Scuba Diving Underwater Sometimes Gives You An Idea Of What It’s Like To Be Blind

Midwest scuba divers know what diving blind means.

The visibility in the stone quarries we dive when we can’t travel to the ocean is often near zero because of the sediment that finning stirs up from the bottom.

Some dives you’re lucky if you see your hand up against your mask.

To many divers who certify in midwestern quarries that first blue water dive is almost a shock. After diving through cloudy water the distance of vision in the ocean comes as a surprise.

Some days diving our rock quarries equals dropping into an ocean night dive without a dive light.

Recently a friend of mine bought an underwater scooter, and headed for a dive quarry the first opportunity. Visibility was bad but he couldn’t wait to try out his new toy, so he went in anyway. He told me he scooted along having a grand old time when he came to a sudden stop.

He didn’t see it coming at him, but he’d crashed into the quarry wall.

New scuba divers from the Midwest get so used to diving in low vis conditions that when they start a blue water dive they get intimidated to a certain extent. (And occasionally they get a scare.) When you look up and see a barracuda a few feet away you feel like he’s right on top of you.

For a new diver, that’s a big adjustment.

I certified in Indiana, and quickly adjusted to low visibility waters. Fortunately my first blue water diving experience wasn’t my first ocean underwater experience.

Living a few months in Thailand gave me the opportunity to visit the Bay of Siam. I spent a day snorkeling there marveling at the fish and coral. I remember that the brain coral particularly impressed me.

It was my introduction to how far a person sees in the water.

Later I walked along Waikiki Beach and left my footprints in the sand. I suppose they didn’t last a long time, but they were there for a while.

At the time Hanauma Bay, which Waikiki Beach is on was a sea life preserve (all the fish, and the coral, are protected). I spent a lot of time snorkeling in the bay, totally unaware of anything outside the water.

Those snorkeling experiences were long before I learned to scuba dive, which I regret these days because I understand all that I missed by only snorkeling back then.

I swam down up to 30-feet between coral mounds in both of those bays, just admiring all the fish that I could. I couldn’t stay deep long because I had to go back up to breathe.

One time, when I came up for air in Hanauma Bay, I faced toward the open ocean. It was the perfect moment to watch as three whales swam into the mouth of the bay. I watched in complete awe as they swam across the entrance of the bay and back out again.

A few years later I finally certified for basic scuba, and I hold some truly awesome memories from low vis quarry dives as well as high vis salt-water diving adventure.

But snorkeling the Bay of Siam, and Hanauma Bay, will always hold honored positions in my arsenal of treasured memories.