Discovery
originally published April 3, 2017
When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a fighter pilot. How badass would that be, buzzing around up in the air like Maverick in Top Gun, blasting the Bad Guys and saving the world? By the time I was a tween, I had to accept that this would never happen. My eyesight was far too poor to ever qualify. Contact lenses and 5 G’s just don’t mix. Not to mention that this was an era in which women weren’t even allowed in combat, much less flying fighter jets. Still, I wanted to soar...somehow. Swimming was kind of like flying. Finning across the pool, somersaulting and cartwheeling through the water - it was a freedom I didn’t have on land.
Here in the Present, Guy offered to give me my first taste of diving through a “discover scuba” experience. Many dive shops offer these introductions to scuba and it’s a great first step that requires little to no investment. Guy brought all his gear to my pool - masks, fins, snorkels, BCD, cylinders, regulators, weights - and set it all up. I was a little nervous; up until now I had only ever been snorkeling. I was comfortable under water in the pool but never had any doubt I could pop to the surface if needed. This would be different.
I donned mask, fins, and snorkel and got in the water. Guy explained how everything worked, strapping the BCD onto my body. Even standing in the shallow end of the pool, it was heavy. A filled scuba cylinder can weigh about 35 pounds. Then, down we went. I inhaled through my mouth and… I was breathing! I was breathing UNDERWATER! It was exhilarating.
Guy, swimming alongside me to ensure I was okay, used hand signals to indicate he wanted me to swim along the pool bottom. So I did. I made my way back and forth, skimming along just a couple of inches above the bottom of the pool, Guy snorkeling along the surface, watching over me. I could have stayed down there forever.
Back on the surface, Guy assured me I took to it like I was born to do it. “You’re a natural,” he said. “I expected a lot more hand holding.” This didn’t surprise or offend me. Whenever we went snorkeling in the ocean, he kept me close to him, letting me grip his hand as tightly as I needed to feel safe. But here, with my own air supply, I felt much more at ease. “You did great. You were like, ‘screw you, I got this’ and went off and did your thing,” he laughed. It filled my heart to hear him speak proudly of how well I did.
You might think that, given I had an experienced scuba diver in my life, getting certified would be a snap. Not so. Life with Guy was somewhat complicated and the challenges of my personal life often interfered with my goals.
When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a fighter pilot. How badass would that be, buzzing around up in the air like Maverick in Top Gun, blasting the Bad Guys and saving the world? By the time I was a tween, I had to accept that this would never happen. My eyesight was far too poor to ever qualify. Contact lenses and 5 G’s just don’t mix. Not to mention that this was an era in which women weren’t even allowed in combat, much less flying fighter jets. Still, I wanted to soar...somehow. Swimming was kind of like flying. Finning across the pool, somersaulting and cartwheeling through the water - it was a freedom I didn’t have on land.
Here in the Present, Guy offered to give me my first taste of diving through a “discover scuba” experience. Many dive shops offer these introductions to scuba and it’s a great first step that requires little to no investment. Guy brought all his gear to my pool - masks, fins, snorkels, BCD, cylinders, regulators, weights - and set it all up. I was a little nervous; up until now I had only ever been snorkeling. I was comfortable under water in the pool but never had any doubt I could pop to the surface if needed. This would be different.
I donned mask, fins, and snorkel and got in the water. Guy explained how everything worked, strapping the BCD onto my body. Even standing in the shallow end of the pool, it was heavy. A filled scuba cylinder can weigh about 35 pounds. Then, down we went. I inhaled through my mouth and… I was breathing! I was breathing UNDERWATER! It was exhilarating.
Guy, swimming alongside me to ensure I was okay, used hand signals to indicate he wanted me to swim along the pool bottom. So I did. I made my way back and forth, skimming along just a couple of inches above the bottom of the pool, Guy snorkeling along the surface, watching over me. I could have stayed down there forever.
Back on the surface, Guy assured me I took to it like I was born to do it. “You’re a natural,” he said. “I expected a lot more hand holding.” This didn’t surprise or offend me. Whenever we went snorkeling in the ocean, he kept me close to him, letting me grip his hand as tightly as I needed to feel safe. But here, with my own air supply, I felt much more at ease. “You did great. You were like, ‘screw you, I got this’ and went off and did your thing,” he laughed. It filled my heart to hear him speak proudly of how well I did.
You might think that, given I had an experienced scuba diver in my life, getting certified would be a snap. Not so. Life with Guy was somewhat complicated and the challenges of my personal life often interfered with my goals.
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