Gadling

If you had to choose the best diving spot in North America
off the top of your head…quick name it! Did you pick British Columbia? I doubt it.

And yet that’s that what the readers of Scuba Diving Magazine thought. Now, I got certified in Seattle and have
dived around the San Juans, so I think I know what they’re talking about. It’s cold as a witch’s…well, it’s cold. Dry
suit cold. But the life is completly unique, which is why, I am guessing it wa selected number one. Anyway, here is the
rest of the list.

I am glad to see the Channel Islands there too. North Carolina? Anyone got the lowdown on NC? Is the diving really
that good?

1. British Columbia

2. Channel Islands, Calif.

3. North Carolina

4. Flower Garden Banks, Gulf of Mexico

5. Southeast Florida

6. Islamorada and Tavernier, Florida Keys

7. Key Largo, Florida Keys

8. Washington State

9. Key West, Florida Keys

10. Marathon, Florida Keys

You’re certified. You love to dive. When you think about vacation, you don’t think about
lying on the beach with a Pina Colada and a pulp novel. No. You think about inflating your BCD (or deflating it) and
sucking compressed air from a tank on your back. You think about checking out entire new worlds, beautiful, magic
worlds whose magnificence no one seems to understand (non-divers, anyway). But then kids come along, and suddenly
you’re thinking more about changing diapers than air tanks. So have you given up the diving experience for this new one
of parenting? Is this a mutually exclusive arrangement? Not necessarily.

According to this article, families and diving can go
together, if not as well as love and marriage or a horse and carriage, at least there’s hope. At least you can get
little Jimmy to squirm his way into a wet suit and teach him how to dive. Fairly painlessly. Sure, there are
restrictions (10-year-olds, it seems, are restricted to 12m of depth), but you can still get him/her certified and
bring him along to those dark, joyous depths that you love so much.