Any scuba divers?

[yinan]

For the person that mentioned Ramons, the Belize Blue hole is the dive I went on when someone died.

 

[wetech]

Hold your breath and swim to the surface as fast as you can...

But on a serious note, been certified for almost 25 years. Great sport. I would start by renting most equipment until you're sure you're going to stick with it. Don't know what the temps are in the water in MI, but I'd imagine pretty cold. A drysuit will set you back$1k, decent regulator setup, BC, etc is another 1k, easy. So yeah, it gets expensive.

If you're looking for more warm weather diving, the Carolinas are great, same for the Florida Keys. Also done Hawaii, Jamaica, and the Great Barrier Reef (which was oddly disappointing, not the best conditions when I went out). NJ has some great wrecks off the coast, a lot of WWII ships; but a drysuit is highly recommended.

 

[GasX]

For the person that mentioned Ramons, the Belize Blue hole is the dive I went on when someone died.

well that sucks. When I did my night dive to get advanced, someone died in another group. It was at Dutch Springs quarry in PA

 

[wetech]

well that sucks. When I did my night dive to get advanced, someone died in another group. It was at Dutch Springs quarry in PA

That's where I was certified as well. When did that happen?

 

[GasX]

about 10 years ago, but google says there have been several fatalities there since.

 

[purbeast0]

this thread is seriously depressing me because i haven't been to tropics since last may, and i MAY go somewhere in september if i can swing it. but if not, i don't know when my next vacation to white sand clear water beaches will be

 

[yinan]

That's where I was certified as well. When did that happen?

Last year.

http://www.sanpedrosun.com/accidents-and-disasters/2014/07/04/one-man-dies-blue-hole/

I was on that dive. Some freaky, creepy stuff.

 

[Darwin333]

http://www.ramons.com/

You are welcome...

I dove the Blue Hole when I was 17. It was a remarkably breathtaking experience, hard to even put it into words how amazing and beautiful it was.

 

[notposting]

Poop.

Got certified through PE Class my freshman year when I still lived in San Diego. Of course, for our open dive they dumped us in the bay, which was not Jacques Cousteau Caribbean views, it was more like a seaweed filled oil slick at night.

Heck the pool at school was better, no wetsuits and the girls all in their bikini's. Left San Diego for the midwest after that school year and haven't been back since - did get lifeguard certified the following year but that is long since expired as is the scuba.

 

[KMFJD]

Thinking about getting certified, what should i be looking for in a reputable dive shop? what's a good price?

 

[GoodRevrnd]

If you wear glasses, get a prescription mask.

I went through the class. Sunday I do the pool and then next weekend I go to Catalina island to do the certification dives

Not me, but yes the fish at Catalina island really are that orange.

Go dive Anacapa as soon as humanly possible. Favorite place I ever went--even over Hawaii and Thailand (I did not dive the best those places have to offer though).

 

[Exterous]

Thinking about getting certified, what should i be looking for in a reputable dive shop? what's a good price?

I would look for a place that has small class sizes, will take the time to go over why things are they way they are and will go beyond the basic certification teaching requirements. My instructor covered several things that OW didn't require but could be important things to know like how to actually calculate decompression stops. Diving on the rec cert should not involve a decompression stop but, as he said 'People do dumb things or get distracted by sea life.' He also made sure that any area I was a bit weak on we went over in later classes as well - just to make sure I retained the knowledge.

We also focused a lot on trim, buoyancy control and swim techniques

It took longer than getting a cert at some other places but having seen the quality of some of the graduates of other programs I am thankful. My first dive was 4 months after getting certified but I was showing more recently certified divers with 4-6 dives how to put their gear together and was way more efficient in entry and air usage.

I think mine was around $650 for a materials, classes, certification dives, snorkel, defog, boots, bag, and mask. I remember thinking that was a bit high compared to what I was seeing online but my two choices around here were him or a large class cert mill. Seeing other new divers only solidified my thinking that I made the right decision

 

[Paladin]

Also, make sure it's PADI certified instruction.

Got certified through PE Class my freshman year when I still lived in San Diego. Of course, for our open dive they dumped us in the bay, which was not Jacques Cousteau Caribbean views, it was more like a seaweed filled oil slick at night.

I've never heard of bay diving here! Most if not all shops here in San Diego do their certification dives at La Jolla cove or shores.

 

[Stopsignhank]

Go dive Anacapa as soon as humanly possible. Favorite place I ever went--even over Hawaii and Thailand (I did not dive the best those places have to offer though).

Did not work out for me. I think I was apprehensive about it because they kept talking about your dive buddy. I don't know anyone else who is certified so that sucks.

Then I had a HORRIBLE instructor. They split our class into 3 groups. Our group never got out of the water for 6 hours. The other groups ate lunch and took a break outside the pool. Not us. I also popped both ears when we were going to the bottom of the pool. Then she talked about how much air we were using and how we would probably not finish. Ended up having a panic attack towards the end while I was under water.

I just stick to snorkeling now.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I'm debating whether or not to make the time and money commitment to do decompression diving. Rebreathers also interest me, especially the newer semi-closed rebreathers (SCR). Right now I take my freediving stuff where ever I go, but I've yet to find a lightweight and compact SCUBA setup. I need to crunch the numbers but I don't believe a SCR will be any lighter than a standard open-circuit setup.

My dream setup would be to have a relatively light SCUBA setup that allows for long bottom times and can be operated *away* from a dive shop.

 

[Anubis]

well that sucks. When I did my night dive to get advanced, someone died in another group. It was at Dutch Springs quarry in PA

That's where I was certified as well. When did that happen?

was certified in the same place like 12 years ago

sucks

anyway the Caymans has some of the best diving around, i def suggest it

 

[DrPizza]

I did my check out dive at Bainbridge quarry in PA. I enjoyed the dive in that quarry quite a bit.

To the OP: unless you have a close friend to dive with or a spouse to dive with, you may not get many opportunities My wife gets claustrophobic with a mask on - and you do NOT ever dive alone.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I did my check out dive at Bainbridge quarry in PA. I enjoyed the dive in that quarry quite a bit.

To the OP: unless you have a close friend to dive with or a spouse to dive with, you may not get many opportunities My wife gets claustrophobic with a mask on - and you do NOT ever dive alone.

No, plenty of people dive alone, photographers being a big group. PADI even offers a certification for it.

Carry a pony bottle with an independent set of regulators you can switch to in case your primary goes out and dive a more conservative dive plan.

The vast majority of all my dives are solo shore dives.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Got open water and search/rescue certified in high school. Hooked up with some buddies who were part of the volunteer fire squad. Best bunch of folks you could ever hope to have for dive buddies. Very safety conscious. We all dove Carolina wrecks for a while. They also did a fair amount of search/recovery work that I would tag along for occasionally. The worst was searching the bottom of a nuke pond for a gun. Could not see AT ALL. Totally done by feel.

I've since dove florida and bahamas but do not have a trusted buddy with whom to dive. Diving with strangers is sketchy. All my certs have lapsed and no real interest in doing it any more. Snorkeling is plenty fun enough for me.

 

[GasX]

All my certs have lapsed and no real interest in doing it any more.

They never expire, but some resorts will ask you to do a quick refresher before they let you dive

 

[monkeydelmagico]

They never expire, but some resorts will ask you to do a quick refresher before they let you dive

Good to know. I still have the old PADI card in a drawer somewhere. Kept it for memorabilia. Did not realize I could still use it! Honestly though since I haven't gone diving in nearly 20 years it would be prudent to take the whole course over. Very dangerous pastime.

 

[Apathetic]

The three main diving certification groups are PADI, NAUI, and SSI. Make sure your certification will be through one of them.

Dave

 

[Red Squirrel]

Blueberry pie is the best! I remember going blueberry picking a lot with my grandma as a kid. She'd make a whole bunch of pies when we got back, in the morning she'd also make pancakes with blueberries in them. It was awesome.

Edit: Ok this is weird, no idea why this reply ended up here. I was replying to the blueberry thread. I'm going to leave this here just because.

 

[Exterous]

The three main diving certification groups are PADI, NAUI, and SSI. Make sure your certification will be through one of them.

Dave

Mine is actually through PSAI which seems to be well respected by the couple of places I've gone diving.

 

[purbeast0]

I'm leaving to Grand Cayman tomorrow to do my certification dives on Friday and Saturday. I'm both excited and nervous about it. Depending how comfortable I am during those I may do my Advanced OW certification while there too, which would mean 5 more dives, 2 more on Saturday, and 3 more on Sunday.