What About the Diving?

My friend Jolt told me she’d recommended my blog to several dive-fan friends.
Uh oh.

For a blog called Shore Dive Kinda Life, this series has been woefully lacking in dive.

My storyline, so far, is about expanding the view: squeezing my fingers inside our little Northern Virginia peephole and pulling the tiny opening wider, into a porthole, then pushing out with my whole hands, creating a me-sized picture window where I stand, arms wide open, ooh-ing and ahh-ing all over the page.

I dream better than I dive.

At Camel Dive in Sharm el Sheikh last fall, I handed over my NAUI certification card (aka C-card) and tried to look inconspicuous. But no, there it was… the same confused look I’d seen in Bonaire six months earlier and in St. Eustatius six months before that.

My friends are all hyper-experienced divers: a thousand dives and nearly 100 years of dive experience between them, with enough specialty-course cards to sink their dive logs. Underwater navigation, Rescue diver, Master diver. Any one of them could slap an octopus in your mouth and drag you to the surface faster than you could slash your throat in the international scuba signal for “NO FREAKING AIR!”

And then there’s me. The sole NAUI diver in a boatful of PADI’s, certified twenty-three years ago, with only 48 dives to my name. And just one lonely little Openwater I card rattling around in my vast, empty dive log.

It’s like showing up for the Grand Prix with a learner's permit and a Big Wheel.

But it’s the only ride I’ve got, so that’s how I roll.




















Photos (c) www.RickCollier.com Take a look at Rick's site for more pics of diving in Sharm.