Lap swimming is a great way to rehabilitate leg injuries.

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When a man gets an ankle and leg injury thereby preventing him from his usual aerobic activity, he takes up lap swimming. A pair of prescription swim goggles helps him see properly, and gradually he gets back into shape.
I began swimming for exercise about nine months ago due to an ankle and leg injury which prevented me from doing any other aerobic activity. When I kept bumping into the side of the pool, I realized I would need prescription swim goggles. I found an online store that carried something called a Platina prescription swim goggle made by TUSA  and a Splaqua prescription swim goggle.

I remember my first time in the 20 meter pool at my gym, and thinking that ten lengths without stopping was a respectable distance for a first time, and also considering I hadn’t participated in any aerobic activity for almost three months. Wrong!  The next day, my entire rib cage ached as well as my biceps and triceps which perplexed me because I do push-ups and lift 15 pound free weights twice per week, even with my leg injury. Obviously, my muscles were not prepared for the physical demands of swimming, or anything else for that  matter.

I decided that since this was the only physical activity I could do, I would push myself. I researched online and found a six week plan that would enable me to swim a mile without stopping. My rehabilitation, both mental and physical, had begun.

I achieved the one mile continuous swim in six weeks, but the aching muscles persisted. When I was able to bike and later jog again, I continued swimming because I felt that the workout was entirely different, and it allowed my still weak leg and ankle recovery time.

The truth about me and swimming, however, is that we have a love/hate relationship. I loathe counting laps. I hate flip turns because I lose my breath, and water gets in my  nose.  If I could only breathe on my right side. I took a few private lessons, and learned bilateral breathing, and have just about mastered the flip turn, although I still can’t count laps. The prescription swim goggles help, though.

Clint Eastwood would say it: “A diver’s got to know his limitations.”

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A scuba diver discusses the inherent dangers of diving, what can go wrong and especially with bad ears, or tubes in your ears.
How dangerous is diving? Great question.  And the answer is: as dangerous or as safe as you want it to be. What’s really dangerous is diving with bad ears, or if you have tubes in your ears. If that’s the case you need something called the  IST ProEar dive mask.  I found an online dealer that carries this mask, and chose between the IST 4windows and Panorama dive mask. I chose the former.

There is no question that putting on equipment and submerging one’s self beneath the surface of a lake or ocean has inherent and obvious dangers. But if you limit your dives to open water, within recreational limits, maintain good health, and maintain your diving skills as an active diver, and dive only with quality equipment, well maintained, do a thorough buddy check, dive with a competent buddy, follow no decompression dive limits, and don’t feed the wild life, scuba diving is not very dangerous at all. There are many other activities of equal or greater danger of serious injury or death, including bicycling, skiing, and frankly, even walking across the street. However, if you try to dive without proper training, or with rusty skills, equipment in disrepair, no planning, no buddy check, and an “every man for himself” attitude in the water, scuba is very dangerous. Especially if you have bad ears.

Even tech divers and cave divers (who are the best at safety planning, redundancy with equipment, etc.) will tell you that a properly planned and executed dive of that kind, while having substantially greater danger factors than a recreational dive, can be executed quite safely.

When you read of dive fatalities, usually there is an issue with at least one of these: 1)the diver’s health before the dive; 2) diving in conditions beyond the training and competence of the diver; 3) inattentive diver; 4) poorly maintained equipment malfunction. So train properly, be an active diver to maintain your skills, maintain your equipment, plan and execute dives within your personal limits, maintain good health, and diving is not nearly as dangerous as most people think. Ignore any of those things, and diving is very dangerous.

A diver’s got to know his limits.  Clint Eastwood couldn’t say it better.

This was not my idea of an “ice breaker.” Then I moved to Florida.

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This is the story of a guy who lived in Massachusetts, would be on his boat on Christmas Day. Then he moved to Florida, gets skin cancer, meets his wife and she learns to dive with him.
I moved to Florida from Massachusetts in 1986. I moved there because I absolutely hated the cold weather. I was the guy out in his boat on Christmas Day. I would just try to ignore that it was winter. There were times I remember breaking the ice in order to get my boat out so I could pull my lobster traps.

In order to break the ice, and I don’t mean it in the conversational way, I needed a pair of really heavy duty diving gloves.. I get my dive gloves from a great online dive store. In Massachusetts the gloves were 5mm supratex Velcro dive gloves made by IST.  In Florida, they are Tilos’s 1.5mm  mesh reef dive gloves.
I was definitely a summer person. Anyway, I moved to Florida because I loved the summer. It wasn’t long before being in the sun took its toll on my skin and I had several rounds with skin cancer. Nothing serious but I needed to stay out of the sun. That’s when scuba diving entered the picture. I have been diving for about 13 years now. It’s funny but underwater photography has become my greatest interest. So far I have been diving in Grand Cayman, Nassau, most all of the Keys in Florida and last summer my wife and I went to Bonaire.

For over 10 years I have been trying to get my wife to join me diving but with no luck. So this summer after accompanying me to Bonaire while sitting on the plane to leave I ask her, would you like to return next year. She replies: Only if I’m scuba certified! This is the woman who couldn’t swim when I met her. So now I have a permanent scuba buddy This summer on our 30th wedding anniversary we will be diving in Bonaire.