Never too Old to Dive

Last week, we took out our oldest diver to date. At 65 years young, Sonny wanted to fulfil a lifelong ambition and go scuba diving, and why not. He is fit, healthy and has no medical issues, so we were more than happy to deliver. There is no upper age limit in recreational diving, so everything is great. They say you can´t teach an old dog new tricks, but this is not the case here. I could have sworn he had done this before as it was one of the easiest sessions I have ever taken and he was swimming around our pool like an old pro in no time.
After the skill session in the pool, Sonny was a happy man and ready to go home. No, we said, we are taking you to the ocean, today. So with the truck packed, it was off to the ocean. That is the beauty of learning to dive. You don´t have to read the books 1st, you don´t need to have hours of training and you don´t need to purchase a heap of equipment before you can try it out and see if you like it, so it really is instantly gratifying. Perfect if you don´t have a lot of patience, or don´t want to spend a small fortune, only to discover it´s not for you.
So, before we know it we are in the ocean holding onto the decent line ready to start the dive. This had king angelfish swimming all around it and we could clearly see the bottom. I sensed this was going to be a good dive, and it was. After 10 minutes, Sonny was diving with little assistance and really enjoying it all. There were huge schools of fish all around us. Pretty little scissor tail damselfish, large surgeonfish and all sorts of puffer-fish were out in abundance. Moray eels were scattered all around and a large bump-head parrotfish marked the halfway point of the dive.  On the way back there were plenty of interesting small creatures to see, like shrimps, nudi-branchs and crabs, along with the sleek cornet-fish and the highly territorial beaubrummels. Get too close to their homes and they will charge you. It is funny to watch a 4 inch long fish attacking divers. They are the only thing in the ocean that have ever drawn blood from me! It was fairly embarrassing to say I got my butt kicked by something so small.
All in all, the dive was really relaxing and the flat ocean made it like diving in a large aquarium, so everyone was happy. We have hooked another diver and fulfilled a lifelong ambition, which is a great feeling for everyone. Sonny will now continue diving and will become a certified open water diver soon.
Why should the kids have all the fun hey? I am fast approaching the big 50 myself, and I can´t ever think of a life without diving.