Diving can be fun and enjoyable. With your first underwater breath, your life will never be the same again. But while you’re considering everything you read and hear about SCUBA diving, lets keep our eyes open about the process of learning to SCUBA dive.

While most SCUBA instructors and certification agencies sell the, “adventure”, of SCUBA diving, learning to dive is a process. To master this process, remember three basic rules of learning to SCUBA dive:

1. SCUBA will give you, what you put in.
2. It is always better to have your own gear.
3. There will be a time, that the SCUBA experience will not be fun!

SCUBA will give you, what you put in. If you do not apply your new found skills consistently and frequently, they will get lost. Think about it, would you fly with a pilot who was certified 9 months ago and now is ready to take you up on their first flight? How about having surgery with a surgeon who has not had an operation in over one year? Diving skills need to be practiced if you are going to be a safe diver.

What happens when SCUBA diving starts to get boring? Take a class, go on vacation, or assist with an Open Water class. Do something different.

There will be a time when your SCUBA experience will not be fun. The beach will have big waves, you will not like the boat trip, your buddy is weird; stuff happens. Just like when you go skiing, you”ll land face down in the snow. Your tee shot curves right and lands in the water hazard. Your movie has 30 minutes of advertising before it starts. Not all of life’s experiences will be fun and SCUBA is no different. Anything worth doing will have its bad moments. Learn by doing it differently, take a different dive boat, have your best friend SCUBA dive with you; life is too short to dive on a half a tank.