From Snorkeling to Scuba: Karyn's Journey

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In this engaging conversation, Chastity and Karyn explore the world of scuba diving, discussing Karyn's journey from snorkeling to becoming a certified diver. They delve into the experiences that inspired Karyn to dive, the differences between certification agencies like PADI and NAUI, and the importance of safety and preparedness in diving. The conversation also touches on the challenges of diving frequency and the investment in gear, highlighting the realities of being a diver and the desire to make the most of their skills.

Takeaways

• Karyn's initial interest in diving stemmed from snorkeling experiences.
• The adventure of seeing underwater life motivated Karyn to become a diver.
• Diving in Hawaii was a transformative experience for Karyn.
• The certification process can vary between agencies like PADI and NAUI.
• Safety is a crucial consideration for divers, influencing their training choices.
• Many divers may not fully understand what to do with their certification after getting it.
• Investing in diving gear can be significant, especially for infrequent divers.
• The pressure of planning a diving trip can lead to rushed decisions in certification.
• Diving frequency can be limited by family and geographical factors.
• Karyn expresses a desire to dive more frequently and not let skills go to waste.

Chapters

00:00
Karyn decides to get Scuba Certified

04:50
Experiences as a Certified Diver

09:34
Understanding Diver Safety and Preparedness

14:23
The Role of Ego in Diving

15:50
Legal Disclaimer

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keywords scuba diving, diving adventures, certification, PADI, NAUI, safety, diving gear, Hawaii, snorkeling, diving experiences

Transcript

Chastity Stern (00:20)
Hi Karyn How are you today?

Karyn (00:22)
Hi Chastity. I'm good, how are you?

Chastity Stern (00:26)
I'm good. Welcome to Just Go Diving.

Karyn (00:30)
Thanks.

Chastity Stern (00:31)
First time on the show.

Karyn (00:33)
I'm so excited. Yeah.

Chastity Stern (00:33)
All right. You're so excited. All right. I'm excited too. What are you excited about?

Karyn (00:39)
I don't know. It just seems fun!

Chastity Stern (00:41)
Okay. All right. Well, tell me a little bit about your diving adventures.

Karyn (00:49)
My diving adventures? I don't have very many of them.

Chastity Stern (00:51)
Well, that's okay.

Karyn (00:52)
You just want to hear about all my dives or what? You want to hear about...

Chastity Stern (00:55)
No, I just want to...

Let's talk about...

Karyn (00:58)
Disasters? I have a lot of those.

Chastity Stern (01:00)
Sure. Let's talk about why you became a scuba diver.

Karyn (01:03)
Like initially? Like why did I like keep being a scuba diver?

Chastity Stern (01:06)
What made you want to become a scuba diver?

Karyn (01:09)
Okay, snorkeling. Snorkeling made me want to go scuba diving because I could see so much from the surface, but I couldn't see enough. And I wanted so bad to just swim down and see more, but unless you're a free diver, which I'm not, you can't really do that. So I thought.

Chastity Stern (01:12)
Okay.

Karyn (01:31)
We should just learn how to scuba dive. Then I can see all of these things. So yeah, I don't know. I guess it was just the, like, the adventure and the draw of being able to see really cool shit that you can't see any other way.

Chastity Stern (01:36)
the surface you just can't see it. So where were you?

Karyn (01:51)
Well, you can't see things that are hiding under things from the surface.

Chastity Stern (01:57)
True. So where were you when you were snorkeling and you're like, I just, I gotta go, I gotta go further. In Hawaii. That's a common theme in Hawaii. That was a common, thing for me. Where I went to Hawaii and I swim with the whale shark and I was like, I didn't consciously think that I wanted to be a diver. just was like,

Karyn (02:05)
we were in Hawaii. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Chastity Stern (02:25)
I'm going to be a diver. But I never thought about I'm going to be a diver. It just like came out of nowhere. Do you think that you were, you wanted to be a diver for a long time or was it like in that moment, in that like Hawaii moment?

Karyn (02:33)
Yeah.

I mean I had thought about it before and I don't remember like the very first time I ever thought about it. I remember when my brother got certified I was like 10 or 11 and he got certified at the same shop that I did and I remember picking him up from scuba lessons but I don't think I really gave it a lot of thought until couple of years before I actually did it.

Chastity Stern (03:10)
Did you feel there was a certain time in your life, or were you at a certain place in your life where you were like, this is the time I need to do this now?

Karyn (03:18)
Well, we went to Hawaii and I was wishing so badly the whole time that I was already certified just because I thought, well, when am I going to be here again? And cause I don't know, we like to try new places all the time. Don't want to keep going back to the same place all the time. You got to try new places too. So I just, I was kind of like regretful that we hadn't gotten certified before that.

Chastity Stern (03:36)
new places.

Karyn (03:42)
And so I told myself we definitely have to do it before our next trip to somewhere where the diving is good. And I'm pretty sure that was also Hawaii.

Chastity Stern (03:50)
Okay, that makes sense.

You didn't go back to the place that you didn't want to go back to you went back to the place that you didn't want to go back to

Karyn (04:00)
Well, I mean, I did want to go back. The first time we were there, it was just Colby and I and Alicia and Kevin, and we didn't take the kids with us. So I wanted to go back and take the kids. And then I was like, OK, yeah, yeah, we went to Kona. Yeah. And I was like, OK, this time we're diving. So we got certified like,

Chastity Stern (04:02)
Yeah. So we're. 

same place.

To Kona Yep. That's the place.

There you go.

Karyn (04:24)
Less than a month before we were in Hawaii. Do you remember that?

Chastity Stern (04:26)
We okay.

I remember that. I think I was there for that. so you got certified and then you went back to Hawaii as a diver. And what was your experience going back as a diver?

Karyn (04:39)
Mm-hmm.

Like how was it different from snorkeling or like just how was it in general? I was really excited because it was our first time diving after getting certified and it was very different than our certification dives, which were very, very, very cold.

Chastity Stern (04:46)
Yeah, like, mm-hmm, like how was the different from...

In what way?

Very cold. Yes, very cold.

Karyn (05:01)
Very cold. Yes, and we needed so much more gear and weight, which was the worst part for me. Was that weight harness? Terrible.

Chastity Stern (05:12)
And yeah, that's bad news.

Karyn (05:12)
So yeah, diving in Hawaii felt like effortless. You just jump in. I don't know.

Chastity Stern (05:16)
effortless.

You just jump in. So did you go boat diving or did you go shore diving? What'd you do? Boat diving. And did you do one dive, five dives, 20 dives? What'd you do Two. Two, and that was it.

Karyn (05:24)
Boat diving.

We did two. We did two dives. I would have loved to do more than that. Yeah, but it was a family trip and we had, you know, we had other family there with us too and I felt like we can't use them as babysitters the whole time we're here.

Chastity Stern (05:45)
If you went back now, What would be different that was what? Almost three years ago three years ago Something like that close pretty close. I think.

Karyn (05:56)
Yeah, almost three years ago in April. So if I went back now, what would be different?

Chastity Stern (05:59)
No. So if you went back to Hawaii, yeah.

Karyn (06:03)
I would dive more. and I think, I hope, it would go better.

Chastity Stern (06:11)
You hope it would go better. So when you

Karyn (06:15)
Yeah, our first dive was quite the adventure.

Chastity Stern (06:18)
You seem to have a lot of adventures in that kind of way. when you got certified, tell me about that whole process. you went to your local dive shop, right? And what happened? For people who don't know what happens when you just, you literally are like, I'm gonna go sign up.

Karyn (06:21)
I.... All right, yeah, so I knew that we had a dive shop and so I just went to their website and looked at the classes and what was available and it was really last minute and I was worried we weren't gonna be able to pull it off before our trip. But when I called they had, I think, two classes that had a spot.

Chastity Stern (06:51)
right.

Karyn (06:58)
And one of them was just before the other. I thought that we would get certified through PADI just because that was the only, thing I'd ever heard of. That was the only dive organization I'd heard of at that point. And then they told me that they had another class with an instructor, but it would be through NAUI And I was like, okay, like, is that okay? Like, is that as good as PADI Like, is that okay? And they're like, yeah, it's, mean, it's this, it's, doesn't matter who you certified through. I'm like, okay, cool. Let's do it. So yeah, we signed up and we received e-learning and we had to go through all this e-learning, which was, I hate e-learning, but it was interesting.

We learned a lot of things that my brain doesn't like to think about, like dive tables. And yeah, all sorts of other stuff that has to do with gas laws and numbers and yeah. And then we met for our first session and it was, we started in the classroom and we met our instructor.

Chastity Stern (07:45)
Dive table.

Karyn (08:03)
Then we, I think we did pool time. Did we get in the pool that first session? can't remember. I think we got in the pool just with like, just with like, like to, you weren't.

Chastity Stern (08:11)
I don't know, I wasn't there.

I wasn't there.

Karyn (08:17)
I'm pretty sure I remember it differently.

Chastity Stern (08:19)
So you had your classroom session and then you...

Karyn (08:24)
Yeah. I think we went down to the pool after this.

Chastity Stern (08:29)
You, you did go down to the pool after that. And I think that you may have done some swims. Do you remember those? Sounds right. And then I, you probably, yeah. And you probably learned to put some gear together and get in the pool. And so because you really didn't have any, like you'd only ever heard of PADI right? And that's what he's at. You only ever heard of PADI?

Karyn (08:35)
Yeah, sounds right, sounds right, Some swims and some floats.

Yeah? Yeah, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Chastity Stern (08:56)
And so then you're presented with this other option and you were like, shit, what do I do with this information? Or you just were like, okay.

Karyn (09:05)
I was like, well, what's the difference? Cause I just had never heard of it. And they just, they told me that they're just different organizations, but that basically they did the same thing so that it doesn't really matter which one. Like you, you're still certified whether you go through PADI or NAUI It essentially means the same thing to any like dive shop that you go to or to dive boats that you'll be on.

Chastity Stern (09:30)
They don't care. They're just like, you got the card, we don't care. So did you get the card, you're good to go. Did you do any research? Did you yeah, on the difference of...

Karyn (09:33)
Yep, yep, you got the card, you're qualified.

At that time. I don't remember if I did or not. I mean, I probably did once we had decided, but I don't specifically remember that.

Chastity Stern (09:52)
Do you think that that happens with a lot of people? Do you think that a lot of people are like, oh, I'm just going to go down to my local dive shop and I'm going to sign up for a class and I'll just get what I get and it won't make any difference.

Karyn (10:04)
I think most people probably do just trust whatever they're told about something that they don't really know anything about. I'm sure there are people who go into it way more prepared than I was.

Chastity Stern (10:18)
Well, I too didn't know anything. Like I went in the same way that you did. I didn't know that there was any, I didn't even know what they were called. Any Scuba organization for that matter. I just literally went into the shop and I was like, Hey, I want to do this thing. And they're like, okay, well, this is the next class that we have. And I had to wait a month.

Karyn (10:30)
Yeah, yeah.

Chastity Stern (10:41)
I just got what I got and I didn't know any different. Now I know different.

If I would have known that there was a difference, it probably would have guided which one I chose in a different way, initially. And I might have had some hesitation about taking, if I'd have known more than I did, I might've had pause a little bit. Do think that you would have been like, there's all this stuff I have to do?

Karyn (11:10)
I mean, if I had done more research on the differences, I'm not sure if I would have been deterred by more requirements. Because I think for me, like my mind has always been a little more on the safety side. And I have always thought that more education and more training is more safe.

I would pay for it if it's more expensive. Because I think that safety's worth it.

Chastity Stern (11:36)
That makes sense. Safety is worth it. You've always felt that way, like safety is worth it?

Karyn (11:43)
Like in my whole life? I don't know.

Chastity Stern (11:45)
Yeah. Like in your whole life. Yeah.

Like when did you start thinking like that? Did you start thinking like that after you became a diver or before you came in to dive?

Karyn (11:58)
No, before. I've always been pretty safety conscious. And I, I don't know, it's interesting that I didn't do research, like more research before, because that's kind of something that I always do, like about anything.

Chastity Stern (11:59)
Before.

Yeah, that's why I asked, because I was like, this is, I figured you did.

Karyn (12:14)
I think I was probably just too excited and also probably feeling the pressure of like, we really need to get this done because we're going to Hawaii in like two months. So...

Chastity Stern (12:21)
You're just like woohoo.

So do you think that a lot of people choose to become scuba certified because they're gonna go on a warm water diving trip? Do you think that that's?

Karyn (12:35)
Probably.

Chastity Stern (12:36)
I think that is the case. did not, that was not my course of action. I literally had no idea what I was going to do with my scuba certification. I didn't even know that I needed a dive buddy. I mean, logically in my brain, I was like, I can't go do this thing underwater by myself, but I didn't, take any of the bigger picture things into account.

Karyn (12:45)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Chastity Stern (12:59)
I never thought about where I was gonna dive. I never thought about what I was gonna do with that certification card. Like, what do I do with this card? And I think that a lot of people are in that same boat. They're like, I'm gonna go on a warm, I'm gonna go to a place. I went to a place, I saw, I wanna see more. I need to go get this card. I need to go do this thing. And then they do the thing.

Karyn (13:20)
Yeah.

Chastity Stern (13:25)
And then maybe they never do the thing again because they don't know what to do with it. Right? So they go, they do, and then they're like, now I got all this crap and I don't know what to do with it. And then what do they do with it?

Karyn (13:33)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Chastity Stern (13:41)
What have you done with it?

Karyn (13:42)
What have I done with it? Well, I was going to say, do you remember in the dive shop when we were buying our gear? I know you do. And Colby said something about...

Chastity Stern (13:42)
That's not a trick question. Yeah. That's not a trick question. what, you went.

Thanks.

Karyn (13:59)
Probably about not wanting to spend a lot of money on things because we weren't going to be using it all the time because realistically, we're probably only going to get to go diving like maybe once a year. And you said, that makes me so sad. Do you remember that?

Chastity Stern (14:06)
Right.

Karyn (14:19)
Ha ha!

Chastity Stern (14:20)
I don't remember that, but that totally sounds like something I would say.

Karyn (14:24)
So, and then I remember thinking like, I remember thinking like, yeah, that is sad. Like I do, I do wish we could go more, but like, I don't know, I think at the time our excuse was like, well, we have kids. and also like, we don't want to dive around here. It's cold. Like, so, so yeah, we're really limited by like,

Chastity Stern (14:34)
Where are we gonna go?

It's cold.

Karyn (14:48)
Often can we realistically travel to somewhere that's got warm water without the kids? Like, it's just a lot to figure out. And so I think at some point I decided because you know, you've always said that skills are perishable, all skills are perishable. And that really made me think we have spent you know, easily over a thousand dollars just getting certified and buying our initial gear. For what? So we're going to go diving once a year and then, and then, yeah. And, and then what? Like then we lose our skills during the year that we weren't diving. And then, and then what? we spent all that money for what? And so I just decided I need to figure out a way to get in the water.

Chastity Stern (15:15)
Right. For what?

Right.

Karyn (15:37)
And not let my skills just go to waste.

Chastity Stern AI (15:41)
Thanks Karyn for joining me on Just Go Diving. Till next time.

Chastity Stern (15:45)
And now for the legal stuff. The Just Go Diving podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only. The opinions expressed by the host and guests are not a substitute for professional scuba instruction. All scuba diving training and activities should be performed exclusively by certified scuba divers and strictly within the scope of their training and certification. Neither the host nor the guests assume any liability for injuries, damages, or other consequences arising from the use of any information provided in this podcast.