Brigit Jager – PADI Training Consultant (Asia-Pacific)
Wow… I really can see and breathe underwater, amazing! How beautiful, how totally mesmerizing, awesome, I want more of this!! [Also: should have done this years ago]
LeRoy Wickham – Southwest and Central U.S. Regional Manager
What do I remember most? How bloody cold it was in the pool and then up at Lake Tahoe. Sure did love the feel of being weightless.
Alan Jan – Supervisor, Instructor Development
I tried scuba in the early 80’ in the Bienne Lake, in Switzerland where I am from. I was still dreaming about the Cousteau TV shows I was watching at the time and thought that it was really cool to go in dark, cold water with only a few fishes and an old bicycle to look at Just being underwater was amazing and that is when I first started considering a career in diving. Turns out, the diving in Switzerland can be amazing and once you know where to go, there are some very clear water sites and exciting river dives.
Monica Rodriguez – Customer Service
My first dive was a beach entry – never did I imagine what a hopeless turtle felt like upside down, until my first shore entry as a beginner.
Gary Joyce – Midwest Regional Manager
I remember counting hairballs, band aids & bubble gum as an 8 yr old in a college pool!
Randy Giles – Regional Manager / Directeur régional PADI Canada
I vividly remember the unexpected explosion of colour (that’s “color” for the Americans out there) and the enormous quantity of plants and animals. It turns out that after 37 years of diving all around the world I seldom come across anything that can compete with the colours, density and diversity of marine life that one readily finds in the waters of British Columbia, Canada.
Nancy Fisher – Executive Assistant to the President & CEO
While on a cruise in December of 2004 with my two children, we planned a dive in Grand Cayman. I had always wanted to be certified and thought this would be a good way to test the waters. It was amazing!! As soon as I got home I signed up for Open Water and have been hooked ever since.
Andy Kunig – PADI Training Consultant
[I learned to dive] in a quarry near Indiana, Pennsylvania called Yellow Creek State Park (yes I’ve heard EVERY joke about its name). I distinctly remember swimming past a kitchen sink on the bottom thinking “WOW THERE REALLY IS EVERYTHING AND THE KITCHEN SINK IN THIS QUARRY!” Corny, I know right?!
Mary Kaye Hester – PADI Training
It was cold! A rock quarry in North Carolina in October 1984. But it was exhilarating, and the rest is history!
Roger Josselyn – Retail Business Consultant
Ya had me at minute two – That I was underwater longer than I could hold my breath – wow, how cool; and in a pool!
Jon Coon – Mid-Atlantic Regional Manager
I was self-taught like a lot of folks in the early 60s. I read the New Science of Skin and Scuba, bought a full set of new gear,(for $265.00 which included a Sportsways single hose regulator and White Stag wetsuit, a spear gun and two sets of double 38 cu. ft. tanks.) I then convinced my father to let me dive alone to about 60 ft. from our family boat. He insisted that I hold on to a line so that he could haul me up if necessary. I scored myself well on my skills, even buoyancy (no BC) and was ready to chase fish on my second dive. I dove actively for four years including some scientific and salvage work in Alaska following the 1964 Good Friday earthquake, before taking a course at San Diego Divers Supply in 1965.
Want to help inspire someone you know to try diving? Check out our new Go Dive video or send them a link to our informative PADI Open Water Diver overview page.
