Community and Place

As a scuba diving community, there are many places in which we may dive.  These places are located all over the world.  To be more specific, but still generalized, starting with the beginning is the dive shop.  The dive shop is the place where training begins.  In my community, our dive shop if Pacific Watersports in Aloha, OR as shown below.

 

This is the location where the love and passion is originated.  Divers may take classes, purchase merchandise and equipment, and connect to the community at Pacific Watersports.  It is the central gathering point where all divers must arrive at in order to refill their tanks, ask questions, and take care of any last minute situations.  Continuing with the training portion is the dive pool. 

This specific pool is located in Forest Grove, OR as shown above.  It is a community pool that has allowed the dive shop owners to rent for various times during the week to teach dive classes.  The pool is where divers can practice what they have learned in class in a safe environment and with a dive instructor. 

Once training is complete, divers must gather at a location where they can discuss the dive before actually going on the trip.  This is extremely important for safety reasons.  Each diver must know every specific detail of the dive to be as safe as possible for themselves and their diver partner.  This location can be at a diver’s home or a place as shown below to the left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the dive is planned, the location of the dive is the next location.  The loading area or underwater can be one location combined or two individual locations, depending on how a person looks at it.  Either way, it is the location of the adventure.  Unpacking the gear, making sure of all safety checks, gearing up, discussing the dive one last time with the dive buddy, doing the dive, arriving on land, taking off the gear, discussing the dive, and diving again if decided, are all tasks that are accomplished at the final location.

 



 

As the video, Holding Ground, shows about the devastation that can be done by humans, being in the classroom, in the pool, or under the water in the ocean, are all places and locations that completely take one’s mind away from what the real world can be.  The video also talks about how community members can make a difference in the change of the appearance which is also something scuba divers love to share when traveling to the locations discussed above.  If everyone could see what a scuba diver sees, maybe the world would be a different place.  To stop, look, and listen to the world around you is vital to the safety of everyone when diving.  Each location includes these safety regulations at all times and to involve the rest of the world in these regulations but changed for specific communities above the water could mean a drastic change in life that community.  This change could also have the possibility to stop collapses similar to the one in Oakridge, OR in the article Former Oregon Lumber Town Tries to Reinvent Itself by allowing people to understand the meaning behind other people and situations.  Scuba divers in my community constantly talk about how much we wish for the world to see, hear, and feel emotionally and physically under the water as we continually see for the rest of the world above water whether it is involving neighborhoods, logging industries, or any community that may need a little help.  Now is the time to stop the selfish behaviors of humans and try to change one communities actions with them thinking they are the only one out there.  Each community needs to work with every single community out there whether they are connected or not for the world to see and get along as one.