Diving...SCUBA and Sky?

[mattjw916 2]

Funny this topic should come up, I just overheard a similar convesation between some jumpers at the dropzone regarding this... one of them even said he sold his SCUBA gear to buy his first rig.

SCUBA diving sounds fun, however I already have several very expensive hobbies.

NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

[PLFXpert 0]

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one of them even said he sold his SCUBA gear to buy his first rig.

Yes, I was a college student AND a rookie skydiver so I was poor all the way around. Not only did I sell my scuba gear, I sold three surfboards, two wakeboards and all my gold jewlrey.

It wasn't a bad deal, the surf and wakeboards I actually got for free from back in the day when I was cool. I never hardly ever wear yellow gold, and since my father ALWAYS brought me home gold from Turkey or wherever the hell he went on business, I had a ton I never wore. So, really, the only thing I missed and miss to this day was the damn scuba gear. But NO regrets. I can buy new gear, but couldn't have gotten through the rest of college w/out skydiving...it really helped my mind seriously

Paint me in a corner, but my color comes back.

[goose491 0]

I've got my open water but don't dive much.
I too find SCUBA to be the more risky of the two.

I think you'll find many skydivers that also SCUBA. The two sports are very different but the similarities that they DO share are what make them appealing to us... at least, the things that I find most appealing about both sports are the same.

-sensation of weightlessness, floating or flight
-3 dimentional environment
-free range of self-initiated motion within those 3 dimentions
-the joy of being completely unattached to anything
-James Bond type gear
-much at stake with small margins of error (the responsibility for ones own survival)
-amazing visuals found nowhere else
-constant reminders that there is so much more to life than your crumby nine to five

... and so on and so forth

My Karma ran over my Dogma!!!

[kelpdiver 2]

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-James Bond type gear

It's all about 007. Few of us were alive for Sea Hunt. It's a bit funny to think back that in the 60s, diving and jumping were truly extreme sports, practiced by far fewer than now. The movies must have really been something for people of that era.

Shame I could never get past the intermediate level on the slopes though. I want to jump out of the sky, land on the cliffs, and ski into Lake Tahoe, outrunning 5 thugs with machine guns.

[FlyingJ 0]

Good to see so many divers. I got started diving a few years ago, just did a few dives and then nothing more, and then this past winter got back into it. I've had the chance to do about 25 dives since February and hope to be doing some more real soon.

The thought of selling scuba gear in order to get started sky diving did cross my mind, but then I thought it through and realized I would just be substituting which hobby I had to rent gear for and not worth it.

(besides, my scuba gear is way cool)

Managed to find myself a job today so now I'll actually be able to start AFF this weekend at the Farm in Georgia. Can't wait!

Killing threads since 2004.

[IMGR2 0]

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Our 8 yr old daughter is also starting SCUBA lessons next month.

I got certified PADI at 9 years old. I loved scuba diving for many years but prefer the adrenalin rush from skydiving much more now.
Cave diving gets the heart rate up pretty good though!
Some awesome caverns in central Texas, diving thru underwater springs is surreal.

[PLFXpert 0]

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I loved scuba diving for many years but prefer the adrenalin rush from skydiving much more now.

Scuba is not as much for a "rush" as it is for relaxation, in my opinion anyways. Rhythmic breathing, gorgeous scenary, fluid motions; it's like meditation.

But, I did get a nice rush when I saw JAWS coming right for me off the reefs in the Cayman Islands.

Paint me in a corner, but my color comes back.

[skiskyrock 0]

I took scuba lessons and a static line course at the same time. The open water course was at Bainbridge quarry in PA, and I was doing SL at Maytown. By air they are maybe a mile and a half apart. We used to fly over the quarry on the climb to altitude. It took a bit of careful scheduling to avoid getting the bends during a skydive.

[IMGR2 0]

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It took a bit of careful scheduling to avoid getting the bends during a skydive.

If you don't want to worry about the bends anymore get NITROX rated.
With NITROX Hooknswoop used to work at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab at NASA, under water all week and then skydiving all weekend.
I have done the same back in Austin. From Travis lake to the dz in less than a 24 hour time frame.

You should still be careful though.

[FlyingJ 0]

If you don't want to worry about the bends anymore get NITROX rated.
------------------------------------------

...VERY true that you should still be careful though. I dive Nitrox but generally consider any time limits as I would for air just to have the extra cushion.

The person that said that it is much more of a relaxation thing was right. It's so amazing to just stop and hover in mid-water and take in the surroundings and realize that you are freakin 80ft under water looking at a part of the earth that very few people (in regard to total population) ever get to see.

Ahhh...need to get back in the water.

Killing threads since 2004.

[PLFXpert 0]

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The person that said that it is much more of a relaxation thing was right. It's so amazing to just stop and hover in mid-water and take in the surroundings and realize that you are freakin 80ft under water looking at a part of the earth that very few people (in regard to total population) ever get to see.

Ahhh...need to get back in the water.

That was me My feelings exactly. It's like meditation under-water b/c it's quiet, you breathe rhythmically, every movement is fluid (pardon the pun)...I think I already said all that, but had to say it again. It's SO good for relaxation.

Actually, maybe I'm alone on this one, but skydiving is also very relaxing to me, but in a different way. Skydiving helps me relieve my anxiety; ironically. I can't say I have ever been nervous to jump; not even my first jump. The only things I ever got a quick butterfly ever about were when the door first opened on my first jump (never been in a plane before and the door open; I guess I didn't think about how I was going to get out. Ha ha ha) and my fourth head-down jump; my third head-down I got, what's the word, very disoriented and dizzy for some reason. I had to flip to a sit/stand the rest of the jump; it was really weird and hasn't happened since, but I wish I knew what happened.

Anyways (I tend to ramble sometimes)..my point is that I have a very high-anxiety/stress job Monday-Friday and after my first jump Saturday morning, I really feel like I just let it all out. Like I was holding my breath all week and finally went, "Ahhhh, that's better." Maybe it's just me, but skydiving is also a relaxation thing for me, rather than a rush; just a different sort of relaxation.

I don't really get a "rush" very often from anything; always been into extreme sports. The one time I can remember, though, was kayaking with my boy-toy when the seas were REALLY rough and thewaves were over-head high. When we were first paddling out (I was in front. It was a two-man) we'd get just barely to the top of a wave and it would SLAM me down. It was the craziest thing and each wave that came I got a nice "rush" getting over it. I dont' know why. The worst that could happen was we'd be tipped and I'd have to swim to shore, but for some reason, I got a very nice rush from it.

Paint me in a corner, but my color comes back.

[jheadley 0]

I've been PADI certified since I was 15, having made 20-30 open water carribean dives, a couple dives off of moorehead city to swim around sunken WWI and WWII ships. I only recently took up skydiving (12 jumps).

In my very limited experience with both sports, I can see a lot of similarities in the two. I like both because of the feeling you get when you are somewhere that you shouldn't naturally be (under 100 feet of water or plummeting through the sky). SCUBA diving is extrememly calm and peaceful and beautiful. I hate the water but when I SCUBA dive, it feels like I'm not even in the water. Swimming is effortless and it just feels like you're floating around in another world, like in you're in space or something.

Skydiving has a little more of the "adrenaline" factor but it too can be very calming. I really don't even notice the wind noise when I'm in freefall and to jump at sunset is very beautiful and calming.

I'd like to do both but there are no real good SCUBA diving areas around me, and there are plenty of dropzones. Also while skydiving starts expensive and get cheap, SCUBA diving starts expensive and stays expensive.

[markd_nscr986 0]

Uhhh.......dont be lulled into a false sense of security just because your tank has enriched air in it......it is still possible to get bent with "nitrox" if you disregard your time limits and with nitrox,you should also be aware of oxygen toxicity.....and bad news is you can do everything perfect (well within limits,safety stop,conservative dive profile etc.)and still get bent!

Marc SCR 6046 SCS 3004

[Beerlight 0]

You didn't dive at the NBL by chance did you?

Buck

[FlyingJ 0]

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You didn't dive at the NBL by chance did you?

Buck

Nope, not me!

I agree markd_nscr986. I had a friend that started to get really careless in his planning after starting to dive Nitrox because he had been led to believe by an instructor that sold the course to him as a "dive with this and you'll never have a problem" kind of deal. Like I mentioned above, even though I'm diving with the computer on my arm set to the apropriate O2 mix I usually plan the dive based on air tables for the extra buffer.

Killing threads since 2004.

[Beerlight 0]

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It took a bit of careful scheduling to avoid getting the bends during a skydive.

If you don't want to worry about the bends anymore get NITROX rated.
With NITROX Hooknswoop used to work at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab at NASA, under water all week and then skydiving all weekend.
I have done the same back in Austin. From Travis lake to the dz in less than a 24 hour time frame.

You should still be careful though.

Sorta... I work at the NBL.... They dive a lot, but not everday..... And it's usually no more than 2:15 bottom time. We do use NITROX exclusively. Our pool is only 40 ft deep....

Buck

[Damion 0]

dont have my open water just yet. waiting for a friend to become an instructor. :)

[PLFXpert 0]

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I'd like to do both but there are no real good SCUBA diving areas around me, and there are plenty of dropzones.

I have both around me, but still haven't dived (scuba) in four years. I, too, have made all my dives in the Carribean. My parents used to take a lot of trips when I was growing up. Being an only child, always mature for my age, they stuck me in scuba early on, so they could pretty much have the trip to themselves, and I would always be busy doing several dives/day wherever we were. I have NO complaints That's one of the perks of my family; not a lot of love or affection, but I've traveled all over the U.S., Canada, and S. America. Every family has pros and cons.

Paint me in a corner, but my color comes back.

[Cajundude 0]

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Uhhh.......dont be lulled into a false sense of security just because your tank has enriched air in it......it is still possible to get bent with "nitrox" if you disregard your time limits and with nitrox,you should also be aware of oxygen toxicity.....and bad news is you can do everything perfect (well within limits,safety stop,conservative dive profile etc.)and still get bent!

Absolutely! The instructor that "let the person to believe" is an idiot and is looking at serious liability issues. As a Nitrox diver and an instructor, take it from me, you can easily get bent diving enriched. Yes, enriched air gives you extended periods underwater but it can still happen. There are also some downfalls such as deep diving. You have to be careful since there is a higher concentration of oxygen in the tank and as we all know (or those who will take the class will soon know) that oxygen is toxic at depth. So, keep your eyes on that watch or computer folks and USE YOUR TABLES for backup before you dive!

[bertusgeert 1]

I just signed up for a course here in Kentucky through the YMCA - they will give me my open water for +/- $420 - gear provided. The local dive shop doesn't provide gear, and is the same price.

Then I find out why - the local YMCA guy cancels class - tells me too few people is interested and postpones it to september.

IS there anyone in the Kentucky Area that can instruct me through to becoming at least a DiveMaster?

I would love to find a mentor/buddy rather than a money hungry shop or lazy instructor!

Anyhow, I look forward to joining you all soon!

---------------------------------------------
As jy dom is moet jy bloei!

[markd_nscr986 0]

Everyone diving ahould already know this but.......

EA32 depth limit 130 fsw
EA36 depth limit 110 fsw
compressed air exceeds O2 toxicity limits at 224 fsw
max O2 exposure 1.6 ATA

I am using an Aeris Atmos Nitrox computer for the enriched air dives and an oxy spy gas analyzer for O2 content analysis......are you up for a little dive trip to Ireland?

Marc SCR 6046 SCS 3004

[Cajundude 0]

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I just signed up for a course here in Kentucky through the YMCA - they will give me my open water for +/- $420 - gear provided. The local dive shop doesn't provide gear, and is the same price.

Then I find out why - the local YMCA guy cancels class - tells me too few people is interested and postpones it to september.

IS there anyone in the Kentucky Area that can instruct me through to becoming at least a DiveMaster?

I would love to find a mentor/buddy rather than a money hungry shop or lazy instructor!

Anyhow, I look forward to joining you all soon!

Jesus that is expensive! I would charge that for one on one private instruction.

[IMGR2 0]

Boy, you guys on this site are so quick to jump on people for any little misinterpretation.
I did state that you still have to be careful. I have never been "lulled" into a false sense of security nor was I trying to do the same for anyone else.
I only stated what I did to make awareness that there are safer alternatives.

[ScubaSteve 0]

How about a DZ.com scuba outing?

[markd_nscr986 0]

Since I dont know you......I assume the "worst"So dont take it personally!Now since I have "talked" to hooknswoop and you have posted a reply that clarifies your previous post,I will stand down and cut you some slack!

Marc SCR 6046 SCS 3004