For as long as I can remember I have always loved the water. I could blame my mom on that one I think, she is the one that got me into the water when I was very young. I also could blame her genes because she comes from a swimming family. It seems like all of her brothers and sisters swam in school. So here I am loving the water, and yet I live in Oklahoma. Not many sources of water for me to enjoy, and go hang out in. I remember going to Robbers Cave State Park as a kid always going to the swimming pool and spending all day there. And then I would go to the swimming pool at the local golf course when the golf course had a swimming pool. Sadly the golf course shut down the swimming pool, but the park still had the pool. Then mom decided to get a in ground pool at their house, and then I had access to the water as long as I was at the house. But something was always missing when I was in the water. I wanted to be a scuba diver! I don’t really remember the first time I heard that term scuba diver. It could have come from a movie some where, or something I saw in a book. But I do know when I heard the term and learned what it meant, I just had to become one! Sadly it took me a long time since high school to get certified, but now I can say I am a certified scuba diver.

It was in 2016 I do believe is when I hit the button on PADI’s website to buy the Open Water certification online class. The Open Water class is the first step you take to get certified as a scuba diver, and it involves online videos, test, and lessons, and at the end of it you affiliate with a local dive shop to schedule a in closed pool session. At the time I was finishing up the online class, me and wife was getting ready to move to the Oklahoma City area, so I found a local dive shop in Oklahoma City. So I finally finished the online classes, took the final exam, passed, and now I scheduled the pool session with the local dive shop in Oklahoma City. Now all I had to do was get my equipment and scuba dive in a swimming pool! So a couple of weeks has passed, and we got all moved to Norman. Before I could breath under the water, I had to go to the dive shop and show them I could put the gear together on my own, and not have the instructor put it together for me at the pool session. When I got to the dive shop, they handed me a tank, a buoyancy compensator (BC), and the regulator with the first and second stage. The manager first showed me how to put it together, and then I had to show him how to assemble and disassemble the gear. Luckily I studied well online, and watched the manager, and I passed assembling the gear. The next day I would be using that gear I assembled during my pool dive the next day.

So here it is, the day I am going to be breathing under water. I could not wait to get off work and head to the pool in the city. My whole swimming life I wanted to breath under water, and here it is the day I am going to be doing just that!  It seemed like after work I was speeding on I35 to get to the pool as quickly as I could! I finally got to the pool, and sitting in the car waiting for the instructor to pull up and unload the car with all the gear. I saw the car pull up, and helped unload the car and bring everything in the pool area. That night it was me and another person getting their Open Water certification and the instructor. The pool is a local YMCA type facility, and there was other people there using the pool as well, but its something the dive shop has set up with the pool for us to use the facility for diving, which is pretty cool! So after a quick orientation by the pool, it was time for me gear up, and put the regulator on the tank, all without the help of the instructor. So the first thing we were going to do is get the regulator and BC on the tank, and then slowly turn on the tank. When I opened up the tank and heard the air rush into the different hoses, I knew it was getting closer for me to strap this thing on and breath underwater. Then we were asked to move our gear closer to the pool, and then we were supposed to get in the pool. One of the first task were are supposed to do is get in the BC while in the water. It was getting closer and more real that I was about to breath under water. I grabbed my BC, I swung it around my back, and strapped it on. Strapping on all this gear makes me feel like a super hearo. I know that sounds weird, but it does make me feel like a super hearo or something. I know how that sounds, but I don’t care, it feels awesome to strap on that gear, and strap on dive knifes. But I am getting ahead of my self. So here I am, strapping on my BC, the tank is on, the dive computer is saying I have 2900psi in the tank. Before I got in the pool I had to test the second stage by letting air out, and putting the regulator in my mouth as a safety check to check that air is coming out. Like I said I am getting ahead of my self, but now that I got that out of the way, I am now in the pool with my BC on, the regulator working, goggles on, and no fins just yet. Now the instructor is checking us to make sure were go everything on, and that our air is on. Once the safety checks were done, it was time for us to put on our fins. Here it is, here is the moment I have been waiting on for such a long time. It was the moment that I would be letting air out of my BC and be sinking down to the bottom of the pool and breathing under water. The instructor looked us both, told us to put our regulators in our mouth, and then gave us the thumb down position. Before I knew it I was going down, I was breathing under water for my first time in my life. You will never forget the first time you were able to use a tank and breath under water!!

So there I am under water, about 6 feet below water, breathing under water. There I am looking at the instructor, and looking at the other student, and then looking up at the surface breathing under water. It is a feeling that I will never forget! After a few minutes of breathing under water the instructor gave us the thumbs up signal for us to surface. I won’t go in the whole details of all the different task we had to perform, but you could watch the movie Fool’s Gold and you can see some of the stuff we had to go for the instructor. I enjoy that movie now! The pool session was a 2 nights, but after those 2 sessions it was time for me to move on to the open water portion of it. For my first open water experience I won’t be diving in an Oklahoma lake, but in Maui! I could not be more excited! But sadly that was going to be a few weeks of waiting until the moment I could breath under water again! Skipping ahead some, there I was in Maui getting my stuff ready and documents signed off on from my referral. This time I have all my own gear, my own BC, my own regulator, my own dive computer, and other equipment. Like I said it feels really cool strapping all that gear on your back, and putting it all together. But there I was in the dive shop in Maui signing everything and meeting all the staff, and scheduling my second half of the Open Water certification. For the second parts, I had to do shore dives where you gear up and walk into the ocean from the shore, and then you do boat dives where you jump into the ocean from the boat. That is the most fun by jumping into the ocean with all your gear on into the most clearest water you will ever see, and looking at it under water 30-60 feet under water is the best feeling in the world with 70 feet it seems of visibility! I was truly spoiled with how the oceans look compared to Oklahoma lakes, but it doesn’t matter because in the end I am scuba diving and breathing under water.

So here I am, I am now a certified scuba diver. I recently got my Advanced Open certification so now I can dive deeper than 60 feet, and enroll in other specialties. Just today I enrolled in Rescue Diver and Nitrox. With Nitrox I will be able to dive with enriched oxygen tanks. But here I am, I am breathing under water, I am doing what I have always wanted to do since the moment I heard the term scuba diver way back when I was young and swimming either in the park swimming pool or the golf course swimming pool. Since me and my wife live in Norman, I found that there is also a more local dive shop here and so I am now affiliated with the dive shop here in Norman. I know I live in Oklahoma and you may think that what lakes can you go diving in around here, and the answer is you can dive in a few lakes around here. Also in popular rivers around here as well. So if you love water, and love to do the thing that divers make fun of called snorkeling, I highly recommend giving scuba diving a try. There are classes you can get in called Intro to scuba diving where you only pay about $30 and you have all the gear you need to give it try.

Please enjoy the following video, and photos. I also apologize about how I was moving the GoPro. I was just to amazed at how everything looks under there, and getting everything sorted out.

-acocke