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SCUBA / Diving / Diving license

Hey Im under water for longer then 20mins. That counts! right?! :( :laughing

August I think is free for us. And yes I know you have to get it serviced regularly. Still got all the class room info in my head ;)

Next weekend..hmmm lemme talk it over with my other half and see what he says. :thumbup Breakwater is where I did my open cert.
 
Anybody ever done Bonaire or Caymans? We're trying to book some time over xmas and new years and we want to start in the FL Keys and go from there.

Too many choices and we don't have unlimited $$, so need to figure out what's best for us.

We want to get in more local diving too. Maybe Channel Islands, but that ain't that local I guess...
 
Let me ask my friend about the Caymans'. She was an instructor there for a while.
 
A Point Lobos trip would be realy cool, no pun intended. I would go.


Kim, the more relaxed and comfortable you are in the water, with equipment and buoyancy the better your air/gas consumption.
 
slydrite said:
Anybody ever done Bonaire or Caymans? We're trying to book some time over xmas and new years and we want to start in the FL Keys and go from there.

Too many choices and we don't have unlimited $$, so need to figure out what's best for us.

We want to get in more local diving too. Maybe Channel Islands, but that ain't that local I guess...
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We are doing the Channel Islands sometime this summer. Doing a long weekend trip to do some diving. :banana
 
slydrite said:
Anybody ever done Bonaire or Caymans? We're trying to book some time over xmas and new years and we want to start in the FL Keys and go from there.
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From my friend:

heya. yes i dived grand cayman. there are 3 islands. fabulous deep wall diving. would recommend being at least at advanced level to enjoy all that it has to offer and not being limited to dive sites. i loved every minute, some of my most favorite reef diving ever. they also sunk the SS kittiwake a couple of years ago a massive wreck. be prepared that its not a cheap island. so depends. from Oz to caymans you wont be suprised. USA to cayman its pricey in comparison. hope this helps.
oh and i have a friend that works for a dive shop calle DNS (diving and stuff) diving. she's great. one of the best instructors that i know. hope this helps. x
 
I got my cert (SSI) back in '94 when I was in Mississippi. I then continually moved farther north and eventually to inland Germany, so I ended up having only about 10 dives over the past 18 years. Now that I'm back near the coast, it would be nice to do some more diving. My wife doesn't dive, so that makes finding dive time hard :). I recently bought a BCD and Reg, though. So now I only need to rent a suit and tank (if I plan to dive before I leave the house). It would probably be a good idea for me to do a "refresher" dive with a dive school to un-rust my brain.

Point Lobos might be a cool short trip for me, if I can get away. Put me in the "possibly" category.
 
Man reading about all this diving makes me miss it so much. I only have like 25 dives under my belt. But I can't do anything this summer with a broken leg :(
 
Damn. I miss diving. Last dive was back in the Philippines back in 2009 I think. I try to dive every time I go back for a visit. Planning on another trip early next year... any takers?? :teeth

Close to 100 dives before I moved here in 1999. Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh why must you tease me like this!!! :laughing
 
Kim said:
We are doing the Channel Islands sometime this summer. Doing a long weekend trip to do some diving. :banana
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Yep, same for us - we'll be down there sometime this summer. Never been before.

Volcomism said:
From my friend:

heya. yes i dived grand cayman. there are 3 islands. fabulous deep wall diving. would recommend being at least at advanced level to enjoy all that it has to offer and not being limited to dive sites. i loved every minute, some of my most favorite reef diving ever. they also sunk the SS kittiwake a couple of years ago a massive wreck. be prepared that its not a cheap island. so depends. from Oz to caymans you wont be suprised. USA to cayman its pricey in comparison. hope this helps.
oh and i have a friend that works for a dive shop calle DNS (diving and stuff) diving. she's great. one of the best instructors that i know. hope this helps. x
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Sweet, thanks for that. :thumbup

Looks like we've decided that - if one is going to go, one should go big.

So we're going to do Miami-Key Largo-Key West-Bonaire-Miami, with diving in Key Largo, Key West and of course Bonaire and general debauchery, especially in Key West.

We're going 12/19-1/1 to take maximum advantage of holiday time (fewer vacation days burned), escape winter and I have about $800 in United credit to burn, plus we'll use miles to upgrade on the SFO-MIA leg. Super stoked - this'll be an epic trip for our humble selves!!! :banana:party
 
Dude right on! You better post up pics and video! If you need a dive camera you could borrow my GoPro w/ Dive housing.
 
Kim said:
We are doing the Channel Islands sometime this summer. Doing a long weekend trip to do some diving. :banana
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I'd suggest doing the advanced class before your trip so you get your first exposure to some new experiences in a training environment before doing it with a buddy on the trip. I think this mix of intro dives is the most rewarding for the advanced class:
- Boat
- Deep
- Night
- Navigation
- Peak Buoyancy control


On a Channel Islands trip:
- You will be doing a giant stride from about 6 feet in the air...having done it on a Monterey charter first will be a good intro.
- At Breakwater you probably didn't go much deeper than 30 feet. On a CI trip you will have the opportunity to go deeper than that.
- You will have the opportunity to do night dives...which are awesome.
- The compass is an amazing device that will help you get near the boat before surfacing.
- The better your buoyancy, the more relaxed you will be.

Overall, you want to limit the number of 'firsts' that you have to deal with outside of training.

FWIW my favorite CI charter is the Horizon out of San Diego.

When possible, continue your training to Rescue Diver. My opinion is everyone should at least be rescue trained.
 
Some friends and I are diving in monterey on saturday (16th) if you want to join.
 
o rly! ^^ Breakwater?

I'm a spoiled warm water diver, but I'm tempted to join you in my 7mm w/ no hood. Let me inspect my gear and see if I'm ready by Saturday.


I think the Rescue Course is a decent course to learn, but I wouldn't want half the people that we've passed trying to rescue me. I've been put in more harms way helping teaching that course, than I have in my recreational diving.
 
CannonFodder said:
I'd suggest doing the advanced class before your trip so you get your first exposure to some new experiences in a training environment before doing it with a buddy on the trip. I think this mix of intro dives is the most rewarding for the advanced class:
- Boat
- Deep
- Night
- Navigation
- Peak Buoyancy control


On a Channel Islands trip:
- You will be doing a giant stride from about 6 feet in the air...having done it on a Monterey charter first will be a good intro.
- At Breakwater you probably didn't go much deeper than 30 feet. On a CI trip you will have the opportunity to go deeper than that.
- You will have the opportunity to do night dives...which are awesome.
- The compass is an amazing device that will help you get near the boat before surfacing.
- The better your buoyancy, the more relaxed you will be.

Overall, you want to limit the number of 'firsts' that you have to deal with outside of training.

FWIW my favorite CI charter is the Horizon out of San Diego.

When possible, continue your training to Rescue Diver. My opinion is everyone should at least be rescue trained.
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Agreed. But having done zero dives seems as though jumping right into advance wouldnt be productive would it? We are going in the summer sometime and I dont see finding anytime in the future to plan another class or doing a bunch of dives. Im getting married in October so that is taking up a lot of time right now.

I plan on eventually doing advance then definitely doing rescue. As I believe it is a good thing for everyone to know. Just dont see all that happening within a year. Perhaps a couple of Monterrey trips are in order. Just finding the time at the moment is tough.
 
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Kim said:
Agreed. But having done zero dives seems as though jumping right into advance wouldnt be productive would it? We are going in the summer sometime and I dont see finding anytime in the future to plan another class or doing a bunch of dives. Im getting married in October so that is taking up a lot of time right now.

I plan on eventually doing advance then definitely doing rescue. As I believe it is a good thing for everyone to know. Just dont see all that happening within a year. Perhaps a couple of Monterrey trips are in order. Just finding the time at the moment is tough.
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Advanced is just a PADI Marketing term. The first thing you want to master in diving is your buoyancy, which this course helps you control. Without correct buoyancy you're going to be swimming with your arms, floating up and down, filling/dumping your bcd all the time, and using about 30% more air than others. I always sign up my OW Divers into the Advanced Course the following weekend so I can help them out with their other skills.

Also compass control can save your life. My :2cents .

The AOW Course is only 2 days. So if you can find the time, it's worth it. The Rescue Course is good once you get about 20-25 dives under your belt. Til then don't worry about it, just do your Advanced and have fun trying new things.
 
Yeah advanced is really 'open water part 2' - it is the application of the basic skills you learned in OW, but now in different scenarios/conditions.

Most AOW classes are comprised of newer divers, like Volcomism says. You will get more out of it if you do some dives before AOW, but you should do AOW before the CI trip.
 
+1 on taking advanced open water asap, you'll get at least 5 more ocean dives in & it will keep you diving with all those skills you'll be set for the channel islands trip
 
Well ok then! For watever reason I thought it would be silly to immediately take the AOW without having done any dives myself.
 
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