Why do you do it.....

I'm new to diving and I guess you could say I've got the diving bug.

The reasons I enjoy diving is because of the underwater marine life ever since I was a kid I've had tropical fish, terrapin's or turtles. And it has to be said that turtles are my number one favorite. Up until now I always enjoyed snorkeling but a couple of years ago I got my first underwater digital camera Sony 5M DC10 and although I've managed to get some great photos I was always frustrated about not being able to stay underwater long enough to get my photo. As soon as I got into position I would either run out of puff or start floating to the surface and fish just won't pose. So my wife and I decided that we would have to get into scuba diving and its great we've both really enjoy it. We've only done 10 dives so far so we're really new to this but we're already talking about when we can go diving next.

Red Sea photo

http://www.stevesparkes.co.uk/eh4.html

Turtle photo

http://www.stevesparkes.co.uk/gf6.html

Why do you do it. Whats been your most rememberable experience.

Gee, what a question!:)

When I was a kid I used to watch The Undersea adventures of Jacques Cousteau and was mesmerised by the whole underwater world. However, I was convinced that diving was the reserve of the superfit, rich adrenalin junkies and that I would never experience what they did except vicariously through TV, books and magazine articles.
A couple of years ago my wife and I came up with a way of financing a year long round the world trip and I decided that a visit to the Great Barrier Reef just wouldn't be the same through a glass bottomed boat so I looked into Scuba diving. Visiting my LDS soon taught me that my earlier impressions of the diving fraternity were considerably wide of the mark and I quickly signed up for an Open Water Course.
From my first moment, in the deep end of a manky, municipal swimming pool, I realised that I had found my 'thing', and have never looked back. I eat,drink,sleep, read and talk diving - and bore my wife to absolute tears :o - but I cannot imagine a life without it.
The feeling of weightlessness, the completely alien life, the fact that I am one of the few, if any, human beings to ever set my eyes on that particular piece of flat, featureless seabed. All these and so much more are reasons why I do it. Why I am prepared to wake up at the crack of sparrowfart, drive a hundred miles, climb into a damp and smelly suit in the pouring rain, in the middle of an empty car park to explore amongst the discarded beer bottles and other detritus beneath a ramshackle old jetty, or sail through mountainous seas to visit the rusty remains of a former garbage barge. Why I am quite happy to sit amongst clouds of silt watching students bounce up and down on the bottom. Why I can be found in hardware stores fingering stainless steel clips with a wistful look on my face. Why do I do it ? Because I can! :D

There is so much to enjoy about scuba diving. The adventure, the exploration, nature. I like all those aspects but I think for me the foremost thing is the sensation ... of being weightless, of hovering 50' of the bottom in 100' of visibility so that it feels like you're flying, the sense of scale you get beside the hull of some huge wreck or rock wall ... it's such a rush.

Oh yeh, and there's pretty fishies, too.

I'm right their with you guys I'm sat here at work looking at my computer screen wishing I was looking through my mask staring at the ocean just taking in all those different shades of blue.

Why do you do it? Now there's a good question?!

I think i got into it, to try and do something else apart from the norm. Now I don't regret making that decision to just jump in (well, not literally jump in, but you get my meaning!). It's the weightlessness aspect, leaving all the stuff that's going on in your life at the shore and being underwater, not thinking of much, controlling your breathing, feeling totally relaxed and at one with the sea.

Oh yeah, plus living in the Caribbean surrounded by loads of reefs and a multitude of colourful fishes, 60ft+ of viz and 75F tropical warm waters...whats to complain about???

Thanks for raising a good question :)

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Originally Posted by lottie

Why do you do it? Now there's a good question?!
Oh yeah, plus living in the Caribbean surrounded by loads of reefs and a multitude of colourful fishes, 60ft+ of viz and 75F tropical warm waters...whats to complain about???

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Hummmmm how about the stormy season???:confused:

But anyway I always loved the ocean, been in it my whole life, work at and play in it. So why not go under. Plus there are the rewards of a nice lobster dinner after a day or night of diving.

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Originally Posted by hbh2oguard

Hummmmm how about the stormy season???:confused:

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The stormy season - don't you mean the hurricane season? well apart from one hurricane hitting us this year (touch wood - the season doesn't finish officially until 30th Nov). A couple of mild rain falls..thats about it..plus it doesn't rain underwater and the viz is still pretty good (50ft at least). And that's only for a small proportion of the year... :D :)

yea the news seems to report it as both storm or hurricane, but I guess in the tropics it would be more hurrican season. Your lucky if the viz doesn't get messed up after a rain. It rained maybe 1/2'' two days ago and I went out later that day and couldn't see my hand in front of my face. Not too much fun:D