Re: Scuba (was FITNESS)

From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Wed Apr 16 2003 - 02:03:46 MDT

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    Lee Crocker:
    >>I'm curious about the attraction of Scuba.

    Tom Morrow:

    >If you like getting up close and personal with the untamed world,
    >the ocean rocks.

    I spent 34 years living on or next to the Pacific ocean (My family
    lived on a boat in Hawaii during my childhood for part of those
    years). The ocean literally rocked! My recent years being landlocked
    were not easy for me, so I'm happy to be back near a body of water
    (Mediterranean). Even though the Mediterranean cannot be called an
    ocean, I've verified (last weekend!) that there are indeed waves,
    and the sea life in the Mediterranean is fantastically diverse.

    I walked along here last weekend, some parts reminded me of the
    California Coast... but different ..... seagulls, boats, waves,
    1000-year-old abbeys, cliffs, pine trees, villas, focaccia, and
    rosemary:

    Camogli - San Fruttuoso - Santa Margherita - Portofino
    http://www.dolcevita.com/travel/tsport/portofino/portofino2.htm
    http://www.dolcevita.com/travel/tsport/portofino/smargh.htm
    http://www.dolcevita.com/travel/fai/steady/coperti.html

    One can learn about the Ligurian coast and other sea life of
    bodies-of-water here, not being in the water: (this aquarium rivals
    that of the Monterey Bay Acquarium.. Europe's best, I think)

    Acquario di Genova
    http://www.acquario.ge.it/ (Italian)
    http://www.cbgenova.it/acquario.htm (Italian)
    http://digilander.libero.it/fotogian/acquario.html (pictures, Italian)

    The aquarium is presently showing a 3D animation "Krakken" of the
    work of the paleontologist D. Dixon, attempting to answer the
    question: "If one could look at sea life 10 million years in the
    future, what would it look like?"

    http://151.8.176.226/sc_film.asp

    >Although I don't dive, I spend several hours a week (at least on the
    >good weeks!) surfing. That experience suggests to me that divers
    >might, like surfers, find great appeal simply in spending time in
    >the ocean. It offers great beauty; I enjoy gazing at the waves and
    >sky while I'm waiting for waves. It also offers thrills; only a
    >short distance from homes and roads, I find myself in a wild place.
    >Last time out, for instance, a dolphin surfaced near my board.

    Ahh.. you should meet the 'mountain man' Pete Brown, wild
    and free spirit, life-long surfer:

    His Surfing and other resources
    http://www.mountainman.com.au/#SURF

    ---------------------------------------------------
    a couple of my favorite ocean descriptions of life:
    ---------------------------------------------------

    "... the Water Genie told Haroun about the Ocean of the Streams of Story,
    and even though he was full of a sense of hopelessness and failure the
    magic of the Ocean began to have an effect on Haroun. He looked into
    the water and saw that it was made up of a thousand thousand thousand
    and one different currents, each one a different color, weaving in and
    out of one another like a liquid tapestry of breathtaking complexity;
    and [the Water Genie] explained that these were the Streams of Story,
    that each colored strand represented and contained a single tale.
    Different parts of Ocean contained different sorts of stories, and as
    all the stories that had ever been told and many that were still in
    the process of being invented could be found here, the Ocean of the
    Streams of Story was in the fact the biggest library in the universe.
    And because the stories were held here in fluid form, they retained
    the ability to change, to become new versions of themselves, to join
    up with other stories and so become yet other stories ..."

    Salman Rushdie, _Haroun and the Sea of Stories_, (London, 1990),
    pp. 71-72.

    ----------------

    "I stood once in midstream, balanced on a rock. A scarlet leaf fluttered,
    spiraled down. I watched it, became a wind-blown leaf, swayed, fell into
    the water with a giant human splash, then soddenly crawled out, laughing
    uproariously.

    The process of daily living is often intense and whimsical. The joy of it,
    and the compassion, we can share, but in pain we are ultimately alone.
    The only real antidote is inside. The only real security is not insurance
    or money or a job, not a house and furniture paid for, or a retirement fund,
    and never is it another person. It is the skill and humor and courage
    within, the ability to build your own fires and find your own peace.

    On a solo trip you may discover these, or try to build them, and life
    becomes simple and deeply satisfying. The confidence and strength remain
    and are brought back and applied to the rest of your life." "

    Paddling my Own Canoe_ by Audrey Sutherland, Univ of Hi Press, 1978.

    ----------------

    -- 
    ********************************************************************
    Amara Graps, PhD          email: amara@amara.com
    Computational Physics     vita:  ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
    Multiplex Answers         URL:   http://www.amara.com/
    ********************************************************************
    "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." --Anais Nin
    


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