First time scuba diving with Diveheart
Diveheart is a nonprofit organization that gives children, adults, and veterans with a disability the opportunity to scuba dive. The first time I ever tried scuba diving was on August 11th, 2012 when I was thirteen at Seaventures with Diveheart as part of an event for people with a disability, which was actually a bar mitzvah project fundraising event for a guy named Zack Bernstein, who was trying to buy full face masks for Diveheart and also trying to bring Diveheart to Atlanta, Georgia. He was able to raise enough money for four full face masks and also introduced a lot of people to Diveheart. I wore a full face mask which allowed me to breathe in the mask, air cylinder, and flippers. My instructors/dive buddies at Seaventures were Matt Crawford and Claude Smith. Also The 11alive news station in Atlanta, Georgia found out about the event and aired a segment about it on the 6pm news.
Second time scuba diving with Diveheart
The second time I scuba dived with Diveheart was three years later on March 22nd, 2015 when I was sixteen as part of a senior project at Cherokee County Aquatic Center. The gear and clothes that I wore on that day was a regular diving mask, air cylinder, my diveheart neoprene shirt, and flippers. I also learned how to breathe using a regulator that was attached to the air cylinder that I was wearing in the pool. I had Matt as one of my scuba buddies again, but I forget my other scuba buddy's name. Towards the end of the dive with Matt, I saw my now friend Heather over on the pool deck and swam over to her and asked her if she wanted to dive with us and I think she said yes so we swam for a few minutes and then we got out and I think she helped me take off my gear and put a towel over my lap which I appreciated because I was cold and then I gave all my gear to Matt who was still in the water :)
