Why do we love submarines ?

[Kapitan]

Many of us here are "naval nerds" and we have our special boats that we love and we also tend to have our own era that we like to talk about.
Obviously I am a big fan of Russian design and built Ships and submarines and my era is the cold war to modern day so i cant comprehend to much when people ask me about sailing ships like the 3 masted schooner or the frigate.

So what is it that drives you to love Naval bits? well for me I have had a good sense of what systems are what given that I have been able to jump borders so to speak what attracts me to Russian designs rather than the western designs (I am from the UK) is the design element everything looks different than anything any one else produces.

Delta IV SSBN by Blair shaw, on Flickr
Project 949A Antey by Blair shaw, on Flickr

For example there is nothing like this in the west design wise so thats the reason i prefer the Russian stuff.

So what got you guys into it former service? general interest? perhapse family? do explain