Going Down

As a SCUBA/Commercial diver I have been lucky enough to dive in some pretty interesting places doing interesting things. This is one thing that I love about diving. You never know what you are going to see, if you see anything.

Most of my time as a diver has been spent diving with little or no visibility. If I can see a foot I am happy. Most of the divers I know are opposite; they prefer to see 50+ feet on a dive. This last trip to blue hole helped me understand that. You see amazing things underwater when you see.

There is a part of me that will always be a dirty water diver. There is something strangely relaxing about relying on your navigation skills to get somewhere and total sensory black out while you are doing it is even better. This type of diving isn’t for everyone, in fact I is the opposite of what most people think of when they think of diving.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the tropics as much as the next diver. When you are in clear water you can see so much that you start to suffer from a little sensory overload. That kind of sensory overload is what most divers are looking for when they dive. If you are a non-diver watch Finding Nemo to get a cartoon idea of what I am talking about.

One of my favorite parts of any dive is when you start to descend. You go from the ambient noises that surround us on the surface to just the sound of the air leaving your regulator as you exhale. As you go deeper the light starts to change or disappear all together. It is awesome.

I would suggest that those of you that haven’t dove give it a try. There are very few medical problems that will keep you from diving. Most SCUBA shops offer a discover SCUBA program that allows you to give it a try in the relative safety of a swimming pool. It is a sport unlike any other.