“Eat, sleep, dive.”

Peter Pastiva’s passion for scuba

All around, the ocean rocks you back and forth, swaying gently; you bob along the surface of the water. Slowly, you start to submerge beneath the waves, the sound of your breath reverberating in your headset. Bubbles float up as you kick your flippers, slowly sinking farther from the surface. Your mask and wet suit help you adjust to the aquatic world all around you as you dive closer to the coral and sand below. In the distance, stingrays and sea turtles glide through the water, flying miles below the sky, as sharks and smaller fish swim in and out of view wherever the sunlight is able to break through the waves above. Crabs scuttle along the sandy bottom as eels wriggle across the colorful coral. All around you, the world below the surface is brimming with life.

For Peter Pastiva, these are just some of the many reasons that he is immensely passionate about scuba diving.

Since 2012, Peter, a machine technician in the Machine Shop at Cook Vandergrift, has been on 187 dives. While approximately half of them were open water training dives, the other half were scuba trips.

“The year I got certified, I made a little trip to Key Largo, Florida, to go diving in the Florida Keys. I did eight dives down there, and since then, I’ve just been ramping it up,” said Peter.

While each trip he’s been on has varied a lot, his favorites have all been live aboard trips— meaning that for a set amount of days, the divers all live in close quarters on a boat together in between their scheduled dives.

War sites, volcanic chutes, and underwater astronauts

His first live aboard trip consisted of 10 days in the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific in July of 2014.

“For 10 days straight: eat, sleep, dive. That’s all we did,” Peter said.

While scuba diving in the Solomon Islands, Peter explored a World War II dive site. At 100 feet below sea level, there were vehicles still loaded with weaponry scattered among other remnants of the war that were lost or dumped into the water.

“History-wise, the Solomon Islands trip was one of my favorites. I will never forget seeing the sunken World War II Japanese ship,” said Peter.

On a different dive, Peter ventured to the deepest point that he had ever been. Surrounded by black, volcanic rock, 40 feet below the surface, Peter and the other divers began descending down a dormant lava tunnel. Seaweed and coral coated the walls, and little crustaceans scuttled across the rocks. With a little over five feet on either side of him, Peter slowly sunk deeper and deeper into the ocean, using his flashlight to guide him through the cavernous space. Floating towards the light below, the team of divers finally emerged from the lava tubes at 116 feet below sea level.

“My dive computer was beeping like crazy, and we were breathing enriched air,” Peter said. “Our limit was 110 feet for our gear, so we slowly went back up 6 feet, but were still able to be down there for a few moments.”

“It was amazing,” Peter said, “Especially because you never would have been able to see the start of these tunnels from the surface, let alone where we ended up.”

“On dives like that, when I’m able to get my buoyancy right, and I’m slightly just floating up and down in the water,” Peter said, “It’s just how I imagine it would be drifting through outer space.”

Bucket lists and shark circuses

Despite adoring so many of his diving adventures, dive number 185 stands out as Peter’s most entertaining exploit. While in the Maldives, on another 10-day live aboard trip, Peter was able to realize a lifelong dream and see some truly unforgettable sights.

“Going to the Maldives was something really high up on my bucket list,” Peter said. “So much of the land is only about six feet above sea level and is at risk of being completely submerged one day.”

Each live aboard trip varies a lot, depending on what the dive guide has planned and scheduled before the boat has even set sail. In the Maldives, each morning for the dive crew started at 6:00 am with a bit of light breakfast which was quickly followed by the first dive of the day around 6:30 am. After about an hour underwater, the divers would return to the boat, relax and enjoy some time together, and then be back in water before lunch. Once they came back up, ate lunch, and took a short break, there was often another dive scheduled for mid-afternoon. Most days, everyone would surface after that, enjoy light snacks and dinner, and rest while the boat traveled to the next day’s location.

“On one of the special days, when we had a fourth dive scheduled, we’d come up after our afternoon dive, snack, and go back for another dive around 5:00 or 6:00 pm, followed by a late dinner,” said Peter.

For their last dive in the Maldives, a very special place awaited the divers. On dive 185, Peter went to a place called the shark circus.

“There were all of these nurse sharks that swam around us and rolled around in the sand like puppy dogs,” Peter said.

These gentle giants playfully moved around the divers, distracting them from a different creature approaching nearby. A four-foot marbled sting ray, protected by a very sharp barb in its tail, floated above the sand, swimming towards the scuba group and sharks.

“I loved every second of swimming with the sharks. I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie at times, and it’s just a great experience. With the stingray, it was amazing, just almost a little too close for comfort,” Peter said, laughing lightly.

Despite some of the dangers, and the need to travel far from his home, scuba diving is a passion that Peter holds very close to his heart.

“I love the thrill of the world travel, being able to meet so many new people, and interacting with new cultures and ways of life, plus being able to learn and have fun at the same time,” he said.

“It’s exhilarating to see so much other life in these places around the world,” Peter said. “I love scuba diving because there’s always so much going on beneath the surface of the water that it’s easy to forget about.”

Videos from the underwater world

You can check out some of the fascinating footage Peter filmed on a few of his diving trips.

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Written by Alexandria Stanfield, Editorial Content specialist for Corporate Marketing and Communications

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