I'm a lazy one, no?
I'll be back to blogging October 6.
Diver down! ;)
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Scuba Diving
As most know, scuba diving is my passion and I do it as often as I can. I get asked about it a lot so I thought I'd answer some frequently asked questions in this post.
I am a master scuba diver. I started diving five years ago and have about 80 dives under my belt.
In order to attain MSD you must have five specialty certifications and 50 dives as well as rescue diver. There are many to choose from but I have the following: peak performance buoyancy, equipment specialist, deep diver, wreck diver and enriched air diver (nitrox). I am an open water and advance open water diver as well. I also have National Geographic diver certification.
I have been diving in the following locales:
Turks and Caicos (certified here)
Cayman Islands (Brac and Little)
Florida Keys (couple of times)
Morehead, NC (sharks!)
Houston, TX (master diver)
Playa del Carmen, Mexico (cenotes)
Taveuni, Fiji
Barbados (several times)
Virginia (quarry)
I was most disappointed in Fiji. There were surges and plankton and it was really swift drift diving which does nothing for me. And, it was SO expensive. I probably won't go back there. My favorite has and always will be Barbados. The sea life isn't in abundance and there isn't a lot to see, the hurricanes toss everything around, but the viz goes on forever and the people are some of the nicest I've ever met. I also go in the off season when there aren't a lot of tourists diving so it's me and the dive master that finds the best stuff!
A little back story (I have this post all turned around): I decided to dive in order to confront my terrifying fear of the water. When I was little my family and I would go to Galveston and camp out. We had a camper and we took baths in coolers; that was the life! Anyway, one day when I was about eight or so I was in the ocean and a crab bit my toe. I'd already been a little wary of the dark, murky Gulf water, but that pretty much sealed the deal. I FU-REAKED out. I decided that ocean water and I didn't get along and that was that. UNTIL I went to Turks. Wow. That is when I decided that I needed to confront my fears in the beautiful, transparent waters of the Caribbean.
I signed up, took the class, did my pool work and got ready for the big water tests. This is where things go a little south. Got my gear on, went down about 30 feet and promptly decided that I was claustrophobic. I'd never really had that problem before and wasn't familiar with it so it succeeded in exacerbating an already delicate situation (my sanity). I immediately found the inflator button, miraculously, and proceeded to shoot to the surface like a bullet. Fortunately they hired some really amazing people, one being the dive master who dragged me back down, forced me to make eye contact and got me calm enough to breathe. I need to send her a thank you card. I surfaced, went to a doctor for the chest pains caused by breathing in so deeply I almost collapsed a lung and got the okay to go back out again. And so I did. And so here I am.
I love diving.
I am a master scuba diver. I started diving five years ago and have about 80 dives under my belt.
In order to attain MSD you must have five specialty certifications and 50 dives as well as rescue diver. There are many to choose from but I have the following: peak performance buoyancy, equipment specialist, deep diver, wreck diver and enriched air diver (nitrox). I am an open water and advance open water diver as well. I also have National Geographic diver certification.
I have been diving in the following locales:
Turks and Caicos (certified here)
Cayman Islands (Brac and Little)
Florida Keys (couple of times)
Morehead, NC (sharks!)
Houston, TX (master diver)
Playa del Carmen, Mexico (cenotes)
Taveuni, Fiji
Barbados (several times)
Virginia (quarry)
I was most disappointed in Fiji. There were surges and plankton and it was really swift drift diving which does nothing for me. And, it was SO expensive. I probably won't go back there. My favorite has and always will be Barbados. The sea life isn't in abundance and there isn't a lot to see, the hurricanes toss everything around, but the viz goes on forever and the people are some of the nicest I've ever met. I also go in the off season when there aren't a lot of tourists diving so it's me and the dive master that finds the best stuff!
A little back story (I have this post all turned around): I decided to dive in order to confront my terrifying fear of the water. When I was little my family and I would go to Galveston and camp out. We had a camper and we took baths in coolers; that was the life! Anyway, one day when I was about eight or so I was in the ocean and a crab bit my toe. I'd already been a little wary of the dark, murky Gulf water, but that pretty much sealed the deal. I FU-REAKED out. I decided that ocean water and I didn't get along and that was that. UNTIL I went to Turks. Wow. That is when I decided that I needed to confront my fears in the beautiful, transparent waters of the Caribbean.
I signed up, took the class, did my pool work and got ready for the big water tests. This is where things go a little south. Got my gear on, went down about 30 feet and promptly decided that I was claustrophobic. I'd never really had that problem before and wasn't familiar with it so it succeeded in exacerbating an already delicate situation (my sanity). I immediately found the inflator button, miraculously, and proceeded to shoot to the surface like a bullet. Fortunately they hired some really amazing people, one being the dive master who dragged me back down, forced me to make eye contact and got me calm enough to breathe. I need to send her a thank you card. I surfaced, went to a doctor for the chest pains caused by breathing in so deeply I almost collapsed a lung and got the okay to go back out again. And so I did. And so here I am.
I love diving.
How it Started
A lot of people are usually interested in what led me down this path and I always tell them that it was a complete fluke. I'm not sure they believe me, I hope that what they'd like to believe is a much sluttier version of what I'm about to tell you.
I was living in Washington, D.C. at the time (a place so dear to my heart, and, uhm, loins) and was working in an industry that I realized was headed straight for obsoletion. I had just gone through a financially devastating breakup and was also working a part-time job. On one of my rare nights off I happened upon Craigslist (you totally know what I'm talking about) and saw other girls and realized (quite apparently) that I was just as qualified as they. And so it began.
I was like a kid in a candy store! Men! In all flavors! Colors! SIZES! More than the variety, though, was the idea that maybe I'd found myself. I am a hedonist at heart. I have loved the physical act of sex since I first experienced it at almost 18. I have never NOT felt connected to my body, to my sensuality, to my femininity. It is as natural to me as breathing. So, maybe this was the path less traveled that would make all the difference! And I learned very quickly that it most definitely has made all of the difference.
I enjoy every, single minute of my experiences. The variances, the newness, the familiarity, the timed intimacy that can be so very intimate...all of it. It has opened my world up to pleasures beyond compare. A literal mind would think it would lack those things, but I am here to tell you that it is exactly what you make it, like everything else in life. And I make it mean something, because I want all of my life experiences to have value.
So, a little more of me. I hope you enjoy what you're seeing.
I was living in Washington, D.C. at the time (a place so dear to my heart, and, uhm, loins) and was working in an industry that I realized was headed straight for obsoletion. I had just gone through a financially devastating breakup and was also working a part-time job. On one of my rare nights off I happened upon Craigslist (you totally know what I'm talking about) and saw other girls and realized (quite apparently) that I was just as qualified as they. And so it began.
I was like a kid in a candy store! Men! In all flavors! Colors! SIZES! More than the variety, though, was the idea that maybe I'd found myself. I am a hedonist at heart. I have loved the physical act of sex since I first experienced it at almost 18. I have never NOT felt connected to my body, to my sensuality, to my femininity. It is as natural to me as breathing. So, maybe this was the path less traveled that would make all the difference! And I learned very quickly that it most definitely has made all of the difference.
I enjoy every, single minute of my experiences. The variances, the newness, the familiarity, the timed intimacy that can be so very intimate...all of it. It has opened my world up to pleasures beyond compare. A literal mind would think it would lack those things, but I am here to tell you that it is exactly what you make it, like everything else in life. And I make it mean something, because I want all of my life experiences to have value.
So, a little more of me. I hope you enjoy what you're seeing.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
So, About Me.
I'm southern born and bred, as we Texans like to put it. Kind of sounds like I was born into a herd of cattle, but so it is, has been and shall always be. I'm from Dallas to be exact. Big D. A Dallasite. I'm also, obviously, a flaming, raging liberal. Guess we know who doesn't get invited to the family reunions.
I started down this career path because I was forced there by fundamentalist Pentecostals. I know, seems extreme, but just verbalizing that means you don't know me at all. I am nothing if not extreme. I dive with sharks, drive my car as though the world was my Autobahn, and live life right on the very crumbling edge. You envy me, admit it.
I'm a passionate, energetic soul; born to breathe in this crazy world deeply and often, hyperventilating to make sure I get it all before it runs out. It's not a problem, it's a gift. Unless you're my therapist trying to suck every last dollar from my wallet, THEN I most definitely have problems.
So, I do this, REALLY, because I love people. I love people, I love learning about people, I love connecting physically and mentally, I love orgasms. There, I said it. I also happen to do it because I found I was stellar at it. I haven't had anyone tell me differently so I could be delusional. It's okay, did I mention I have orgasms??
I'll be talking more about that later, I hope you don't mind. But, for now, I'm in NYC and I need to go out into the crazy city and visit friends, eat great food and, you know, live.
I started down this career path because I was forced there by fundamentalist Pentecostals. I know, seems extreme, but just verbalizing that means you don't know me at all. I am nothing if not extreme. I dive with sharks, drive my car as though the world was my Autobahn, and live life right on the very crumbling edge. You envy me, admit it.
I'm a passionate, energetic soul; born to breathe in this crazy world deeply and often, hyperventilating to make sure I get it all before it runs out. It's not a problem, it's a gift. Unless you're my therapist trying to suck every last dollar from my wallet, THEN I most definitely have problems.
So, I do this, REALLY, because I love people. I love people, I love learning about people, I love connecting physically and mentally, I love orgasms. There, I said it. I also happen to do it because I found I was stellar at it. I haven't had anyone tell me differently so I could be delusional. It's okay, did I mention I have orgasms??
I'll be talking more about that later, I hope you don't mind. But, for now, I'm in NYC and I need to go out into the crazy city and visit friends, eat great food and, you know, live.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Hi and Welcome.
I should have started this blog a long time ago, but time, energy and willingness and I were not on speaking terms. We're pseudo-friends now.
This blog, if anyone for those interested, is going to be about my favorite topic, Me and also about my second favorite topic, Sex. I will also talk about my travels, my life experiences and my friends (behind their back, of course), just not as much. This will not be nearly as bad as it sounds. I'm funny, engaging and intelligent and willing to post hot pictures from time to time to keep you (probably) overly entertained.
So, please be nice (snarky is for children - this is an X-RATED site, thank you).
I'm Nikki Irish, glad you're here.
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