My wife got me into SCUBA, it’s all her fault!

Just before the turn-of-the-century, my wife shared something with me that I never knew. She wanted to try SCUBA diving.  She said that she had wanted to try it since she was a kid and never knew how to go about it.  She loved the Cousteau shows her Dad would make her watch, and years of Disney’s Little Mermaid had only sunk the hook deeper.  Tell any good husband a story like this and guess where the next stop will be…that’s right, the local dive shop.  We enrolled her that day and she completed her Open Water certification 30 days later. She had fulfilled her dream…and opened my eyes.

I asked myself, who are these guys in the rubbery suits my wife wants to run around with?  Could I have made a mistake?  I wondered what all this stuff she was bringing home was, with hoses and gauges and cylinders and such.

Backing up four decades I recall being born in Massachusetts. My Dad was a fisherman and we lived on an island ten miles from Gloucester (homeport to the now infamous Andrea Gail of “The Perfect Storm”). The waters off Plum Island frequently had icebergs and we could watch seals float by in the winter months. We did not get out of the boat into the water unless it was sinking. Needless to say, with this background I was not very enthused about diving, just curious about what was going on in my wife's life and what all this weird equipment was.

 Fast forwarding back to the future…shortly after she completed her Open Water course, I signed up. Oh my goodness was I scared. My instructor was another agency equivalent of a Course Director and was certifying a new instructor with my class. I remember clinging on to his neck in that ten foot pool as though my very existence depended on it. He was a big guy, so he didn’t mind that much.

 I made it through that first certification, and have gone on to achieve many more.  I too was hooked. I loved learning and each course had something more for me.  I love technical stuff, and with all these gauges and computers and tables…I’m getting excited right now just thinking about it!

 My instructor was a lot like Judy Kay, our Course Director here at We B Divin'.  He took his time with me, made me feel comfortable, and taught me the value of trusting my equipment to take care of me and taught me to take care of myself even when the equipment fails.  We stuck with them through Advanced Open Water but then realized that PADI is “The Way the World Learns to Dive”. Everywhere we went all we saw was PADI, PADI, PADI.  So we made the switch.  At Rescue Diver we switched to PADI and have never looked back.  We still have lots of friends from the past that we keep in touch with, but PADI has taken great care of us and become the agency that we trust to support us.

Since making the switch to PADI, I completed Divemaster in 2007, Assistant Instructor in July 2008 and OWSI in August of 2008.  I have found outlets for my techy side in equipment repair and maintenance, enriched air, and gas blending.  I was certified by Aqualung as a repair technician in 2008 and love working on SCUBA gear.

 I am very proud to be part of the We B Divin' staff.  I have found all the staff to be extremely professional and safety conscious. I plan to be training under the Course Director, Judy, to continue on to Master Scuba Diver Trainer this winter.

 I hope this encourages you to someday take the plunge yourself.  I would love to be there for you when you do, and if you need to, you can cling to my neck on your first time in the pool.