What does scuba stand for? Self contained underwater breathing apparatus. What does tuba stand for? Terrible underwater breathing apparatus.
Long ago, when Covid stalked the earth and all schooling was done from home, Pete's teacher tended to absolve himself of responsibility by giving the kids open access to the National Geographic channel every afternoon. There, Pete saw a mini-documentary about an underwater hotel that you had to dive to, and where another diver would deliver you pizza. Unsurprisingly, the food element stuck in his head, and ever since diving has been his activity of choice.
You need to be 10 years' old to dive anywhere other than a pool and achieve your "open water" certificate, but through Cub Scouts we found Gigglin' Marlin in Houston that ran pool-based "Seal Team" sessions for the younger diver. Well, Pete is now 10, and we hopped from Texas to the slightly cooler beachfront of Florida where Horizon Divers was ready to give him the full, ocean-going, fish-encountering experience.
Personally I'm not a fan of the sea. Or sand. Or the sun. But I'd read a book that says you have to support your children in whatever is their passion or - I don't know - they might grow up tough and strong like their Generation X parents!! So Hannah and I pulled on ridiculously heavy tanks, learned safety acronyms, slathered ourselves with waterproof sun cream, and spent a whole day in a Key Largo pool trying to keep up with our son. This included treading water for ten minutes without stopping, which maybe I had to do once to get a swimming badge. I'm not as young as I was.
After that it was away onto the ocean. I'd picked up a sinus infection, probably from swimming around a pool that filthy Floridians pee in, so I was only allowed to splash around with a snorkel while Pete and Hannah sank 30ft under the waves. The dive sites were all on the beautiful coral reefs that surround the Keys but, like everything else, they're getting devastated by pollution and warming oceans. One of the boat crew was an ecologist who's working to transplant new coral and try to get things back to 20% coverage. At the moment it's 1-2% of what it was in the 1970s.
Thankfully there's a huge amount of sea life, although an algae bloom (another effect of ocean warming) left us swimming through a green soup. Still, we saw barracuda, turtles, blue parrotfish, damselfish, spiny lobsters...someone in another group spotted a hammerhead shark but it didn't paddle over to where we were.
After two days and four dives, Pete was a fully-trained PADI open water certificated diver! The undersea lodge is a little on the pricey side, so for now something that allows shallower dives into both the ocean and our pockets is more likely our next watery adventure. Like maybe...snorkeling in the bath.
The family that drowns together...
Hannah, floating like an angel(fish).
A big "OK" from trainer Christina for Pete's amazing achievement.
