New beginnings!

 Well, I got another job, working at Aquatic Safaris. To be totally honest I am scared shitless! It is an incredible opportunity for me. I wanted to learn how to dive, here we go!  I will be put in situations that I am not totally comfortable with, I will have to dive at night, I have to take rescue diver courses. Sharks will soon become an almost daily encounter, but none of this is what scares me! Well maybe a little bit...

 I am soon moving out of the dump that I live in and putting what little I have in storage. I am going to stay with my loving girlfriend in her apartment until I can find a place. I am so lucky to have her in my life, and also very lucky to have the Hardee, Adams, and Taylor families on my side! (and it goes without saying my own family but they are 600 miles away!) So I am going to be sort of homeless, and starting a new job, well more of a new life than just a job. Starting out I will make VERY little money and hopefully move up to making a little money!

 Now we are getting at why I am scared. Everything is very uncertain right now. I have to keep both jobs and spend as much time as possible underwater. I can't survive on just one of the jobs, I need to be able to work both jobs and hope they won't interfere! I have invested WAY too much money on SCUBA and freediving courses, and not to mention gear, of which I need more now, for this to not work for me! It has to work! I have never been a gambling man, but I have been gambling all along trying to make this happen, now it has happened and I am freaking scared that it won't work!

 Sorry nothing exciting like surfing or spearfishing is happening in this post but I felt like writing about whats on my mind, after all it's my blog! Actually I went spearfishing the past 2 days, well we went in the water, visibility was less than poor, there was no spearing of anything. Sometimes going hunting either for waves or fish, ( thats all I hunt) is not about actually getting waves or shooting fish, the best part is the hunt. I met some wonderful people this weekend, and am very happy to have met them! I look forward to the adventures we are going to share together in the future!

Thanks for reading and wish me luck!
Stay tuned for some more interesting posts this week, freediving course starts on Friday! If you are interested in freediving or not really sure what it is check out this website!
http://evolvefreediving.com/Evolve_Freediving/Home.html

A start

The ocean; it means many things to many people. To some it is an uninviting death sentence, to others it is merely scenery, to some it means nothing, to me it is everything!

My entire life has been spent living close to the waters edge. I learned to swim before I could walk, I was drawn to surfing at a young age; where surfing barely existed, the north shore of Long Island. Thanks to my Dad, who learned to surf with me, and some other very good friends, Mr. B, Chuck and Ken, I can say that I have been surfing for 20 years now!

Until the summer of 2009 I tried very hard to keep my head above the water. One day a buddy of mine asked me if I wanted to swim out to the jetty and shoot fish. I thought he was crazy and brushed it off...but I couldn't stop thinking about it. I purchased a mask and snorkel first. My first experience going underwater was in Masonboro Inlet...I thought this was crazy but everyone seemed quite comfortable, including the 5 year old girl on the boat.

I was addicted instantly...why have I not been doing this all along I thought! Fins, fish identification book, pole spear were all soon to follow. I spent the summer and fall snorkeling around the jetty, and one trip to the Lib Ship. I learned how to hunt fish, nothing spectacular though, but it was a start.

As I start writing this I am working on my SCUBA open water certification. I have my first open water dives next weekend. (in a lake much to my dismay!) In April I am planning on taking a freediving course. Along with my dive log, I am using this to chronicle my new life as a diver and of course surfing.

My goal is to have a site where other watermen can meet, share stories, and information. Please bear with me as I figure out all of the intricacies involved in making this a great site. In the mean time...What does the ocean mean to you?