Okay, so I'm a newbie to this list, and I promised myself an hour ago that I'd only read *one more* thread before getting back to work... This can be addictive!
I've been an ocean nut since the second grade when I first came across a book titled "Skin Diving" in my elementary school library. I read the book in the mid-70s, and the cover has a photo of two wetsuit-clad guys -- one in SCUBA gear and one with just mask, snorkel, weight belt and fins. It mainly covers snorkeling/freediving. Anybody know where a used copy might be for sale?
I learned to SCUBA dive while at the American high school in Egypt (my dad worked for Xerox and we were stationed there). Our open water qualification dives were at Ras Nasrani off the Sinai. We'd pack up a couple vans with diving and camping gear, head out on Friday afternoon, and do two dives on Saturday and two on Sunday right off the beach (in those days you could just wade out to knee-deep and step right off the coral cliff).
What really intrigued me during one of my trips there was a guy -- one of the 7th grade teachers who'd accompanied us out -- who freedove the entire time. The water wasn't that deep -- maybe 30/40 feet, but this guy would dive to the bottom and root around for 2-4 minutes. It was really impressive.
Over the next 15 years, I didn't get much diving done -- other than in Lake Atitlan in Guatemala and Playa Ocotal in Costa Rica (where I'd gone to write a story on the resort for The Tico Times, CR's English-language weekly newspaper).
About a year ago, I stumbled across this site after having spent a few weeks playing underwater hockey, and since Washington, DC, is at the beginning of the usual August congressional recess, not much is going on. The more I read this site, the more I wanna learn how to safely freedive. I'm not looking to compete or anything, I just like the idea of going down to 60-70 feet unencumbered by a noisy and bulky air tank.
And someday, once I'm trained, I plan to freedive the Spiegel Grove off Key Largo. Anyone done this yet?
OK, now I *really* gotta get back to work...
Juan-John
I've been an ocean nut since the second grade when I first came across a book titled "Skin Diving" in my elementary school library. I read the book in the mid-70s, and the cover has a photo of two wetsuit-clad guys -- one in SCUBA gear and one with just mask, snorkel, weight belt and fins. It mainly covers snorkeling/freediving. Anybody know where a used copy might be for sale?
I learned to SCUBA dive while at the American high school in Egypt (my dad worked for Xerox and we were stationed there). Our open water qualification dives were at Ras Nasrani off the Sinai. We'd pack up a couple vans with diving and camping gear, head out on Friday afternoon, and do two dives on Saturday and two on Sunday right off the beach (in those days you could just wade out to knee-deep and step right off the coral cliff).
What really intrigued me during one of my trips there was a guy -- one of the 7th grade teachers who'd accompanied us out -- who freedove the entire time. The water wasn't that deep -- maybe 30/40 feet, but this guy would dive to the bottom and root around for 2-4 minutes. It was really impressive.
Over the next 15 years, I didn't get much diving done -- other than in Lake Atitlan in Guatemala and Playa Ocotal in Costa Rica (where I'd gone to write a story on the resort for The Tico Times, CR's English-language weekly newspaper).
About a year ago, I stumbled across this site after having spent a few weeks playing underwater hockey, and since Washington, DC, is at the beginning of the usual August congressional recess, not much is going on. The more I read this site, the more I wanna learn how to safely freedive. I'm not looking to compete or anything, I just like the idea of going down to 60-70 feet unencumbered by a noisy and bulky air tank.
And someday, once I'm trained, I plan to freedive the Spiegel Grove off Key Largo. Anyone done this yet?
OK, now I *really* gotta get back to work...
Juan-John