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Shawn from Honeoye Falls NY | Scuba Diver
#30


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I am a 39 year old young, happily married man from upstate New York. Been married to a amazing women for 16 years and have three kids (21,18,8) that I am super proud of. The oldest is a air rescue diver for the Navy and it looks as though the others will follow that career path. However the youngest (our onlt girl) wants to be a officer so her brothers will salute her. I am a IT manager for a Health Care organization. So a nerd at heart. Spent 20 years as a bartender and restaraunt manager though.
Funny thing is I wanted to be a marine biologist my whole life. Grew up on a steady diet of Cousteau and any publication I could get my hands on, especially anything shark related. Scuba has been a passion my whole life that I tried but seemed never able to reach properly. Recently I just got certified for the third time. What a long strange journey it has been! Originally I got certified in 1991 with a friend who worked for the Living Seas in Epcot while on a intership with Disney. What an amazing time. I was sure that this was a start to a lifetime of diving. We got certified Through the Kissimmee Pro Shop with the YMCA and where able to dive a few times in the Living Seas. Somewhere in this process I lost my C card and left the internship returning to NY. So when i got back to NY life took off as it only can as a 20 something. Life has a way of eating time and having it pass in a blink. Met my wife, had kids, and worked myself to the bone while still fantasizing about those few dive experiences I had. At this point I still considered myself a diver, still read every dive magazine I could get ahold of. So finally in 2001 my wife decided she wanted to give it a go! Finally I was going to be able to return to that underwater realm I craved so much! At the time we lived in the Olando florida and signed up for classes with Scuba Diversions in Altomonte Springs, FL. They were a NAUI facility. Everything was going text book till that first freshwater checkout dive in Ginnie Springs florida. My beautiful wife was having a hard time clearing her ears. So we took her to the doctors. Seems that she had a very large amount of scar tissue (from ear infections as a kid) in her eustation tube which made diving very difficult for her. I was cruched, the dream seemed over before it even started. UGH! SO at this point i considered myself a ex-diver. Partnerless I figure maybe someday one of my kids would become my dive buddy. So having given up hope I moved on in my life. However, this year my wife rekindled that spark in me. For years she felt terrible for what happened. I came home one day to a PADI instructional video on the counter! She had signed me up for a PADI open water course and had put $1000 dollars down for equipment! God I love her. SO now I am re-certified PADI and jones to dive every day. Dove with UNEXSO in Freeport, Bamamas a few weeks back and am still on cloud nine!!! And now with places like Singledivers.com I dont need to worry about not having a buddy!!!! Well the 8 year old cant wait to get certified...lol. It might have taken me 21 years to make 15 dives,,,,but I will hit 50 before I hit 40!