Quote:
Originally Posted by Geronimo '74
for me, heights are no problem.
Depths scare me though.
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Way way back when I was 15, and a very strong confident swimmer and still invulnerable, one of my school friends was really into scuba diving. Living in Hawaii, there are lots of scuba opportunities and he was urging me to join him in a dive. I had zero training, not a minute of classroom time, or even a nice calm pool to learn. One of the Navy Seal scuba instructors, and a man on the team of frogmen that jumped into the ocean to recover the Apollo missions astronauts was there to show me the basics. We went into a choppy ocean a few dozen feet from shore. I was breathing just fine, and then went underwater. At first everything was fine, until a large wave passed overhead, and started to toss me around a bit. My brain said to my lungs and body "you idiot, you are underwater, you can't breath down here!" and my breathing just locked up. I could not force myself to breath through the regulator. I had to pop up the three or 4 feet and rip the thing out of my mouth and breath.
I figured it was no big deal, and tried again and again and on the fourth try, I said I am done. I was fine in the calm water, but a big wave came along and tossed me around, and my breathing just shut down. I don't have any fear of the water, and in the right opportunity, would try scuba again. So not a real phobia, but my lungs know breathing underwater is not possible.
I have little doubt if I had first trained a bit in a pool, or on a calm day I would have been OK. Living in Oklahoma, I don't see the joy of scuba much and I have plenty of other hobbies to keep me busy on land.