I did my first scuba dive when I was 12, in St. Thomas V.I, with my uncle in a "resort course". Basically, my uncle handed the dive master some cash, and I got told, "don't hold your breath", and we were diving. Within 5 mins, I panicked and bolted to the surface when my mask flooded, but regrouped and did an hour dive along a rocky reef. It was amazing, I remember seeing an octopus, colorful fish and couldn't believe I was breathing underwater.
I think Dave Barry said it best, "I will spare you a gushy description of the dive itself, except to say that when you finally see what goes on underwater, you realize that you've been missing the whole point of the ocean. Staying on the surface all the time is like going to the circus and staring at the outside of the tent."
What was your first dive like?
1. Cold. Mind numbingly cold.
I took my Cert course (SSI) at BU, and the weather was not good enough (too much chop) for an ocean dive, so we hopped into the vans and drove to a lake (who's name escapes me, I'll have to check) that has been used to train army rangers in UW ops. It was nice and sunny, we had our briefing, admired the "No fishing, mercury contamination" signs, donned our gear (2 pc 14 mm wetsuits, hoods, gloves, the whole deal), did out final check and we were off. The surface temp was tolerable in the wetsuits, but at 15 ft (platform 1) it was cold. We went through our cert excercises, admired the fishes, and got our tour of the lake. Visability was about 12-15', and compass navigation was very useful. there was a mockup of a torpedo hidden away out there, and after the initial tour, only my buddy and I were able to find it again. There were a few other interesting things, small sail boats, bikes, tires, trash, etc. All in all, it was fun, it being the first time out of the pool for most of us. After we had finished up for the day, our instructor came over and said the water temp was 52 degrees, but he hadn't said anything because he thought his thermometer was broken ("no way it's 52.") He was pleasently suprised that no one had complained.
We knew the truth though, we were too cold to waste energy on something that trivial. We were too busy laying out in the sun in our black neoprene!
Turns out there was a drysuit cert dive on the other side of the lake (smart fellas, them).
Posted at 1:37PM on Oct 19th 2005 by mccand