I first got my Junior Scuba diving license in California when I was about 14 years old I believe in 1962. I was always a risk taker anyway of jumping off of houses for fun into grass covered yards with my friends or going to construction sites and jumping 20 feet onto the edges of piles of Sand to make cement and stuff like this.
But, I realized in my early 20s that Scuba diving was at least as dangerous as Rock climbing is with thousands of feet of exposure while hanging on ropes. Why?
The biggest challenge isn't what you might think. For example, you can go down just 6 feet deep and then take a deep breath from a tank and if you don't let that air out completely coming to the surface you can seriously damage your lungs.
I found thinking about things like this made me not want to go Scuba diving anymore. Also, near where I live 4 younger divers in their 20s and 30s went out in a fairly dangerous sea off a beach near me this last year and one of them didn't return alive. His body came onshore several weeks later. Though this sort of thing happens a lot to rock climbers when they fall, at least they are able to more easily find their bodies so their family can then move on from actually seeing the body and dealing with the death first hand.
The other problem with SCUBA diving is if you go very deep and stay too long. Actually the most life you are going to see anyway is the first 50 feet deep of water. This is because the sunlight doesn't go down much beyond 30 to 50 feet deep anyway.
I can remember being 14 years old and going to Catalina Island with my father and other divers on a Dive Boat and going down the Anchor Chain at some place like Emerald Cove there. After I went down the anchor chain to the bottom of the ocean it was about 50 feet deep there so I sat on the anchor and looked up and it was sort of like looking up at a boat sitting on top of the nearest telephone pole or something like that. So, as a 14 year old this was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
Then my Diving buddy who was older than I went into a cave and brought out a lobster but he looked scared. Being a serious 14 year old I went into the cave only to be faced by a 7 foot long moray Eel who was protecting his food source then, Lobsters and Abalone and other things they eat. I was pretty scared because a moray eel is pretty scary to look at the way they breathe with the big teeth. Also, I had heard that if they bite you their jaws break and lock and you can't get them off of you then. So, I didn't want to be bitten by an angry Moray Eel so I got out of that Lobster and abalone cave pretty quick.
The point is as I became more mature I realized that SCUBA diving is equally as scary and as dangerous as Rock climbing with Pitons and ropes. (Of course free climbing without ropes or pitons would be more potentially fatal).
But, in my 20s I decided I wanted to stop SCUBA diving because I just saw it as too dangerous after I became a father so I gave up SCUBA diving as well as Rock Climbing. Soon after I gave up rock climbing I lost a friend on Castle Crags up near Mt. Shasta. So, I realized that I had made the right decision. I haven't regretted giving up SCUBA diving either because I never stopped Snorkeling with a mask and snorkel which I find is pretty safe as long as you are a good swimmer. Now at 75 I take a boogie board with me so I always have a flotation device to rest on in an emergency. This saved my life on the Kona Side of the Big Island of Hawaii in 2015 when I came up and a wave hit me in the face unexpectedly so I inhaled some water. I might have drowned without that boogie board then.
So, if you Want to SCUBA dive also think about the dangers so you feel capable of managing whatever dangers you face.
It's good to still be alive at 75 by the way!
Also, if you are good at holding your breath you can snorkel down to at least 30 feet as long as you can equalize the pressure in your ears through your Eustachian tubes in your ears. Also, never go deep with a cold with your Eustachian tubes clogged unless you want to break an ear drum. Even 10 feet deep in the water might break some people's ear drums if they don't equalize the pressure.
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