how i met my first (dive buddy)

[psundquist]

When I was 18 a friend of mine told me many of his diving stories which prompted me to get certified . I thought all of his diving equipment was cool, his BC, compass, regulator, tanks, wetsuit, console, but I wondered why he was mesmerized by his speargun and dive knife.

I dove with him for my first couple of dives - nothing remarkable. Our friendship drifted apart long ago, but I am unable to dive with him now since he is incarcerated for: Intimidate Victim/Threaten Force, Intentionally Point Firearm At Person, Possession of Switchblade Knife, and Disorderly Conduct.

I don't wonder anymore about his facination with his dive knife and speargun.

[Dashrynn]

I don't wonder anymore about his facination with his dive knife and speargun.

Wow makes ya wonder if cuda drivers will end up becoming underground racers.

[Gill Envy]

I met her in a hot tub at a friends birthday party back in 95 in north Seattle (you asked!). Before that, diving just seemed like something that was way out of reach financially and generally out of my league. I'd never really had anyone explain what was actually entailed. In the coming weeks she explained the details and it began to feel more within reach, there was just one problem, how would I fund it? She had a solution for that, "just take out your credit card and close your eyes". Against all my better judgment I did just that, the first of several such bouts of spontaneous spending sprees on dive gear! It took a while to pay it off but was well worth it. It was like the beginning of a whole new life with road trips up and down the coast, san juan sail boat adventures, fresh steamed scallops, crab feasts, crazy hikes to remote sites. Many high adventures were had. We eventually parted ways, last I heard she was living in California doing UW photography.

G

[Pez7378]

My first dive buddy was a guy I went to school with. We certified in '96 and did one unsupervised dive together at Kayak Point chasing Crab around in 20 fsw. That day we returned our rented gear never to dive again.

Fast forward to 2006. Fishtiq invited me to go scuba diving with him. I found my old C-card and He had a bunch of Pink gear for me to borrow. We went out to kayak Point and chased crab around in 20 fsw. Joe collected rocks and It seemed diving was a lot more fun than I remember from 10 years ago. After corking from 40 fsw at the Muk walls, I started cruising the internets and found a forum where Dsteding suggested I take a class from GratefulDiver. After a series of emails Bob met me at Mukilteo and became my third dive buddy, and eventually my Instructor.

After AOW with Doug and Bob I found NWDC and met up with Burntchef at Edmonds. This would be the first time I ever dove with someone who I never met before. Howard and I had a good dive together and I learned that it was possible to dive with anyone and still have a great time.

Um where am I in this story ?

Oh! My bad. You sir, were somewhere under the Geodome with Jeff"zipcode" doing the Mash Potato trying to stir up some phosphorescence! I'm not quite sure, but I think it was then that we started calling you guys the crackheads.

Which reminds me, remember when we used to have beers at the Buzz Inn? That's where Joe and I came up with the Nakkin Notes. I'll have to dig those up again, they're very educational.

[whatevah]

I met my first at a toga party. Beware - long story follows...

I grew up in a small mining town in central Australia and moved to Brisbane to attend university when I was 16. During the three month break at the end of each year of study, the mine in the town where I grew up would invite us local kids back to work for them. The money was good so I'd work two 8hr shifts each day - one shift doing actual mechanical engineering stuff, and the other shift doing manual labor underground. After going to the nurse's station to pee and satisfy them that I wasn't horribly dehydrated, I'd go drinking with my buddies for a couple of hours, sleep for about 5hrs, then wake up and head back for another double shift. Anyway, at some point I met a girl at a toga party who liked some of the same music as me, and (incidentally) could really handle a beer bomb. We got along pretty well. Skipping ahead one year, back in that reeking armpit of a town, we were getting along pretty well again. A friend and I had won a trip to Airlie Beach (Queensland coast near the Whitsunday Islands in the Great Barrier Reef) by driving a $200 VW bug about 5000 miles to raise money for "Guide Dogs for the Blind". Friend wasn't going to be able to get away so he said the toga girl could go with me. Off we went. In Airlie Beach we took some kind of a 2hr introduction to SCUBA course that basically taught us to grip the regulator mouthpiece as though we were using it to set a strength record by pulling a train with our teeth. Then they put a bunch of lead on us and threw us off the boat in about 25' of water. First dive and first dive buddy, but not the experience that hooked me.

Fast forward umm... quite a bit. Now living in the US near the San Juan Islands. Crabbing/fishing buddy has me driving the boat while he is spearing Lingcod. I'm enthralled by his stories about the cool stuff he sees, so he takes me on an impromptu dive using borrowed gear - in the Cone Islands IIRC. I liked it enough to go get OW certified.