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SCUBA / Diving / Diving license

Volcomism said:
I've read the Yelp reviews, and they're fairly mixed. Here are the SouthBay local shops I've seen:

http://www.anywater.com/index.php
http://www.diverdans.com/
http://www.aquaticdiscovery.com/index.html
http://www.aquasafaris.com/index.php

Anyone have any opinions on these shops and their instructors?

(I'm asking here, because I want to see who else here dives :teeth )
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Back in 97 DiverDans was the only 5star padi on the west coast. Greg Conklin was a great instructor....no other reason I would remember his name after 12+ years. Probably have good luck with all of them though.
 
Nice to see some fellow divers here. I became a PADI instructor last year and teach through the Anchor Shack in Concord/Pacheco.

I agree with the advice to get certified here before a trip. Once you dive Monterey, you can dive anywhere in the world....just don't let it go to your head and sign up for challenging dives/conditions at your destination. If you can do the advanced certification here before the trip, then that is even better. The "advanced" class is not really advanced, but more like part 2 of the open water class.

Dive agencies - In the Bay area you will pretty much see PADI and SSI for recreational diving. The instructor and shop will make much more of a difference than the agency choice will. It starts to matter if you want to get in to teaching at a resort location - then PADI has the advantage because of coverage.

Yelp - I treat those reviews with a grain of salt. Yelp has their own way of determining which reviews to show...so not all reviews are necessarily visible and part of the overall ranking. I think it has to do with how many reviews each user has made overall.
 
peteg said:
Again, the quality of instructor is more important than the certifying agency.
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:thumbup

One thing, though, that PADI does - and I don't know if NAUI does - is that you can order a replacement certification card online, and then print out a copy immediately.

Helpful if you're the kind of bonehead that flies to Australia without the cert card, and notices the night before the dive trip. Not that I would do that. :mad

Piling on to what everyone else says - I got my certification and did my recent refresher (Monterey) in cold water, and I'm glad I did. The Great Barrier Reef was a cakewalk in comparison, and it was great to be able to just enjoy the views. :)
 
Volcomism said:
Are there any benefits to getting NAUI instead PADI? or are they just competitive?
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Don't worry about one vs. the other. Get a cert. I've been diving all over and I've never seen any dive card refused. The curriculum is pretty close either way. Just get out there and get wet. Its mostly about relaxing and trusting your equipment. Monterey has lots of cool diving. If you can shore dive in Monterey, you can dive anywhere.

In the next few weeks I'm thinking about heading down to Santa Barbara to do a live aboard with the Truth boats.

Anyone know what happened to Dive'n'Board?
 
How many peeps here are DAN members?

https://www.diversalertnetwork.org/default.aspx

Just having to re-up for '10 and wondering if anyone has any experience using any of their services?

Thankfully, the only thing I've used them for is recommendations and advice about an ear/sinus pressure equalization problem and they were moderately helpful. They gave good advice, but the doc they recommended is not longer practicing medicine, so a bit of a wash.

Gonna re-up though, I think so anyway.
 
I'm in DAN. The mag has some decent articles. Never had to use their services, but if I was in deep poo, I'd like to be able to get my life saved or my trip not completely blown.
 
Even tho I haven't been diving in a year or two, we still keep our DAN membership active because the travel insurance is a steal, and covers non-diving trips as well. I'd like to get a drysuit cert and go diving in Monterey (I got my AOW in Texas, so I've never dove the cold stuff) sometime this year.
 
Researched DAN a while ago, and I got their Preferred Plan to cover me while out of the country. I also like the Trip resources and Education Trainings they have available on the website.

+1 for DAN.
 
my instructor was Frank Degnan, he does NAUI. Im both NAUI and PADI Certified (PADI first, then NAUI cuz i got the cirt for free thru the class). Good stuff.
 
anyone interested in diving during the xmas break? pm me, i just bought a drysuit
 
#1Freak and I just got certified last weekend.

Ready to go! We're planning on diving again in mid January and I'll be taking my Advanced classes during that time too.
 
Bumpin this mofo. Pool training last weekend, check out dives this weekend. (hopefully, wouldn't you know Japan is trying to stop me?) Picked up the rest of my gear from a fellow barfer. Once cert'ed spear fishing begins.

Going through SSI @ Captain Aqua's in Hayward. Instructor is great. Used the pool at Chabot. Lots of room to mess around in.
 
Going to take my brand new cert card, and newly serviced reg, wife and some friends from the class and dive next Sunday. Putting together the dive plan (cause it's still new, exciting, and fun)

Dive one, planning on diving the Metridium Fields, 1 tank. Dive two, looking for a good feature. Might just dive the second tank in the kelp bed. But planning on going out of Breakwater or McAbee Beach.
 
Is your wife newly certified as well? Did you guys go to the metridium fields in the class? If this is your first dive outside of class with other newly certified divers, then I think the met fields are kinda ambitious. If you guys did your class dives on the sandy side of Breakwater, then I would do dive 1 there and then do dive 2 on the pump house side of Breakwater....it is a short walk down the beach, but a totally different dive.
 
Wifey's been cert'ed for a while. And it wasn't my first dive weekend. Going to base it on conditions of course. Same with the others going. 1 just got cert'ed the other has been diving a while. Looking forward to getting back into Monterey. Will post up how it goes.
 
Had a great dive yesterday. 3 full tanks blown through.

Dive 1 ended up being a scouting dive to the pipe. Neither of us had seen it before yesterday. Alot of swimming north as we didn't have good bearing to drop down with. Once we found the pipe, we explored the wasteland around it, surfaced, and noted all of the visuals to come back to.

Dive 2 was terrific. Long surface swim to our noted points. Dropped down and found the pipe immediately. Followed a heading of 30 degrees down to about 55' and found the beginning of the metridium field. Finished off our tank in that area, enjoyed a slow ascent and long surface swim back. Time for an ocean kayak.

Dive 3 was exploring the wall. Lots to see, I didn't eat properly and ran out of energy. Was a brutal swim back, but muscled it. Ate everything in sight and drove home.

Weather was pretty sweet, water viz was mediocre except for the metridium field. Then it opened up to 20' or so.
 
Made a plan to dive Lovers Point and Otter Cove Last Sunday, the 17th. Got to Aquarius for air fills and found out some lame bicycle race was going on. They suggested Monestary South. It was a calm day, we had done a bunch of research into the beach, but hadn't dove it yet. Decided it was as good a day as any.

Arrived and enjoyed the ease of free parking. Let the dog out to run the beach while we surveyed the surf. 2 divers were exiting, and gave us a chance to watch the Monastery crawl. Got suited up, made our entrance. Getting in is very similar to falling down a grassy hill. Swam around the kelp and straight out. Came upon rocks and explored for a tank and returned. Exit was not as bad as people make it out to be. It was also a very calm day.

Second dive - After relaxing and refueling, got our suits back on. This time we followed the terrain on the south. Got into rocks immediately. Got to molest a young halibut, and chased off a 3-4' ling cod. Tons of sizable rock fish everywhere. Ended up swimming too far out and had a hell of a surface swim over kelp. But, it gave me a chance to get to know my new computer. Exit was almost too easy. Inflated bc, slight sideways stance, wait for the last biggest wave, and let it place you right on the beach, then run like a little girl before another takes you out.

In other news, first Ab trips in May, and my speargun came in yesterday.
 
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