The Outdoor Enthusiast Next Door: Gil Zeimer (Part 2)

Filed in archive Interviews on May 15, 2007

This is the second part of the interview with Gil Zeimer. Read the first part below.

What influenced you to take this trip?

We wanted to combine a family vacation with the ability for me to take a few dives with a local tour operator. I chose Red Sail Sports, which has since become my favorite watersports company in Aruba, Grand Cayman, St. Kitts and Hawaii.

How did it change you as a person?

Being able to snorkel with my wife and daughter was a great family-bonding experience. Imagine seeing fish underwater for the first time and yelling through your snorkel, "Look! There's a fish!" That's what my daughter did and it made me so proud to be teaching her to love the underwater world that I cherish so much. It's the kind of father-daughter moment I'll always remember.

What's your next scuba diving adventure? Where and why?

Next, we hope to visit Key West in a year or two. I've dived in three other sites in Florida: Key Largo, Palm Beach and the Living Seas Exhibit in Disney World. This will similar to the family trip we took to Aruba, but US-based. I've heard the diving's pretty good there, so it should be a great experience. But any dive - warm water, cold water, aquarium water - is a great dive.

Name three items/gadgets essential to the scuba divers and why.

Mask -- mine has my lenses attached to the glass so I don't have to worry about contacts.

Regulator -- allows me to breathe underwater and stay under for up to one hour, depending on my depth and amount of activity.

Dive computer -- shows how deep I've gone, how much air I've used, how much is left, and how quickly I'm ascending so I can take a decompression stop to eliminate the fear of getting "the bends.