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Life has a funny way of taking us down paths that twist, turn, and tumble us. Yesterday I was thinking about some of the paths of life I had chosen down to walk and seeing at where it has brought me to today. The most interesting one (well for me anyways) started almost five years ago in January of 2004.
My friends decided they wanted to get scuba certified. They said that I should get certified as well, but I wasn’t sure. At the time I really didn’t know how to swim, but they assured me I would be ok because they heard you have this floaty thing (which I would later learn is called a BCD – buoyancy control device) and you have air, so really you don’t need to know how to swim. The logic made sense to me, so without knowing how to swim I agreed to become Scuba certified with them.
In January four of us decided to get certified: Seabiscuit, Scotty, Fredsticles, and me. We were taken out to Makai Pier and thus our adventure began. It was a little nerve wrecking to say the least. I was not comfortable at all in the water. The first time I put my face in the water with the regulator, I nearly had a panic attack (its a good thing I am tough and macho, so I didn’t). Although there was fear I was able to make it through that day. The fear made it a little exciting and a little difficult. We did two dives that day and I made it through alive.
The next day we were going to do two more dives. I was feeling a bit more confident because of my successes the previous day and was feeling gung ho about it. However, the day took a turn for the worse. As we were swimming out (really the bcd was floating me and i was doggy paddling) I kept sinking. I kept adding air to my bcd, but couldn’t stay afloat. As we were about ready to descend and our instructor was giving us some instructions, I finally tired out and just started sinking. I started to panic because I could barely keep my head above the water. I swallowed a lot of sea water and was choking, waving my arms, trying to call for help. Good thing our scuba instructor was there, he grabbed me and pulled me into the shallows where I could stand. He took my bcd off and fixed it and asked me if I was ok. Being all tough and macho I said I was good, honestly I was scared ****less but I decided to continue. My friends totally just watched me and didn’t do a thing to save me, those punks! Anyways we finished off the day and were now certified divers.
Really at that point I should have walked away and never set foot in the ocean again, which would be tough cause I live on an island, but something tripped in my head and I found this almost drowning incident exciting. I have never felt more alive in my life. I had found a new and exciting hobby, even more exciting than skydiving, which was my other big fear (well its a fear of heights). I was so excited to have survived that adventure that I started diving every weekend. I quickly got my Advanced Open Water and after I got my tax return check I went out and bought a whole set of gear. I was happy diving.
Then one day I had some friends visit and took them to Sea Life Park. I thought how cool it would be to swim in their humangous aquarium. I called Sea Life Park to find out how or if I could dive in their aquarium, even if it was jut to clean it. They said that I needed to be at least a dive master. So i asked my instructor on how I become a dive master. He told me I needed to take the rescue class, get CPR and First Aid certified, and then I could enroll in the Dive Master Course.
Well I made it through that. There was one little hiccup though. For the Dive Master Course I would have to do a bunch of swimming. There was supposed to be a swim test for the open water class, but somehow we managed to side step that performance requirement. The cool thing was our instructor was an awesome guy and every time we dove Portlock, he would work with me in the water on my swimming and water skills. Long story short, I made it through the Dive Master class and started interning with Dive Oahu. I would work on the boat on weekends, holidays, or nights when they did night dives off the boat. By August of that year I had put down almost two hundred dives, which is a lot of dives in seven months for a guy who wasn’t really a good swimmer (notice I went from not knowing how to a not so good swimmer).
Well life had another hiccup for me. I was leaving the warm waters of Hawaii and heading to San Diego for law school. I thought I would do a bunch of dives up there, but being busy and that the water was too darn cold, I only put down about four dives the entire two years I was in San Diego. Which now I realize I really missed out, cause there are some awesome dives in San Diego.
Two years later I was back in Hawaii. My friend Scott, knew I was pretty tight with the Dive Oahu guys so he asked if I would set up a dive for the Four Square pastors. I was like sure, I called Dive Oahu and set it up. The owner Brian, was like hey why don’t you come out on the boat since you are back in Hawaii, they could really use some Dive Masters. I said ok, although my first return to Dive Oahu was at a staff meeting not in the water. Well I started back on the boat and at their request started helping out with classes. I thought this was pretty interesting and fun. Then Brian said I had been a Dive Master for too long and I should become an instructor. I wasn’t so sure, while my dive skills and water confidence was way up (I even started surfing) I didn’t know if i had the time, money, or the skills to be an instructor.
I thought about it, prayed about it, and when the opportunity came up I jumped at it and enrolled in the Open Water Scuba Instructor Class. It was a blast. I had the best Course Director, Ray Frey. I had the best IDC staff instructors and Master Scuba Instructors, Tim Palmer and Chris Sutherland. And I had the best class mates, Lindsey Lowe, Ruy Nesti, and Sonia Wehner. We helped each other through the class and Ray, Tim, and Chris made sure we had the skills and knowledge to not only pass the IE but be good Padi Open Water Scuba Instructors.
Well yesterday, I finished the IE. I am now, well will be when PADI gets done processing my paperwork, an open water scuba instructor. For me this is so exciting, because five years ago, I didn’t know how to swim and now I am a scuba instructor. How crazy was that path? As the examiners and my instructors tell me, this is just the beginning of another path, which if it provides 1/100th of the excitement that this previous path has provided me with, I will be enjoying life supremely.
So now if you want to get Scuba Certified or are already certified but want to get higher ratings like advanced, rescue, or dive master let me know and I will get you certified. You can get a hold of me or contact Dive Oahu. They are a great shop and a pleasure to work for and with. Also if you want to get CPR and First Aid Certified, I can teach that as well.
