Learn to SCUBA

I mean, of course I have been diving a great deal without the gear and could dive over 35 metres (or 100 feet) just by holding my breath.

Today was finally one part of my long-lived dream coming true as I held the regulator in my mouth and placed my face in water. All the sudden I was breathing under the surface. What a great way to be!

Everything was new. All the noises breathing out made, the beautiful taste of dry air entering my lungs, while everything around was perfectly still.

Our first class of SCUBA diving (a course of PADI) was done in a swimming hall. We had a nice, controlled environment to learn the safety cautions, like what to do if you are diving with someone and you run out of air and such.

I can’t wait to get into the wild. At the moment sea is frozen in here and thus also way too cold to dive in without proper equipment, but in two or three months we will dive into the Baltic Sea.

Got my basic gear today and signed up for the class. Bought a sweet James Bond mask and some decent fins. Now I gotta start reading the book.

This summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have always had a love of the ocean. Learning to SCUBA dive would just bring the beauty of the ocean right in front of my eyes. Plus I can just imagine the amazing pictures I could get if I learn underwater photography :)

How hard can it be? My sister, Dad and stepmom all scuba. I will begin with finding a dive shop.

I lived in the FL Keys for several years and learned to dive there. The USS Vandenburg will be sunk there eventually and I want to return just to dive this wreck.

Learning to dive was a pure leap of faith for me. Sure, I was taught every part of the equipment before putting it on and trained in the pool. But the first time I was all geared up and told to take that giant stride off the boat… scariest moment of my life! I’m glad I didn’t freeze up because that moment has been followed by some of the most amazing moments of my life.

I recommend it for everyone. Just know that it’s easy to get in the water… not so easy to get yourself and all that gear back onto the boat or back to the beach.

I learned to scuba dive in Guam back in the early ‘90s. I was in the Navy and stationed on an island, so it was more of a need than a choice. I scuba dived all over the island; in caves, sunken ships, off sea-cliffs and straight off the beach. I loved it more than anything.

Last year I had a job servicing tide gauges along the eastern seaboard. I had to scuba dive to get at the submerged portion of the gauges. These gauges were attached to piers, channel markers and docks, and were quite often difficult to reach and impossible to see because of the typically low visibility of the water down here. I did a lot of diving by touch, which is not the funnest.

The last dive I did for this job was at the Navy pier near Cocoa Beach, Florida. There was a nuclear sub docked there just then, so the security guys were watching me like hawks. I was tinkering with the gauge in about twelve feet of water, perfect visibility, cool water gliding gently over me, sheepshead fish nibbling gently at the detritus falling from the gauge as I worked, when all of a sudden a felt something big pulling on my tank. I looked up and there was a manatee trying to eat my air line. I rubbed its belly and it swam off.

I need to dive more.

Must go capture lobsters and explore dark caves … oh and when I take my wetsuit off, I must be wearing a tuxedo, so I can attend an overly extravagant ball and then make snide remarks to Goldfinger at which point he will become increasingly suspicious and decide to do away with me by sending his most deadly and sexy pilot / assassin / tax consultant after me.

I’ve always been a little creeped out at the thought of the unending darkness surrounding you when you SCUBA (at least in the Puget Sound up here in Washington) and the equally unending list of weird, ugly creatures that live in that darness, but I think it could also be an exciting experience.

I also met my current boyfriend on that trip…I didn’t think it would become as serious as it has due to him being Irish and being a ‘summer fling’. He was my diving instructor…the things you can get up to underwater really does astound :)