Man, if you want to try it, DO IT!

<warning, rant coming, click BACK on your browser if you don't want to get bored>

I'll tell ya, I can not express just how fantastic diving really is. It's really the best of several worlds- flying, swimming, enjoying wildlife, exploring...

When I was a kid, I remember watching Jacques Cousteau on Sunday evenings on National Geographic, weaving amongst the towering kelp forests off Moneterey, flying through the crystal waters of the South Pacific, and floating like an astronaut in a space so clear that you can see hundreds of feet in any direction but so deep that you can't see the surface or bottom.

The first "dive" we did during certification was to go down to about ten feet and to do our best to stay at the same depth while following our instructor around the dive area. We immediately swam out over a coral dropoff- later dives showed it to only be about 50 feet high- but my GOD, it was like running and jumping off a thousand foot cliff and flying like Superman! And THAT was why I wanted to dive, I wanted to FLY!

My favorite position to "hang around" in while diving is completely upside-down. Water pressure and buoyancy counteract any discomfort from the blood rushing to your head, and, many times while gathering around a particularly interesting piece of coral with diving buddies, I felt like the one astronaut in the Space Shuttle crew pics that you always see rotated 180 degrees from the rest of the gang. I've even "stood" upside down on the keel of dive boats and looked "up" at the bottom of the ocean. And it felt completely comfortable...

That freedom and comfort, along with the ambience of the sounds that the ocean wraps you in, puts me in a dreamlike world. And, honestly, I'm sure this all sounds corny, but if you really enjoy diving, each time you surface- when you first hear the sharp, clear sounds of the dry world and feel the weight of gravity take you back with each step as you climb back out of the water- I can't compare that moment to anything but maybe the rude, cold awakening that we all had the moment we were born.

MAN I really love diving!

Pex