What Are You Waiting For?

In 1997 while visiting my brother at his home in Florida, I noticed a mask, fins, and snorkel propped against

a strange black back-pack with colorful looping tentacles draped over it standing in the corner.

Buoyancy Compensation Device

When I asked him about the gear he told me he had learned to scuba dive in trade for a roof replacement job. He invited me to get certified so we could go diving together. I immediately declined and continued to decline the offer for over a year before moving back to Washington. I declined for two reasons; at the time I believed only professionals like Jacques Cousteau were scuba divers, and in general my brother lived his life recklessly. The thought of being underwater with him made me nervous. Now, over ten years later, I’m diving in the beautiful cold water of the Pacific Northwest and warm water all over the world.

In 2005, my husband, Steve, and I had booked a vacation package on a cruise out of Florida. After discovering we had been roped into a scam vacation package, we decided to cut our losses and bail on the vacation. With time off already approved by our employers, we scrambled to put together a new vacation plan. Steve mentioned he had always wanted to visit Belizé to do some snorkeling so we put together a trip that would take us into three distinct areas of Belizé and bought the Lonely Planet Dive and Snorkel Belizé book. It didn’t take much reading to discover we would be missing out on some incredible experiences if we limited ourselves to snorkeling, so we decided to get scuba certified. In fact, we noticed some of the best diving was deeper than 60 feet so we backed our class up to allow us enough time to get certified as advanced divers. The vacation far exceeded our expectations. Each reef we visited was covered with a rainbow of colorful life with an interstate of bi-directional traffic at rush hour in the form of fish, eel, rays, and turtles. The simplicity of each dive left us free to soak in every view and creature leaving us with some terrific memories.

What Are You Waiting For Sign

When we returned home we immediately thumbed through our dive magazines looking for our next dive destination. We both agreed that Bonaire and Curaçao were at the top of our wish list, but they seemed so exotic we didn’t think we could get there anytime soon. Then we met the owners of TL Sea Diving in Des Moines, Washington. They told us about an upcoming trip to Bonaire and without hesitation we signed up. Since then we’ve traveled with them to Nanaimo, Canada for some fantastic wreck diving, Bonaire, Netherlands for some breath-taking boat and shore diving, Cozumel, Mexico for some exciting drift diving, and Malaysia and Indonesia where the diving is nothing short of breathtakingly incredible. We’re so enthusiastic about exploring underwater worlds with our new friends that we’ve signed up for several of their upcoming trips to both local and warm water destinations.

The thought of scuba diving began with feelings of trepidation and I considered it an unattainable dream. Today I’m living that dream. I lost my brother in 2005 and regret not getting certified earlier to dive with him. Now he accompanies me as my secondary buddy on every dive. What are you waiting for?