S.C.U.B.A.

The first time I ever thought of diving must have been when I was about 10 years old. I was still living in Czech, it must have been few years after my family moved into a new place on Bohuslava Martinu. One of my friends and I have found a small bottle that could only be described as a Pony Bottle, we had no idea what it was for. It was in the summer when we often went to the public swimming pool so we immediately thought that we could get it filled and use it to breathe underwater. Just then a neighbor walked by and saw us holding the bottle. He came up to us and wanted to know where we got it; he then told us that we wouldn't be able to get it filled but he could use it. Being stupid kids we got totally taken advantage of. The first time I decided I wanted to get certified was during my last few months of living in Spokane, Washington. One of my co-workers was finishing his Basic Open Water certification and gave me his book to read. Knowing that I was going to be moving to San Diego I knew that I was finally going to be able to learn.

Because of lack of money and time after getting settled in San Diego I didn't get into my first scuba class until May of 2001. I signed up for my Basic Open Water through Sport Chalet in Point Loma on Midway drive. It was a 3 week course I was taking with buddy Mike from work. We both took the first 2 weeks of classroom time, tests, and pool times but because of my rollerblade race on the third weekend we had to put off the final 4 open water dives till almost 3 weeks later. It was during the first two certification dives at La Jolla shores at this time that I realized that I get motion sick, and even just floating on a surface for extended periods of time. After the first dive with the first half of the skills to do I was feeling woozy but still ok. It was during the second dive that Saturday morning that I started getting really sick. I did managed to get al the necessary skills finished but only barely, with hardly knowing up from down and almost completely out of air (I tried to stay few feet under surface at all times since it make me feel better that the up/down motion of the surface). The next two certifying dives were the next day at the Coronado Islands south of the boarder. It was simply amazing; we still had couple of skills to do on the first dive but mostly we were free to roam around. The visibility that day was at least 40 feet and the amount of marine fauna and flora in the area was overwhelming. After that I knew that I was going to get my own gear. I did not want to be one of the people belonging to the 60% of certified divers that never dive again after receipt of their Sea Card.

...to be continued