Is diving a sport?
Although diving is considered a sport, perhaps we should not think of it any more sporting than beach swimming. It’s a non-competitive hobby that doesn’t even require general good health. Of course, give a person enough boredom and they can turn anything into a competitive sport… like fishing.
Competitive sports are an objective, people try to be top dog while having a good time doing it. Non-competitive sports are done just for personal enjoyment. Beach swimming, Frisbee tossing, badminton, diving, fishing, kiteboarding, surfing, mall-walking, bar hopping, drinking, horseshoe tossing….. those are all causal activities done for personal amusement. Yes, some also have major competition events but that less that 1% of the people doing it.
What’s my point? Good question. I notice some people approach diving like it was a competitive sport. Their demeanor as if they’re billy-bad-ass, a top dawg, and anyone less hard core than themselves shouldn’t be diving. Myself? I’m like the rest and enjoy a round of people bragging about some kick-ass exploits on a dive; but some will imply others are weak and inconsequential, ‘the little people’, if they don’t view diving as an X-Game.
We’ve all met them. I found a most arrogant sack of excrement yesterday. Italian guy, former instructor that kept inserting his 10 years non-diving military service into diving conversations. He also talked about wearing his doubles and carrying full setup for 2 other people at the same time, but the then talked smack about people that don’t wear their gear the entire time from shop to dive and back. Was this guy constantly talking down to his customers? Making them feel inferior because, in his world, every diver was supposed to be a Jean Claude van Dam?
I’ve met some bad-ass divers who are far more skilled that I will ever be. Natural divers with that touch of machismo to pull it off as someone to look up to. But some people just are off their rockers. I wonder what it’s like sitting in the sky with almost every diver in the world so far down below…
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