Water Sports - Dive World and Epic Big Wave Surfing

I came across a couple of places in Second Life where one can enjoy some aquatic activities: Dive World and Epic Big Wave Surfing.
Dive World is both the name of the location and the sim in which it is located.
Here, one can do some virtual diving. But to get the suit for the sim, one has to join the PADI group, short for Professional Association of Diving Instructors.
After that, just go the the Tropical Beach area down the walkway from the main building. Click on the suit on display, then once received right click and select “replace outfit” (for those with furred avatars like me, it will take placing some parts, the mask, breather, and fins, and using edit to shift their location to fit better). The suit is more more than just looks. The watch computer measures depth and time, and other attachments are for horizontal swimming and the bubble effect.
Once getting the suit fully fitted, one can go swimming in the water as opposed to just walking down. One can’t get too far away from the shore at the Tropical Beach area. But the colorful scenery underneath the water helps to make up for it with schools of fish, rock formations, and coral reefs. Occasionally there will be reminds of what one should do in real diving such as not getting too close to the coral.
Besides the Tropical Beach, there are two other environments.There is the Arctic Ice area, where one can see a shipwreck, a giant squid, and a whale. There is also “Seaside” which offers deeper ocean diving. Recently, Dive World put in a maze-like cavern for cave diving there, which can be a little tricky to navigate in, but is well worth the effort.
In real life, it’s highly advisable to dive with someone else due to Murphy’s Law having potentially fatal consequences underwater. Fortunately this being Second Life one can dive alone, though it’s more fun to dive with a friend. As it turned out, yours truly encountered someone whom while new to SL was an experienced diver and was curious about the sim. Her opinion of Dive World, “Wow, this is amazing!”

Epic Big Wave Surfing, also known as Moana’lina Beach, is located on the Weather Channel Island sim.

Despite the name, the island is anything but boring. To get to the beach from the main building, walk down the path from it, then make a left at the crossroads. The area itself is inspired by Peahi beach, a favorite of real-life surfers.
Getting set up is a little simpler than Dive world. Just change to a swimsuit or shorts, then grab the free board from the shop. You can choose whether only you can ride the board, or let a friend use it as well. One doesn’t wear the board to surf, but place it by rezzing it in the water from your inventory. Then get on and paddle to the waves.

In simple mode, your avatar will automatically start surfing once close enough to the waves and at the right angle. It will probably take a few tries to get the “hang ten” of it, but before long you’ll be ripping the waves and going down the "tube" (the cresting wave as it falls on itself).
My friend I met in Dive World went to Epic Surfing as well. She found it a blast.
Surfing is not Weather Channel Island’s only attraction.

By all means take the time to go skiing and trail bike riding.

By Bixyl Shuftan