SNUBA on the Fair Winds II
Keauhou Bay, Hawaii

by Tammie Thompson

As a certified diver, I never paid much attention to SNUBA. It really didn't factor into my active lifestyle.

Not until I had a ten-year-old. He wanted desperately to scuba dive. Beyond the fact that he is not old enough to be PADI certified (countless classroom hours to learn all the necessary calculations to dive to 100 feet, safety precautions, etc.), his mother would never go for it either.

Enter SNUBA. A floating raft that carries the air tanks, each diver is tethered to the raft via his airline. Kind of like those old deep-sea divers who wore the metal suits and breathed through the air line to the surface. Same premise, without the suits. SNUBA allows anyone, even non-swimmers, to breathe underwater (though I think it would be cruel to throw a non-swimmer underwater to breathe through a regulator and expect them to be nonplussed about the experience).

After a short orientation (discussion of regulator use, mask clearing, ear clearing), the SNUBA divers got right to it. I watched underwater as they got acclimated (OK, maybe I was a tad worried about my little boy). The six divers, plus the instructor, set out as a group to explore life under the sea. Limited to twenty feet max, the group stayed close, but was able to descend to variable comfortable depths. My son acclimated quickly (too young for fear?) and grabbed some more weights to descend as close as possible to the coral reefs.

Thirty minutes later he was all smiles. "So cool, Mom. I love it! When can we take scuba lessons?"

There you have it. A relatively soft adventure, it quickly introduces kids (and adults) to a love of the sea and opens the door to further exploration via scuba. So simple, yet so rewarding.

After the dive I got to talking to Jake's instructor about SNUBA. The SNUBA concept was actually conceived in Truckee, California. Truckee happens to be where Jake was born. Truckee also happens to be in the mountains and far from the sea. Here's the story, as told by Lynn Ekstrom.

"After skiing one day, we were in the Bar of America (in Truckee, CA) discussing how many skiers are also scuba divers. We got to talking about how there are many parallels in the teaching progression of each sport - except that there was a big gap between snorkeling and scuba diving. It is easy to snorkel. Anybody can do it. But to go scuba diving you have to pass a tough course, learn all about safety and the equipment. There was nothing in between. Thus SNUBA was born."

SNUBA was designed to get would be divers to the water quickly and expose them to scuba in a safe environment. It's not a sport you can do alone. You can't buy the equipment. There are several SNUBA areas around the world.

And especially appealing is the new Snuba Doo for kids ages 4 and up. Snuba Doo participants get a flotation vest with regulator, are attached to the Snuba raft, allowing you to stay on the surface and cruise above the Snuba and Scuba divers.

For more info on Hawaii Snuba dives see. bigislandwatersports.com .