My PADI Deep Diver Course

On December 20th of 2025, I completed my PADI Deep Diver certification with Dean’s Dive Center in Ft. Myers, Florida. The same shop where I earned my previous PADI certifications.

This was a course I approached with a fair amount of anxiety. At the time, I was still a relatively new diver with fewer than 20 logged dives. I intentionally waited to take the Deep course until I had built a little more experience and confidence. Even then, anything beyond 60 feet made me uneasy.

Looking back, part of my comfort at 60 feet came from a flawed mindset. I told myself that if something went wrong, I could just make it to the surface quickly. I now understand how unrealistic—and unsafe—that thinking was. Shooting to the surface is never the solution. But at the time, that thought somehow made deeper water feel less intimidating.

To help manage my anxiety about going deeper, I decided to invest in a 30 cu. ft. pony bottle as my alternate air source. For those unfamiliar, a pony bottle is a small, independent scuba cylinder with its own regulator, carried as a backup air supply. It’s essentially a self-contained emergency system separate from your primary tank. Having that redundancy gave me peace of mind and the extra confidence I needed to take the next step.

My Pony Bottle

For my Deep certification dives, I had the opportunity to dive the USS Spiegel Grove—now my favorite wreck and one I’ve since completed eight times. But something unexpected happened during this course.

I loved it.

I wasn’t nearly as anxious as I thought I would be. In fact, being that far down felt exciting and strangely peaceful. When I descended to the sand near the bow of the Spiegel Grove, it became one of the most awe-inspiring experiences I’ve had underwater. Looking up from the bottom and seeing the sheer size of the ship towering above me was surreal. From that vantage point, you truly grasp how massive it is—and how fortunate you are to witness something so few people ever will.

USS Spiegel Grove

That dive shifted something for me.

Not only was I no longer intimidated by depth, but I found myself drawn to it. I started wondering what else was waiting beyond 100 feet. I also realized how much I love wreck diving specifically. The history, the scale, the mystery—it all clicked.

That experience sparked new goals. The wreck course is now a cert I am in the progress of completing this month, and for the first time, I started seriously thinking about technical diving—once I build the experience and log the dives necessary to do it safely.

What began as a course I feared turned into one that expanded my perspective, boosted my confidence, and reshaped my diving ambitions.

And it all started with taking that first step past 60 feet.

Observing How Color Changes at Depth