The first time we experience an adventure that exceeds our expectations, it only fuels our passion for more. I vividly remember my first trip to the Galápagos Islands. Each dive aboard the Galapagos Aggressor was like a scene from a National Geographic documentary. I can replay in my mind like I am watching a movie, myself and my daughters tucked into the volcanic rocks out of the currents and having an endless school of hammerheads swimming right in front of us. Another dive brought us to Darwin’s Arch where we hovered in awe at the massive whale shark that was slowly swimming mere feet from us. On land, getting our picture with the 150-year-old giant tortoise Lonesome George, and walking among the Blue-Footed Boobies took this from a ‘Dive Trip’ to an Adventure that changed me.

Getting certified as a new scuba diver is a great achievement that should be celebrated. Little do these new scuba divers know the world that is now available to them and what it has to offer. Most of us have been to aquariums and see the life behind the glass. The reality of jumping into the ocean with the amount of undersea wildlife is far different. We never know what we encounter and from what direction it will come. But, this is exactly why we do it!

Every time we jump into the ocean, we increase our knowledge and our comfort of being there. Sometimes that changes you a little and sometimes it changes you a lot! Spotting your first of any underwater critter is always a thrill and those memories tend to etch into our brains for near-total recall for the rest of our lives. I still remember finding my first fingerprint cyphoma diving from the Turks & Caicos Aggressor. It doesn’t matter how large or small, our hunt for underwater wildlife, luckily, is a list we could never fill.

I know each of you have adventures that have changed you and all of us look forward to how scuba diving can continue to offer that positive, thrilling, magnificent window into our underwater world.