The most common reaction I get when I tell people I was watching Shark Week and immediately called my scuba mentor, Ashley, to tell her I needed to get under the water again is “Watching Shark Week made you WANT TO GET INTO THE WATER AGAIN”!?!!?!?!?
Yes. It did, big time.

I sold all my expensive stuff a couple of years ago. Scuba California is too hard for me – cold, sometimes rough and well…cold. The cold is the worst. My foray into dry suit diving was a bust (some of you might remembering Jake flying Mary like an upside down kite underwater) and the 7mm wetsuit is literally impossible for me to put on myself.

Hired Ashley for trip out to Catalina. I was strangely not nervous – was it because I didn’t have anything to prove? Don’t know, don’t care. As usual I knew Ash would take good care of me. It kind of helped, I suppose, that I only had to worry about my fins and mask and boots, versus a whole bag full o’ stuff.

It was an easy day, for me. Ashley did everything except breathe for me. Helped me get that damn wetsuit on, carried my gear into the water where I put it on. You’ve not seen anything til you see Ash with her gear on her back, my gear on her front, trudging 100 ft.

Under the water she held my elbow, guiding me along and monitoring my air in my BCD (which keeps me at the proper buoyancy). That last part is really my job it I was grateful she did it and it allowed me to totally relax and remember why I wanted to do this in the first place.

I have never been so calm. Maybe the time off did me good. You don’t know whatcha got til it’s gone. I won’t be buying new equipment. I’m so happy to report the young woman who purchased mine has fallen into the drink hook, line, and scuba tank and has done about 200 dives since I sold it to her a couple of years ago. Oh to be young again!

I’m ready to dive again. Not in California, but perhaps the hot springs dives Ashley has planned in Utah and perhaps the Singapore trip that is rescheduled for April.

The water is my happy place. It’s as simple as that.