Are you a scuba addict? (If so, you’re in good company). Here we’ve provided a handy checklist in order for you to quantify the depth of your addiction — answer more than five of these in the affirmative, and you’re a bona fide scuba junkie.
- You wear a big, bulky watch.
Fellow divers will know that your prized timepiece is not only a watch, but a dive computer. Non-divers will wonder why your watch is so big.
- You have an impressive collection of dive t-shirts.
You’ve been there, you’ve dived it — from the dive centers to the liveaboards to the sites themselves, you’ve got the swag to prove it. Bonus points if you wear your dive t-shirts from different destinations on your current dive vacation.
- You plan all your vacations around diving.
You might compromise on the specific destination if your spouse or friends don’t dive, so that you can go diving while they do something else. As long as you’re ticking off a box on that giant diving bucket list you’ve got in your head, you’re happy. And when someone tells you about somewhere you haven’t been, your first question is, “do you know if there’s diving, and is it any good?”
- You have a pet named Nemo, Sharky, or Scubadoo.
(And it doesn’t matter if it’s a fish, dog, cat or hamster.)
- You have a dive-certification card in your wallet.
Or you’ve got several C-cards in your wallet, right next to the other essentials, such as your driver’s license. You know, just in case you randomly need it (or want to show off a bit).
- You know an extra language.
It’s 100 percent possible for you to have a full conversation in hand signals with your diving friends.
- You’re never short of ideas when people ask you what they can get you for your birthday.
We all know you’ve had your eye on that snazzy new dive watch (see above) or that new mask. Because you’ve mentioned it 12 times.
- You always get into trouble in customs.
You don’t want to check your regulator, camera, or gear in general — we get it. Just know that customs staff is going to make you unpack it all every time.
- You have an amazing memory…
…at least when it comes to what you’ve seen underwater, and where. You can happily recount when you saw your first shark/turtle/ray/whale, etc. Or your best dive. Or your first dive. Or your worst dive.
- You use the “OK” sign for everything.
If someone asks you how it’s going, you’re sure to flash them the “OK” signal. You’ll bust it out when you’re happy. Or when you’re ready. Or basically when you agree with anything. You use it all the time, and people can easily confuse you when they give you the thumbs up instead.
