The Zen of Diving

I am running to keep up with the cyber age and so I will undertake this blog in the hopes that the eletronic age will not pass me by. I hope you will follow along.

I teach scuba diving. I am the Assistant Training Director at Atlantic Edge Dive Center and I have travelled the world to dive in some pretty amazing places. I will share some of these travels over time in this blog. Obviously, I love diving. If I could not see, I would still dive...I love hearing the bubbles, being neutrally buoyant and moving as abird moves in multi-dimensional space, I love that when diving I am totally consumed by the Zen of the dive. I also really enjoy teaching others to dive. Most instructors will tell you that they like sharing their passion with new divers, getting their students to get as excited about the sport, the travel, the underwater world as they are. Sure, thats a part of what I like about teaching...but honestly part of what I love is the teaching itself. I am intrigued when I have a student who is scared, or clumsy, or uncomfortable in and around water. It fascinates me to see if I can find the words to get that student to relax, to fix their kick, to trust me, and to enjoy the sensation of being underwater, breathing and blowing bubbles. Sometimes it requires every bit of creativity to get that difficult student to the point that they can enjoy the idea of diving, that they can find their Zen in the dive. Just recently I had a student in the pool whose breathing was extremely fast...I knew he was nervous and had to find a way to slow his breathing down. I asked him to lay on the bottom of the pool with me and to try to pace his breathing to mine. He did and soon he looked comfortable so I grabbed his arm, tucked it under mine and together we swam a lap around the pool. Sometimes touch underwater can make all he difference in the world. My once nervous student was happily swimming underwater looking more and more like a diver! I had managed to find a way to help him find and feel the Zen of the dive.

Cheers...JaneDiver