I am a firm believer that when one travels to a foreign country,  they should at least learn a bit of the language of the country that they are visiting.You never want to make the mistake of assuming that everyone speaks your language.  There is some truth to the old saying of "When in Rome do as the Romans".  Learning a phrase such as "Where is the bathroom?" might be a wise thing to know.  Even if you don't have the accent down or what you say is very broken,  the natives will appreciate the fact that you attempted the language and be more apt to help you rather than ignore you.

There is, however, another side of the coin........As was the case during my first Scuba trip to Central America.  I can speak German and English but when I joined a store trip to Guanaja Honduras, I realized that my Spanish left a lot to be desired.  I had learned the phrases of necessity as well as a few other phrases that would really serve no purpose in idle conversation.  While sitting at a large dinner table with most of the dive group from the store someone from the group had nonchallantly asked if anyone spoke Spanish.  We were just getting served our dinner at the time and just as the waitress was putting my plate of food in front of me I said one of the few phrases that I had learned.  When a waitress puts a plate in front of me it is habit to acknowledge it by looking at her.  I did so as my mouth also engaged in one of those useless phrases that I had learned.  The waitress sort of did a double take and had a shocked look on her face.  I felt my blood rush to my face in embarrasment and quickly asked if anyone knew how to say "I am sorry" in Spanish.  When asked "why?" by my table mates.  I quickly blurted out that I had thought that I had told the waitress that "she had the head of a horse".  Someone started with what was to be an apology but I only half heard it and blurted out what I thought to be a reasonably close facsimile which ended up adding insult to injury.  Now, not only did I tell her she had the head of a horse my apologetic word translated to pregnant.  By then everyone at the table was laughing to hard at my faux pas to be of any more assistance.  The gentleman that I am made me seek out one of the staff that spoke both English and Spanish who explained it to the waitress for me.  She did apologize to the waitress for me.  The waitress replied in Spanish that I was a big man.  To this day I don't know if she meant that I was a big man for apologizing or if she  was calling me fat.

I am still a firm believer in trying the language that is spoken in the country you are visiting but stick to only the necessities.

Roy

If there is one thing that I have learned about the sport of Scuba Diving, it would have to be the diversity of the people who are in the sport.  It is a sport that draws people from all walks of life and from a myriad of professions.  Labels, stereotypes and other terms designed to separate humankind into distinctive classes are for the most part nonexistant in the world of scuba.  Granted, as with anything, there are always exceptions to the rule but, for the most part, those exceptions are few and far between.  If you are a diver, take a moment to think of those with whom you dive.  Would you have been able to develop a kinship with them if you weren't a diver?  Wouldn't mind hearing your views on the subject.

Roy

Can you remember taking your first breath of air?  I do!  I don't mean your first breath when you were introduced to this big blue marble hurtling  through
space.  I mean your first breath underwater on scuba.

My first breath was in 1983.  It was before blogs, when some people still knew what Hollerith cards were but didn't quite know much about cyberspace.  I was conned into taking scuba diving.  My older sister had just returned from a local mall and informed me that she had signed us both up for a scuba class. My blank stare was probably her first clue that I had absolutely no clue as to what she was talking about. As she began explaining it to me, my look went from blank to a "What are you? Nuts?" look.  Scuba meant going underwater with fish.  I reminded her of the aquarium that we had when we were younger.  Whenever a fish jumped out she went for the net while I looked for the cat.  In the end it was either a happy fish or a happy cat.  I was sort of the Jack Kavorkian of the fish world thinking that there was a reason that the fish wanted out of the aquarium.

After very little deliberation, I told my sister that she could turn around and go back to the mall and unsign me up for that scuba class.  She did so with
much reluctance and for the next three years she would come home with dive stories that consisted of diving to 40 feet in a local quarry, then diving to 90 feet at another quarry.  These were all scuba training courses that she was taking and I don't mind telling you that every story reinforced my desire to not take scuba diving.  Needless to say that all gift giving holidays ended up with me being the recipient of gift certificates good only toward taking scuba lessons. The gift certificates piled up in a drawer while she continued moving up the scuba ladder to the honored rank of Scuba Instructor.

My day of Scuba reckoning came when my sister came home with the announcement that she was going on a Scuba Diving Vacation to Roatan, Honduras.  Something about the destination triggered a red flag in my brain.  I had seen Honduras somewhere recently in the news.  Something about Marines being stationed there on alert.  I looked in a couple of newspapers and found that we did in fact have about 3000 U.S. Marines stationed there and that they were on alert.  It was time for baby brother to take some action.

I sat my sister down and said "Let me get this straight.  You weigh 108 pounds soaking wet. Look like a seal in a wetsuit.  You are going to the ocean where there are sharks and to top it off you are going to a war torn country for a Scuba Vacation?" She smiled and said it was going to be a great vacation.  By that, I knew that there was no talking her out of it so without even stopping to grab my gift certificates, I grabbed a friend and we signed up for Scuba. I wanted to find out who had brainwashed her and since she was going no matter what, I wanted to be there to make sure that nothing happened to her.  It turned out that the course would not be completed in time for me to go on the trip with her but I figured I would have more ammunition to try and talk her out of it by taking it anyway.

Armed with nothing but mask, fins, snorkel and swim trunks, I nervously donned the scuba gear for my first pool session.  I had butterflies in my stomach as we were told to put our regulators in and kneel down in the shallow end.  My mind automatically made me hold my breath as my face went under the water.  I didn't even consciously realize that I was holding my breath until my lungs realized that they needed air.  I took my first breath from that regulator and thought "Hey, this thing really does work." The Instructor and staff guided us through various skills and at the end of the pool session,  I was already wishing that I had signed up when my sister did.  This was really cool.  By the last pool session I was hovering weightless in midwater feeling like I was in outer space.

I followed the footsteps of my sister and rose to the rank of Scuba instructor myself.  I am blessed to be able to say that because of Scuba, I have been able to explore more of this planet than I would have by remaining on dry land.  I am also blessed with being able to help others understand and safely enjoy the underwater world through Scuba Diving.  To my sister Rosemary, I tip my hat and say thank you for conning me into scuba diving rather than sky diving.

Roy

Well I guess my co-partner in crime also is tight for time... :-)  Be back, I will go find him! In the meantime, have you had the chance to read our guides? http://search.reviews.ebay.com/members/visibilityunlimited. If you like them, vote YES! If you dont care for them, please let us know why, so we may learn and improve. With the internet, it is difficult to communicate the important features of equipment and the Guides will help us with this. If you have any other ideas on topics that you would like to learn about, let us know. We ask that you try to keep it on the subjects of scuba, snorkel, paddling or swim... we really don't know anything else! :-)  

Enjoy...be back...

Cathy

I would personally like to thank you for visiting. Blogging is new to us and I am finding it quite exciting to be able to interact with our customers, so please tell us what you think. We would love to hear what you would like to see and of course all comments are welcome. Have you gone diving lately? Tell us about it! Any special swim, snorkel or kayak experiences? We want to hear all about it!

For those of you that do not know us, we are a brick & mortar business in the Chicago-land area and we have ventured into the world wide web just short of a few years. We specialize in Scuba Diving, Ocean Kayaks, Snorkeling & Swim products. 

Because of the importance of the consistency of a blog, I personally am tight for time, so Roy, my co-partner in crime will be contributing to our blog. Roy has been a scuba instructor for over 20 years - he wont let me tell you exactly how long. :-) and has occasionally gone kayaking and of course he is a swimmer and snorkeler. I will jump in from time to time to say hello and of course answer questions that Roy might get stumped on.  :-)

Thank you for reading & contributing... be safe & have fun in the water!

Cathy
visibilityunlimited
discover the world beneath the waves!

Shop Our EBAY STORE! 
Read Our REVIEWS & GUIDES!
Sign Up For Our EBAY NEWSLETTERS!