Friends convince me to try scuba diving. Reluctantly I sign up for the PADI Open Water Diver course.  The confining training is not fun: mask is fogging, fins are falling off, buoyancy is a bouncing experience, CESA is running me out of breath...young students in the class nailing everything on fist attempt, but I stick to it and pass my class and pool training.  Next off are Checkout dives.  The warm waters of Bahamas help with the experience, but I still have many questions and insecurities.  I have proudly passed the course and became a scuba diver.  Truth be told, I still question myself if this sport is really for me.

The diving curiosity along with questions such as Why does it take me so long to equalize, Why was my instructor in Open Water course so calm and neutrally buoyant, why do I run out of breathing gas so quickly, have made me go to my first diving trip - Jamaica, Montego Bay.  12 dives later, I think I start to understand the beauty of scuba diving, but I end up with more questions and a desire to improve than ever before.  Practicing equalization while seating at the dining table becomes a norm.

I embrace my next diving trip, this time to Florida.  I am determined to become comfortable under water, to be good with equalization, and be calm...breath deep and slow...zen.  This time 16 dives...I am exhausted, but happy and still NOT really "getting it".  Still bouncy is really a challenge...the deflate button on my BCD is getting used just too much...too much

I dive everywhere I can.  Dives add up.  I have now over 100 dives, but I still feel buoyancy is pretentious...it is being worked for, rather being enjoyed.  I am still puzzled, but dives become more and more pleasant...my awareness bubble is truly expanding!

I decide to take PADI Advanced Open Water Course.  This time in Cancun.  I am hopeful it will take me to the next level - focus on buoyancy.  I meet my instructor, Juan Magliano.  This is the person who orchestrated, literally, my breathing tempo.  We spend way more under water practicing my bouncy through numerous and numerous drills; result - I got it!  By all means not a pro yet, but bouncy has all of the sudden become a friend, the enabler, the miracle of the sea.  I am forever grateful to the commitment, dedication and professionalism Juan has demonstrated.  This was forever most important and memorable diving course in my scuba diving journey!  In parts, I have always remembered my AOW course and it became the foundation for the way I teach scuba diving (but lets not jump ahead).

I dive, boy or boy do I dive.  I take courses, Deep, Wreck, EANx, Drysuit, Drift...the diving bug has bitten! 

I do not really know why, but I have decided to do PADI Divemaster course.  Maybe I was convinced it will make me a better diver (it does in a way), maybe I wanted to have bragging rights, maybe I wanted to learn a bit more.  Whatever the reason was, I went for it and I have definetely enjoyed it.  It was done in a busy Bayahibe, DR dive center with real students, real experiences and real fun!

Dives are piling up in hundreds, experiences are unforgettable, new friends are everywhere.  Diving becomes a part of me.  I dive to switch context, to switch reality.  I dive to escape to another world.  To be in a water in a state of "weightlessness" becomes an addiction. 

COVID is exploding, scuba diving industry is suffering.  Even local dives are a challenge.  Government carves out exceptions for pool usage for dive pros.  I sign up for the PADI OWI course - I am told I would be a good instructor.  Like with Divemaster course, I take the instructors course without any real goal or objective - maybe to learn a few things, maybe to brag a bit, maybe because you couldn't really dive during COVID, so might as well study.  A year later, I become a PADI Open Water instructor.  Rewarding course!

I teach in a local dive shop.  An ability to pass on your passion for diving to other people and grow the diving community is amazing.  With time though, I am realizing that big operations are making instruction a conveyor type of a job, rather than a special experience for both instructor and the student.  I decide to start my own school with emphasis on individual approach to each student, small groups (1-3 people max) and fun!

Newhorizons is born!