From The Outside Looking In

[Joshua Smith]

....I hope my IP address hasn't totally given away where I live.

That reminds me- I love what you've done with your yard! Thr Rhodies on the side need trimming, though.

[Mongo]

You will spend upwards of $1,500 for a rubber jumpsuit that 99% of the people who know you will never see you wear.
52 degree water is nice and warm in your warped view.
You look forward to spending 45 minutes driving, an hour bs'ing and setting up gear, another hour bs'ing and breaking
down gear, another 45 minute drive home, another hour rinsing/drying/charging/maintaining gear, and countless hours
talking about a sport that you just actively participated in for 50 minutes.
You complain about how awfull it is to dress yourself in layers of black thermal clothing on an 85 degree day while you
voluntarily do so.
You brag when you can see 30 feet, as though this is an unheard of feat for all mankind.
You immerse yourself in chilly pea soup for hours on end looking for a creature the size of a dime that doesn't give a damn
that you were ever there.
You spend thousands of dollars and countless hours hoping to get lucky and catch a 3 second glimpse of a creature that
people see at the aquarium every day for a few bucks, or on Discovery for free.
You collect pictures of slugs.
Your friends are jealous of you when you buy a flashlight for $1200.
Some fanatics among you will risk losing close personal relationships and lifelong hobbies and interests to go swimming.
You will plan the vacation of your lifetime to an exotic destination for a week and never see the culture, lifestyle,
environment or geography of the place you visit.
You know the physiology of bubble formation in the body, the consequence of high PPO2 exposure, Boyle's law, and the
factors that contribute to nitrogen narcosis; you have no idea how to fill out the forms your boss just gave you.
None of your thumbtacks on Google Earth are on land.

Where were you on the evening of September 29, 2001? Were you walking down an asile wearing a white dress?




You sound alot like someone I know.

[Pez7378]

This is joe's "Afterglow".

[Blaiz]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but while pulling my gear out of the tub preparatory to taking a shower tonight, I recalled reading this. It was one of the first posts I read on this forum, and it made me laugh out loud.

I just re-read it, and realized how very, very accurate it is and now I'm not laughing *quite* so hard Besides, when I laugh underwater, my mask leaks and then I get scuba-boogers

[spatman]

Thanks for summing it up for me Joe...I think I'm going to sell all my gear and get a Dirt bike!

so i wonder if sheahan got that dirt bike after all...

[Nwbrewer]

Thanks for summing it up for me Joe...I think I'm going to sell all my gear and get a Dirt bike!

so i wonder if sheahan got that dirt bike after all...

Nope, he bought a quad....

[disappearinjon]

You will spend upwards of $1,500 for a rubber jumpsuit that 99% of the people who know you will never see you wear.

This part has been bothering me.

I mean, if you're really a diver, everybody you know has seen you geared up. Who has time to make new friends (or keep old ones) who don't dive?

[Blaiz]

actually, fishstiq didn't mention talcum powder as a fashion style accessory. I think he may have overlooked this major detail

[kat]

it always struck me funny that i would load 10k worth of gear into a $500 car...

[Aquanautchuck]

Well I went the other way. Sold my racing dirt bike, my quad and my ski's have not seen snow for 3 years, my gun collection is half what it was and just locked away in the dark. Just to pay for the new ScubaCrack habit I have. Life is soooooooo good.

[steepdiver]

you guys think you got it bad I maried a woman with a scuba habbit as bad as mine. So if you thought feeding one Tec divers habbit was bad you should try feeding two. Somedays the thought of selling a kidney for the next set of doubles full of gas almost seams like a good idea.

Dive deep, dive hard and your real friends will surface with you. Everyone else just wont ever get it, no matter how hard you try to explain it.

The garge full of gear that leaves your truck out side in the weather, or the trip of a life time just to see a wreck so deep you only get to see it for 20 min at a time and it hasnt seen the light of day in 60+ years.

Yes it's an addiction but you have no idea how glad i am that there is no such thing as "Narcosis anonymous", ill take my addiction over a nondiver anyday.

[LCF]

Yes it's an addiction but you have no idea how glad i am that there is no such thing as "Narcosis anonymous", ill take my addiction over a nondiver anyday.

I suspect everybody here agrees with you . . . I certainly agree about the expense of maintaining two tech/cave divers in the same household!

[sheahanmcculla]

Thanks for summing it up for me Joe...I think I'm going to sell all my gear and get a Dirt bike!

so i wonder if sheahan got that dirt bike after all...

Nope, he bought a quad....

Haha good one Jake, how'd you know?

After seeing the threads on the club dive, I miss diving pretty bad!

[Nwbrewer]

Thanks for summing it up for me Joe...I think I'm going to sell all my gear and get a Dirt bike!

so i wonder if sheahan got that dirt bike after all...

Nope, he bought a quad....

Haha good one Jake, how'd you know?

After seeing the threads on the club dive, I miss diving pretty bad!

You said your wife wanted a quad. Figured you'd wind up with one too. I have a set of gear you can use. Rent a wetsuit and let's go.

When's the little one making an appearance?

[psundquist]

Spending $200 for a cheeseburger (the food was $10 and gas was the rest), enjoying a terrifying experience in bad weather, rough seas, and being seasick, feeling stressed out and very anxious as you are approaching your slip with a strong wind ready to crash you into your neighbors 1/2 million dollar vessel, spending your weekends washing it, paying $$$ to keep the boat in storage the other 6 months of the year, annual slip fees, high insurance costs, and watching your friends face when they read the amount of money it took to fill up your boat.

There were many great and enjoyable times on that boat as well, but I was so happy when we sold it.

SCUBA diving looks a lot more sane in effort & expense when you have a different frame of reference.

[LCF]

Oh, I know! Start with $20K for a medium quality just broken dressage prospect. $700 to $1000 a month for board. Another similar sum for training and lessons. A cheap dressage competition will cost you $500 for a weekend, if you camp at the site . . . A good dressage saddle now runs over 3K. Scuba starts looking like a cheap activity after a while.

[sitkadiver]

Thanks for summing it up for me Joe...I think I'm going to sell all my gear and get a Dirt bike!

so i wonder if sheahan got that dirt bike after all...

Nope, he bought a quad....

I thought he had a kid????

[sheahanmcculla]

Thanks for summing it up for me Joe...I think I'm going to sell all my gear and get a Dirt bike!

so i wonder if sheahan got that dirt bike after all...

Nope, he bought a quad....

I thought he had a kid????

In January, not yet.

[Nwbrewer]

Thanks for summing it up for me Joe...I think I'm going to sell all my gear and get a Dirt bike!

so i wonder if sheahan got that dirt bike after all...

Nope, he bought a quad....

I thought he had a kid????

That's why they make carseats and bungee cord right?