When I met my girlfriend 8 years ago, and we started dating and talking about our interests, I said, as I always do to potential girlfriends, "I don't date a woman who either isn't scuba certified or isn't interested in getting scuba certified". She said "I dived many years ago with an ex, we did a few dives but I don't know if I am certified. I have all the books somewhere at home". I wanted to go to her house right then and there to check it out but that would have been a bit pushy and she might have questioned my true motivations which were in fact to determine her level of diving experience although I would not have been opposed to other activities should the opportunity arise.
As things moved along, I found myself at her house one evening and after a heavy makeout session I said "let's see your scuba paperwork". She obliged and rummaged through the papers in her file cabinets and presented me with her books and paperwork and sandwiched in between the pages of the PADI OW manual was her C card still attached to the paper with the glue that you can roll in your fingers like boogers.
I said "You are in fact certified, and you got it done in cold water conditions (Dutch Springs, PA) which is much more difficult than warm water diving, I'm impressed." I think we had another make out session after that but I digress.
I spent the next few weeks obtaining gear for her via my favorite dive shop in the world which most know as Ebay. Once she was so equipped we did a shore dive off of Bayville, Long Island which features depths of up to around 25' and even has a good sized wreck usually holding a fair amount of fish. She was absolutely petrified when we got in the water- she's anxiety prone anyway- but it's a great refresher dive, being a gradually sloping beach into calm water. 20 minutes later she was happily stuffing large clams into her mesh BCD pocket.
We started diving wrecks off of local dive charters in between Atlantic and NJ- these are cold, dark, low vis dives in depths from 80-120' typically with current which makes tropical dives a walk in the park. During a subsequent trip to Belize she got her AOW certification (and Nitrox) and has amassed about 80 dives over the past few years.
Hope that helps somehow