Kukulkan the same day are my only two fresh water dives, and they were fantastic.

Next dive will be part of my rescue cert class. Looking forward to that.

 

[emoreira]

First dive :

Baptism dive or intro dive. In January 1990 (summer) off the coast of Puerto Madryn - Argentina. No BC, no gloves, closed heel fins with no boots. 25 minutes under water, no more than 10 mts depth. Water temperature was around 14 degrees (celsius). I finished the dive almost violet. Nice but too cold for the equipment I received.

Last dive :

November 19th 2008. Again in Puerto Madryn. Dive with sea lions. My 15th dive. Only 7 meters depth, dry suit, water temperature around 12 degrees poor visibility owing to the sea lions removing the bottom sand. Beautiful, incredible.