We took the plunge. Bought a bunch of gear and did 2 weeks of class work with our awesome instructor, Todd, who is known in local dive circles as"Shrek". He's a got the body of a builder, is tanner than a leather purse and has bright green eyes that dance when he rattles off instructions about weights and regulators and nitrox, always with a smile and a quiet laugh that sounds almost nervous. Although you know he's not, since hes logged thousands of dives in his lifetime and could probably ascend from 100 feet in his sleep.
Then 2 pool dives (at another diver's home on a farm in rural Idaho- with a poolside bar that looked like margaritaville and played Jimmy Buffett songs all night long). It was a strange experience to come to the surface and hear a blender going on top of calypso music and feel the sunshine on my face. I almost thought I was on an island somewhere. Almost. That is, until the cows came into view, and the sagebrush.
What are SCUBA divers doing in Idaho, you ask? I'll tell you: Repairing huge dams, braving the dangers of diving under ice, swimming upstream with the salmon in raging rapids, and exploring whatever there is to explore at the bottom of frigid mountain lakes. It was amazing how this subculture of people came out of the woodwork in conjunction with this learning experience. They are all extremely laid-back and welcoming, sporting dolphin tattoos and flip flops, telling tales of dive adventures 'round the world and confessing their love for the hobby over any 'job' they might continue to hold, if only to support the buying of yet more SCUBA gear. We were invited to barbecues and on trips and given patience and encouragement as we got our feet wet (pun intended) in this new, complicated, super fun hobby.
For our final dives, our class drove down to the Homestead Crater in Midway Utah. Its an incredible geothermal spring that is ~70 feet deep, and the water temp clocks in at just under 95 degrees year round. It is obviously free of any sealife, because of the hot hot heat. A little disappointing to miss out on interacting with slimy, shiny creatures, but nice for staying safe and focused during our first real dive. It has an underwater platform, lights, and giant squares and circles made of floating pvc pipe at 35 and 50 feet, to swim through, flip off of and float around. It was incredible, to say the least. Just the environment was otherworldly in itself. Combine that with the experience of being weightless, breathing underwater(!) and putting into practice the skills we had painstakingly learned in the weeks prior, and it was dynamite. I was in heaven in that blue lagoon. My lifelong waterloving heart felt like a mermaid, finally, for real. Well, maybe a robot mermaid with a lot of tubes and tanks and plastic, but still, I felt graceful and incredible. The fact that Jonny and I did it together made it all the more wonderful. I'm so thankful for my fun, handsome, adventurous husband.
I'm so glad we made time for this. Even if it meant speeding from work to class while eating dinner in the car, staying up way too late rinsing our gear with a garden hose on the front porch, quizzing each other on 'buoyancy' while painting and slapping tape on cardboard boxes, and driving to Utah at 1 AM.
The reason for all of this? A trip to Belize in August. We're hoping to dive again, and maybe this time, I won't be the only fish in the sea. :)
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