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I remember watching Jacques Cousteau’s TV specials as a child and thinking how awesome
it would be to cruise the world and diving in exotic locations. For much of my youth
I fantasized about scuba diving and took every opportunity I could to duck into
diving stores to ogle at the walls full of exotic gear. I even spent my hard earned
allowance on scuba diving magazines every time the opportunity presented itself.
It wasn’t until 2000 that I finally managed to find the time and money to get my
basic open water certification. The experience changed my life. In the time since
then I have logged just about 300 dives and had experiences that you had to be there
to comprehend just how amazing “the silent world” really is.
It is hard to describe all of the reasons that I love to dive. In some ways it is
the most spiritual activity I have ever taken part in. Diving in crystal clear blue
waters is like flying among fish. It is joyous, uplifting, and freeing (even with
all of the gear needed to keep you alive strapped to your back). There is, at times,
a sense of danger and stepping out on the edge of existence. And certainly there
is excitement.
I have had so many memorable dives I don’t know that I could ever pick one, or even
a top ten list. For example, twice I have participated in a shark feeding dive in
the Bahamas where I was surrounded by thirty to sixty Caribbean reef and nurse sharks.
Talk about a rush of adrenaline. And then there are the quiet, peaceful dives spent
drifting along a wall of coral in a gentle current. Or the dives spent surrounded
by untold thousands of schooling fish that swirled and flashed in a memorizing dance
of survival as larger predatory fish slashed and tore through the bait ball in a
feeding frenzy.
I love diving.
And in case you are curious, I am now an Advanced Open Water diver with specialty
certifications in Deep, Nitrox, Wreck Diving, Drysuit, and Semi-Closed Circuit Rebreathers
(SCCR). At one time I intended to continue training towards more advanced technical
certifications including decompression techniques and Trimix but getting married
and having a child cooled my heels a bit on the more dangerous aspects of diving.
My one long term gear goal in diving is to switch from open circuit to Rebreathers
for most of my diving. Unfortunately Rebreathers are very expensive to purchase
and maintain so that will have to wait for awhile (like after I put my daughter
through college).
Note: I keep meaning to build a Web based dive log. I have started the project a
number of times but always leave it unfinished. Maybe this will be the year!
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