Too old to learn to dive?
We are always told that we should learn sports when we are young, when our bodies are more resistant to the bruises and bumps that can afflict us when learning a new sport. This is true up to a point.
Take, for example, my experience learning windsurfing. I learned the sport when I was 26 years old. If I were to learn this sport now at 42 years old, I would most likely not get very far and would probably give up after 1 or 2 tries. Learning to windsurf was like fighting with all your might at the same time! We’re talking about trying to keep your balance on choppy waves on a wet, slippery board, while maneuvering a sail that weighs more than you in the right direction you want to go. In the process, I added blood and meat from the cuts. on barnacles and bruises from hitting the surfboard more than once before hitting the water.
But there is a big difference with diving. YOU ARE NEVER TOO OLD TO LEARN TO DIVE. I can never say this enough. I learned to dive when I was 38 years old. I’m not saying that 38 is a ripe age, but still, the body feels a little less strong and less resistant. Added to that, as we get older, we also seem to have more fears. Perhaps we feel that we have more to lose if something happens to us.
I say that middle age and beyond should never be a factor in learning to dive, BUT you do need to have these:
1) an intense love for the sea
2) the willingness to learn from someone younger than you
3) relatively good health and last but not least
4) time and money
Now I am assuming that you are thinking of learning to dive because you want to make this a sport that you can enjoy every other weekend if time and money allow and not just learn for the sake of education.
An intense love for the sea
To enjoy a diving trip, you will have to love the sea and I mean really love it with all its wonderful creatures, big and small. You’ll know what I mean on your first dive trip after you’ve passed your open water tests.
Your dive buddies on your first dive trip are unlikely to be the same classmates on your dive course. Due to time and money constraints, you will find that you may be the only one interested enough to join a dive trip shortly after your certification.
Most of the time, your dive buddies will be a bunch of scuba maniacs doing at least 4 dives a day plus one at night. This means that on a dive trip, most of the time you will do nothing more than dive, talk about the sea creatures and encounters on each dive, before preparing for the next dive. For someone who just wants to do one dive a day and then go shopping, you may be disappointed as many great dive spots have few of these shopping and entertainment facilities.
In case you’re already stressing yourself out just thinking about this, don’t be. Every newbie in diving goes through this. Just have the attitude of a novice, be humble, and you’ll find that experienced divers are more than willing to share tips and can even help you prepare before a dive.
Willingness to learn from someone younger than you
Your dive instructor is likely to be someone much younger than you. Some dive instructors have an attitude and are arrogant, so you may have to live with that for at least 3 weekends before you get certified: the first weekend for classroom and theory, the second weekend for weekend for the sessions in the pool and the third weekend for the real tests in open water. Put aside your ego and bear it, in the end it will be worth it.
Having said that, that’s not to say that there aren’t good and friendly dive instructors. I was fortunate to receive diving instruction from PC, a very kind and patient man, without whom my diving learning experience would not be as smooth and enjoyable.
relatively good health
It is not necessary to be in top shape before you can start diving. However, you will need some strength to be able to walk around with full scuba gear attached. Once you enter the waters with all your gear, you weigh almost nothing. But it’s the few steps to get on the boat or across the beach to the water that can be a challenge for someone who isn’t used to carrying heavy loads.
Having said that, some dive resorts have fantastic dive staff who can help you get through this by bringing your tanks and equipment to the boat for you to get acclimated inside the boat. And of course, if you’re on a cruise ship (live, eat, dive, sleep, on board a ship for the entire dive trip), then this may not be relevant.
time and money
These are probably the 2 most decisive factors for someone to continue enjoying diving after passing the open water tests. Getting certified through a diving course is very fast, just 3 weekends basically. And not too expensive, probably around $300 to $400, including a dive trip out of the country for open water testing. But unless you live near a dive area, chances are you’ll have to travel a distance or even out of the country to make a good dive.
Now just think how much each trip is going to cost you and multiply that by how many times you would like to dive in a year. When you do the sums, it can be amazing. So you reduce the number of dives you want to do in a year and then calculate and reduce some more.
In our diving class, my husband and I were the only ones who continued diving after the class was over. Even then, we didn’t manage to do the number of dives we would have really liked to do in a year. This is how it finally ends up that we are doing an average of 1 dive a year. This more or less ensures that we will always dive as “dive newbies” (hence the name of the blog). A diver “rusts” when the interval between dive trips is too long. The ideal is to dive at least once every quarter.
I haven’t even gone into calculating the other “investments” to customize your gear, like your own BC (buoyancy control), your own octopus (breathing apparatus), and your wetsuit.
Having said all of this, I still believe that you are never too old to learn and enjoy diving. Even with our limited dives since becoming certified and diving as scuba novices, we enjoy each and every one of our dive trips. Find the right people to dive with, find a fantastic dive spot that suits your preferences (whether it’s macro, to spot tiny sea creatures or see bigger fish), and nearby spa facilities to relieve post-dive body aches : is a wonderful combination. that will almost always ensure a great diving experience!
A diving novice can still enjoy happy diving!