Skydivers also love to Scuba dive

I reckon Skydivers and Scuba divers share part of a common mind set. There is something about going into a hostile environment to have our fun, yet remaining aware and totally 'heads up' about the dangers. There's something about the curiosity of seeing the things that 'normal' people just don't ever get to see. Both of these things attract the same kind of character and have you ever noticed that talking to someone from the other sport, you can always get to feel their 'buzz' when you meet and talk socially and share stories. So what is the common denominator between these two sports? In my view its the 'adventure mindset'. People who Scuba dive and people who skydive have a Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) which enables them (forces them?) to go and have Adventure. 

You and I breathe air, yet I love to go down deep and look at the fish that most people don't get to see.

You and I don't have wings, yet I love to view the world from the eyes of a soaring Eagle.

Lots of my skydiving buddies also Scuba dive and yes, we're careful to make sure that we do things in the right order so we stay safe and healthy. More about this our forthcoming article about planning your multi activity vacation.

How I got to try Scuba diving

Years ago when I was still married, the two of us went on a vacation to a really nice beach hotel in St Lucia. She liked the treatments and beutification stuff and I loved the water sports and outdoor activities. You'll guess from this that I'm not really a 'lie on the beach and get a tan' kind of guy So while I was there I did a trial beach-dive, which included a two hour session in the hotel swimming pool learning the good old safety stuf. Our instructor was a young St Lucian guy with dreadlocks and he was obviously a big hit with the ladies.We talked a little about skydiving and why there wasn't a drop zone on the Island and I toyed with the idea of setting up a Tandem skydiving facility there.  I found out he was a PADI Instructor and I was tremendously impressed with his professionalism and communication skills right from the start. When I got into the water (only about 10 feet deep) and stayed with Micheal and the group in our little bay, I wondered why I had been missing this all my life. I did three more beach dives on different days and then asked Micheal if he could teach me to become a certified Open Water diver. 

It's not about the money, it's about the time

"Well Rob" I'd like to do that, but you only have three days vacation left and while your money and postive approach would be nice to have, I couldn't get you graduated in that time. Next time plan your vacation to make a week available to learn the full course and all the necessary drills. I'd be delighted to teach you then.

Finding time for Scuba diving

Even as impressed as I was with Michael, I like to go to different places each time on vacation, after all there is so much of the world to see and so many adventures to be had. On top of that, we both had busy full-on corporate careers and it was tough enough sometimes just finding the time to be together. So we found a local PADI  Instructor near our West Sussex home and found a group of friends who also wanted to try Scuba diving, and we arranged for Greg Terry-Short to teach us as a group over a period of six weeks, finally doing our open water dives in the Red Sea, with a short vacation in Safaga, Egypt.

Our dive instructor was very cool

But don't worry, I won't! I really have to restrict myself from talking about the fun we had diving and the new world it's opened up to us. It was just mind blowing! We had qualified as PADI Open water divers and then carried on taking day trips out on boats, visiting wrecks and reefs and generally seeing so many wonders of the world, and they were so close - just a few metres down! Over a few drinks in the bar one evening Greg (aka 'The Man from Atlantis' made the mistake of asking me about skydiving and we chatted about accelerated free fall and other ways to try out this sport.He was intrigued.

Barter in the Bar - Skydiving for Scuba diving, quid pro quo

Greg wanted to give it a try and yet teaching Scuba diving didn't really pay well enough to take up another expensive sport. A deal was soon struck on the basis of my ex and I getting our advanced Open Water certification (we already had our Open Water and brough a group of others along for the same) and Greg wanted an AFF ground school and level one skydive. Bearing in mind Greg had become a good friend by this time, it was clearly a 'win-win' deal and would also be fun.

Was the Man from Atlantis just an 'Eddie the Eagle'?

Greg was easy to teach and I just hope I was the same for him. His ground school went through very smoothly and his level one skydive was a dream. He did a 'text book' dive and was buzzing for ages afterwards. The picture of his level one was seen around a lot and it was clear to me at that time that there was a big crossover in atitude and perspectives between our respective sports.

Scuba diving is now part of my life

Since that time I've dived all over the world, but mostly in nice warm places that have interesting things to see and do. My favourite dive so far is the Zenobia Ferry just off Larnaca, Cyprus and that will take some beating! I've made just the one exception to dive in the cold waters of UK, when I was in the Isle of Man two years ago and I hoped to catch sight of some basking sharks. Unfortunately that didn't materialise, although I may give that another try. I still skydive wherever I go (mostly) and now my two boys have done a pool dive, they want to  try the real thing in the sea and I'm in the planning stages of that. Along the way, I like to carry on my reseach and look for new ideas of places to dive and skydive (yep, on the same vacation ideally) and I tripped across this wonderful little resource, which I'd like to share with you now www.scubadivingplace.com is a really neat little site which gives lots of information about scuba diving and it's very clear to be that the publishers are very experienced people and the way they write also tells me that they are warm and friendly 'friends I haven't met yet'. So if you'd like to know more about Scuba diving please take a look, you won't regret it. 

There's much more to life than staying on the ground

I hope you've enjoyed this little addition to the skydiver mind set and perhaps given you some more ideas about squeezing the most out of every second of life. This link will take you back to our welcome page and you can decide what other subjects you'd like to check out here.

Hey, if you are a Scuba/Skydive kind of person. Why not tell us your story in our blog? We'd love to hear it and the best story each month wins a prize! Or maybe you'd just like to soak up a little more of other peoples view points about why they skydive and what it did for them.

Perhaps you'd like to take a look at indoor skydiving? 

Maybe thinking still about Tandem skydiving?

Or are you ready to skydive with accelerated free fall? 

Whatever you decide, it's our absolute pleasure to write for you and I hope you're enjoying reading acceleratedfreefall.com as much as we enjoy writing if for you.