My Dad (Jim) has been a certified SCUBA diver since I was about 2 years old. He got certified in Japan, and enjoyed the waters off Okinawa. After he moved back to Washington he pretty much stopped SCUBA (too cold for him here), but every time he goes on a warm weather vacation he finds a local dive shop and checks out the waters. When he took me with him to Vieques, I got to experience SCUBA for the first time and I
loved it!
I've been toying with the idea of getting certified ever since Vieques and Josh (being the amazing husband that he is), must have heard me, because the certificate he got me to become a certified diver for my birthday was perfect. I am now a certified SCUBA diver!
I've got a few dives under my weight belt and I am completely hooked. I love it - I've seen Giant Pacific Octopus, Baby Red Octopus, Squid, crabs, lingcod as big as me, and tons of other sealife that I knew existed but never expected to see swimming outside of an aquarium.
I have this compulsion - if I love something I have to share it. "Try this caramel frappuccino, its AMAZING"; "You've never been shooting?! It's so much fun! Come with me."; "You haven't read
The Name of the Wind? It is a phenomenal book - read it...And then suffer with me until the third book of the trilogy comes out!". Naturally, this compulsion extends to SCUBA.
I'm fairly certain that with enough enthusiasm I could convince my Dad to try almost anything with me, he's an adventurous guy (although he won't jump out of a plane with me...I've tried). But, I wanted to ask him to be my dive buddy in the 52 degree waters of Washington in a fun way. For his Birthday in May I gave him a card and told him that his present was to pick a day from a few options, and that he'd find out what he was doing later. On Father's Day I gave him the only small shark figurine I could find, incidentally the ugliest one I've ever seen - to tell him what we were doing.
We had a date to jump in the shark tank at the Point Defiance Zoo!
Point Defiance Zoo offers the
Eye to Eye Shark Dive for certified divers. They set you up with all the gear and they guide you an open dive into the South Pacific Aquarium, full of nurse sharks, sandbar sharks, a Wobbegong, a black-tip reef shark, a sand tiger shark and a Lemon Shark (her name is Liz!). They also offer a cage-dive for non-certified divers. But this is my Dad and I, so no cage needed!!
We met with our guide (GiAnn) outside the aquarium and she took us into the back for a safety talk and to get suited up. This is the easiest dive (equipment wise), probably in the world. I didn't have to think about anything, it was all provided and I even had help putting on my dry suit and the rest of the equipment. Thanks to the Aquarium staff for that awesomeness!
The sharks were huge! It seemed like every shark except for the Wobbegong and the black tip reef shark were bigger than me, and they were still so graceful. It was beautiful to be in their environment floundering around, and watching them move effortlessly.
Check out this video of us on the dive. This was taken right at the beginning, just after we jumped in. Seeing a pile of nurse sharks and the Wobbegong tucked under the rock was a great way to start off the dive! You can also see small fish in this video. These are the little damsels that help keep the tank clean. They are easily the meanest things in the tank. They are extremely territorial and they were defending their turf from Dad and I aggressively. They would grab hold of a little bit of material (part of your glove or drysuit), and shake it like Leonard with rawhide. It didn't hurt, but its a good thing those guys are small. At the end of the dive the aquarium had the videos they took of us for sale, and Dad bought the set for us - it came with the cutest flash drive I've ever seen - look!
My favorite part was looking up as the sharks swam over us. The sharks were completely fearless and they swam over us often - here is
a video of them going right over us. You can see Dad looking down in the sand and picking stuff up. They told us that any teeth we found, we could keep - Dad and each have a small handful of souvenirs!
This was the perfect introduction to SCUBA for my Dad and I. We have a couple of dives planned already, and I'm looking forward to exploring the Puget Sound with him.
