My Attraction to Scuba Diving

          We tolerate a certain amount of frenetic noise to the point that sometimes we do not even know it is there. As a student living in Los Angeles, for me, noise is constant. There is something about the commotion of the world that disappears when I go underwater. When my head dips below the surface, the emergency sirens, helicopters, airplanes, dogs barking, traffic signals, and endless talk disappear. All I can hear is the sound of my breath and the swish of the ocean. Yes, depending on where you are, there is the occasional hum of a boat motor, but a multitude of machine-related sounds do not exist under the water. There are beauties to be seen both below and above the water, but I find a different sort of awe in the simplicity of the sounds underwater that enhance the beauty of what can be seen. This is part of what drew me to diving three years ago and what has kept me hooked since.
          My name is Teagan. I grew up swimming off the beaches of the Bahamas, in the tropical waters of Maui and in the chilly but refreshing Monterey Bay, interacting with different sorts of marine life. As I traveled with my family, snorkeling was great and I got to have amazing experiences floating along the surface of the ocean, but I always wanted to go deeper. After hearing my mom's stories of scuba diving the outer wall of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and playing with an octopus in Cozumel, Mexico I knew I had to dive.
          I have had my own amazing experiences diving in the few years I have been certified. I have been engulfed by bait balls of thousands of fish, played with harbor seals, and dove through wrecks of old ships. I am hoping, after I graduate, to make diving a part of my career so I can continue to add to that list of experiences. My goal with this blog is to explore scuba diving and dive culture. There is so much to investigate when it comes to scuba diving- everything from choices in scuba diving gear to travel locations to the merits of different schools of diving to the impact of divers on the environment. I am hoping to learn more about every aspect, not only for myself, but for anyone who may be interested. I hope that some of the topics that I will write about will be familiar or informative to those who love diving as I do, and I would also hope that I could introduce one or many people who may be interested in the ocean, or marine life, or travel, or water sports to an underwater world they may enjoy as much as I do. Join me, for Tea Under the Sea.