Becoming Part of the Underwater World

Few things on this planet can compare to the amazing world we get to experience underwater. One does not have to be an extreme explorer or a PhD scientist to participate in the shared existence with these spectacles that await us. A beginner diver or even anyone snorkeling at the surface could come face to face with a manta ray that stretches nearly 20 feet across. Becoming a scuba diver makes a reality out of the dreams, books and TV shows of our youth. I’ve been lucky enough to make scuba diving my full-time life for the past 25 years. I am always amazed at why anyone who was empowered with the certification to explore below the waves would lose that exhilaration. Many people I have met say that they’ve tried scuba diving once, a lot did it a few times then quit while others just stopped for random various reasons. Over these many years I have come to realize that these discouraged divers whether willing to admit it or not have a fear that makes them uncomfortable underwater. The excuses given range from finding other interests to getting bored or even that they’ve done it all. But occasionally you can get someone to admit that they felt out of control. 

What I continually see with divers looking for something different and wanting to advance their education with me is that lack of control. Erratic breathing, hand swimming, inflating/deflating BCD’s, falling feet, swimming in circles… All of these issues stem from a flawed educational platform that began with them starting their scuba training with negative buoyancy. Developing critical performance skills while kneeling on the bottom. Putting off neutral buoyancy until later is the root cause of why imperfect divers drop out. Diving is a different world and the primary characteristic that separates it from all terrestrial activities we do on land is that this three-dimensional world underwater is not controlled by gravity.

Mott Underwater is engaging students with neutral buoyancy from the beginning. It is essential that we adapt them to this three-dimensional world with which they are about to become part of. Everything they know about movement and balance no longer exists and the overwhelming majority of scuba instructors I see don’t make this a priority. They focus on skills that are albeit necessary, not applied in a practical reality. The focus is usually to get the skills done as quickly as possible and buoyancy is an afterthought. It is a specialty class that can be sold later.

Mott Underwater focuses on how to be part of the underwater world, not just visit it in scuba gear. I teach you how to find peace and balance, to attain control and confidence in a place where typical human reactions do not work. I teach you how to really breathe, how to move and how to exist in this new place. I help my students evolve back into marine mammals and how to build underwater instinct. Finally, after you have that… we move onto the necessary skills for the class.