Any scuba divers out there?

[Sigarms]

You said it yourself...

People don't stop playing because they get old, they get old because they stop playing

Very well said. Or should I say that to myself

You made me look. Only a 12 footer or so that was easy (when you hold the paddle in the air "showing off", it's easy).

Funny though, I ran 'em as high as 40', which I won't do anymore. Still do some 30 footers, but in my old days, I was always wondering about my next line once I hit the bottom. NOW when I approach that horizon line, I get butterflies in my stomach.

Wonder why that is

Apologies, getting off topic.

 

[sandman2234]

Been there, got the T-shirt.
When I got married, I was hoping for a dive partner, put the wife through class, bought her gear, although she really wasn't "into it". During a checkout dive, I realized I was barking up the wrong tree in a dive partner because she kept complaining about her feet hurting. When we went to get out of the water, I realized she had put her flippers on upside down and the curvature of the flipper was going the opposite way of the curvature of her foot. That was when I decided I didn't need to have her "checking out" my equipment before a dive, to make sure I didn't miss something.
David from jax

 

[Sigarms]

Been there, got the T-shirt.
When I got married, I was hoping for a dive partner, put the wife through class, bought her gear, although she really wasn't "into it".

You could of stopped right there. That's what I use to call "cheap gear sale!"

 

[rox]

Any other Scuba divers out there? My wife and i just came back from a three week diving trip to two places in the Fijian Islands and had a great time.

Yup I am certified but I ahve actually never dived after the classes. When i was 18 my best friend nancy had a georgeous older sister Janet. now the drinking age back then was 18 so we hit up bars etc but never found any 'nice" guys so we asked janet where we could meet some nice guys. Easy she says, take scuba diving classes. The classes are full of ncie guys and no other gals there for competition. So we paid ot money put on our bikinis, we all ahd the bodies for bikinis back then, and took scuba diving jsut so we could meet nice guys! We did meet them too! We ahd a whole pool of nice guys and only us 3 girlfriends. Boy did we work that he-he. We were so young and crazy. for our final certification dive we were supposed to go in a local lake but it was raining so the instructor jsut passed us anyway. I still ahve my official ID card. So if any of your daughters want to meet nice guys tell them to take scuba diving classes, they will ahve a whole pool full of nice guys.

 

[Sigarms]

for our final certification dive we were supposed to go in a local lake but it was raining so the instructor jsut passed us anyway.

Amazing.

I'm guessing the instructor was afraid that you'd get wet if it was raining?

YOU'RE UNDER WATER for God's sake!!

I'd guess the instructor was a skinhound himself

Apologies Roz, but if you didn't actually take the open water certification and the instructor lied about you passing, why keep the "official" ID card?

Apologies to an extent. I knew of instructors who didn't take their class seriously, and would "pass" people that shouldn't of passed (for various reasons) that could lead to future issues down the road.

 

[RobertN]

Wife and I arecertified. My wife has done hunreds and hundreds of dives, mostly around Monterey. Although she does not work in the field, she has a degree in Marine Biology; went to Moss Landing Marine Labs.

Since we met and I certified, we have dove Maui, Monterey, and a number of trips to the Channel Islands on the Conception and Vision(Truth Aquatics). Boat divin on the three day trips is awesome!

Have not been in a while; it is a 5 hour drive to any place worth diving, and the water is cold

My wife's dream is to dive Galopagos.

 

[rox]

Amazing.

I'm guessing the instructor was afraid that you'd get wet if it was raining?

YOU'RE UNDER WATER for God's sake!!

I'd guess the instructor was a skinhound himself

Apologies Roz, but if you didn't actually take the open water certification and the instructor lied about you passing, why keep the "official" ID card?

Apologies to an extent. I knew of instructors who didn't take their class seriously, and would "pass" people that shouldn't of passed (for various reasons) that could lead to future issues down the road.

Looking back I can't really diagree with you about passing us without taking the final open water test. Honeslty it was raining so we 3 girls complained and whined and he caved in and called it off. However I will say that we 3 chicks were pretty darned good in the pool, and we all aced the written exam so it is ot like we were just girlie girl air heads. Our motivation for starting the class was not pure but once we started the class we were all serious about it. It was impressed upon us the life and death nature of what we were learing. All 3 of us were pretty good at scuba diving by the time the class was over. I never ever did any scuba diving after i left that pool. i do remember that when you are ascending you can't hold your breath.
I hold onto the card purely for nostalgia. I see my pic on the card and remember a time before I was married, before I had 2 kids, a time in my life when I had a job, money and great girlfiends and fun times. Gosh it was a fun time.

 

[Tractors4u]

I probably have one of the more unique scuba experiences. I work for NASA and for a while was assigned to the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator at Marshall Space Flight Center. It was a 40 ft deep, 75 ft diameter water tank that was used to train astronauts and develop zero gravity repair techniques. Of course you needed divers for that. I made 294 dives there. On one of my dives I didn't even get wet, I was in a space suit. When we would train safety/rescue divers, one of us would suit up to let the trainees practice on. Because the suit was pressurized, the safety divers had to add lead weight to the suit until it was neutrally buoyant. That was the best job I ever had.

 

[GarthH]

Unfortunately my diving days are fond memories. I never got down the South Pacific but many times in Bonaire, Mexico and some others. I'd tried diving in our area but like the others mention cold and no vis is not anything exciting. Bonaire was certainly my favorite. We usually did the Carib inn - Bruce and his crew were just wonderful to dive with. Like some of the others marriage has slowed the diving (or maybe stopped the diving). I dove with a large number of older people so I'm counting on my retirement years - sure hope their is still good locations.

My most memorable dive was a night dive from one of the Agressor Fleet. Pretty shallow water just looking for Rays and stopped to check out a fish hanging around a rock. I was nicely settling into the sand to take a picture - the **** rock moved - it was actually a 8 foot turtle - I think I sucked down half a tank which is pretty hard at 20 feet. It took the turtle several minutes to get enough speed to actually get up from the ocean floor. A couple of the pictures turned out - still on my wall today.

Great topic.

Garth

 

[Sigarms]

I probably have one of the more unique scuba experiences. I work for NASA and for a while was assigned to the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator at Marshall Space Flight Center. It was a 40 ft deep, 75 ft diameter water tank that was used to train astronauts and develop zero gravity repair techniques. Of course you needed divers for that. I made 294 dives there. On one of my dives I didn't even get wet, I was in a space suit. When we would train safety/rescue divers, one of us would suit up to let the trainees practice on. Because the suit was pressurized, the safety divers had to add lead weight to the suit until it was neutrally buoyant. That was the best job I ever had.

Deleted dumb question. After thinking about it, came to an answer.