Diving 'inner space'...

[JR8]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v11b84Okcm8
OCEAN GRAVITY - Guillaume Néry / Julie Gautier

There's a curious thing with diving, that whereas you're closer to the earth, you can feel an other-worldliness at times, like you're orbiting some distant planet floating in zero-gravity.

[sundaymorningstaple]

For me it wan't "at times" but all the time. It's why I left the earthly bounds (desk bound) and spent 20 years as a commercial diver (in addition to the 50 years Scuba (although only certified for 39 of them). I'd rather be in the water in zero visibility than sitting a desk with the best view of the city any day. I've always felt like the moment I left the surface I entered another world/dimension where weight encumbrances fell off of me and I was truly free (except for the limitations of the scuba bottle. Guess that's why I like commercial diving as there was unlimited air as well, but had to also put up with the tether known as the umbilical hose.

[JR8]

Just you and God. You don't get many moments like that with inevitably 'busy' ['look at this', 'watch out for this', 'hows your air?' etc] recreational diving. But when you do... you might as well be on a different planet. It's somehow transformative; suddenly you've witnessed something only divers understand... you're 'Tribe' [as they say].

Commercial diving. By extension, that might perhaps feel like being an astronaut vs an aviator. I wonder if you can ever be the same again when you come back to earth...

[sundaymorningstaple]

Never been an astronaut, but I was an aviator and it definitely plays 2nd fiddle to diving. (albeit a chopper pilot is considerably different than fixed wing).

[sundaymorningstaple]

Maybe I should qualify that just a wee bit. The one time I did a sailplane (not a glider) in Texas while in Military flight training at Ft. Wolters, It was somewhat akin to being weightless but still weighted to the seat (e.g., gravity) but without anything but the wind keeping me aloft. Still didn't compare to diving though.

[JR8]

https://vimeo.com/112491662?from=outro-embed
'Free Fall - from Les films engloutis'