girlfriend had been trying to get him into diving for a while but he’d been scared,” said Young. “And I said let’s do it together. One thing led to another and now we’re on our way into diving.” Young began his diving training with PADI’s eLearning. PADI eLearning courses allow beginners to complete the classroom portion of certification at their own pace, whenever or wherever it’s convenient for them. The eLearning system consists of interactive presentations that include videos, audio, graphics and reading, and is available in seven languages.
Since Young lives in southern California, he was able to go to PADI’s head office for his confined water dives. This is followed by two open water dives and completion of his diving certification.
Another reason Young chose PADI certification was because he found when he did some research that PADI certification was accepted worldwide. This was important to him because Young travels a lot. The BMX circuit takes him all over the world, including some of the best diving places like Thailand, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia. PADI has over 5300 dive shop and resort members worldwide. Although Young spends most of his days on the road practicing and competing on his bike, perfecting his killer tabletops and 360s, he’ll be taking sometime to check out the local marine life.
“I’ve been to so many places and now I’ll have the opportunity to go out and see what is underwater and check out the reefs and wreck ,” said Young. “Diving seems so cool to me.”
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.