A Pattern Breaking Title To Differentiate My Introduction From Others?

[Georgefromearth]

Hey Everyone

I'm assuming my individual story as to what lead me here is similar to many others. I found this forum while conducting research into various dive certifications and education processes.

About a month or so ago youtube suggested a video from Dive Talk and my interest was piqued. Through them I was introed to Mike Young, Brian Kakuk and Doug Ebersole's content. A side note - if you haven't heard of those guys - I find their content very enjoyable and expert level information.


About me?

Moving back to Lake Superior, never dived before. I'm looking for a fun and challenging summer hobby that involves teamwork.

Grew up on Lake Superior, swimming/fishing/canoeing etc, all the stuff you'd expect. Used to do a lot of cliff/bridge diving, snorkeling out at Amnicon/Gordon.

I'm an avid snowboarder, season pass-holder and try to go 2-3 times a week. Luckily there's a place close to where I'm moving. I don't mind driving, I regularly drive 4-6 hours to just do something interesting. I love good food.

I feel confident, barring some unknown medical issue, that Scuba is going to be a lot of fun.


Why Scuba?

Beyond the simple summer hobby, I enjoy planning and executing complex and technical tasks, especially with a team. That's the very definition of fun.

I'm immediately attracted to the complexities of Technical Diving. High levels of planning involved, working with people trained and disciplined enough to execute a plan/adhere to a plan, high standards. That's the type of environment I find myself just entering that peak flow state of enjoyment. Hard to put words to it. Hoping Scuba Diving can provide something near that.

Like most others before me, I've read a whole lot on the interwebs and lurked here for a bit. Also have a buncha questions that, even though a thread already exists, my specifically nuanced situation will probably warrant its own very unique thread.

I hope I don't disappoint. /s

fr though - I will probably make a thread soliciting advice on a training pipeline that will help me reach my goals, advice on areas in my region to dive and maybe some people to dive with. Being from the midwest, driving 4-5 hours to do something for a few hours and drive home is nbd.

 

[Capt.813]

Welcome! love the guys on Dive Talk, very interesting and fun to watch. I curretly only have my advanced open water, but soon i plan on taking the diver stress and rescue class, then advanced nitrox, then intro to tech, then we'll see where it goesfrom there. A few other diving youtubers i enjoy (differant format) are alec peirce, divers ready, blue world tv, lake hickory scuba, there are a few more but those are the ones that come to mind.

 

[Tripp]

Welcome to ScubaBoard and Howdy from Texas! Yep, you've found a great hobby that will become an identity.

 

[Marie13]

A Cheesehead!

I often dive with a group out of Madison.

Signed,
An “honorary” FIB (Michigan, not Il, native)

 

[drrich2]

Welcome. I only to recreational level diving, no technical diving, but you sound 'headed for tec.' at some point. With that in mind, a couple of suggestions if you haven't already gotten to it:

1.) You may be best served starting out with a back plate/wing setup rather than a traditional jacket BCD, as that's what you're more likely to encounter in technical diving. That said, you may end up with 2 setups, and here's why I say that. Watching the dive shop guy thread the harness webbing through my backplate/wing setup looked like a nightmare; I can't imagine swapping wings back and forth often (between a smaller wing for single tank diving and a larger one to handle twin tank diving), so you may want one setup for single tank diving and another for doubles.

Someone may come along and argue that wing swapping is no big deal; granted I have not done it (and if I have my way, never will!).

2.) Other threads will show there are different views on how to go about diving; GUE (Global Underwater Explorers) and D.I.R. (Doing It Right) come to mind. I'm not familiar with the adherence standards they expect, but it's possible you may want to go this route, so if you haven't already, read up on that before you buy much gear.

 

[Sawdust82]

Welcome to the dive world!

On another note, sounds like youd also be a good fit for firefighting. Not sure what the volunteer scene is like where you are, but you might want to look into it

 

[johndiver999]

Yeah, everyone (here) seems to always recommend gear that will be applicable to tech diving, when normally I think the advice makes little sense for the typical person starting out.

However, in your case, sounds like you know what you want to do, so pay A LOT of attention to buying the right gear ONCE.


Tech diving is expensive with respect to time, training costs and specialized gear. I would search far and wide for a suitable local mentor, who might be able to help you make as few mis-steps as possible on your new venture. Good Luck!

 

[Georgefromearth]

Welcome! love the guys on Dive Talk, very interesting and fun to watch. I curretly only have my advanced open water, but soon i plan on taking the diver stress and rescue class, then advanced nitrox, then intro to tech, then we'll see where it goesfrom there. A few other diving youtubers i enjoy (differant format) are alec peirce, divers ready, blue world tv, lake hickory scuba, there are a few more but those are the ones that come to mind.

Hey thanks, I checked out some of those channels, Divers Ready was very easy to watch a ton of. A bunch of great amount of information.

 

[Georgefromearth]

A Cheesehead!

I often dive with a group out of Madison.

Signed,
An “honorary” FIB (Michigan, not Il, native)

A Group from Madison? I have been looking into a lot of the schools/instructors in WI/MN/ area. There is a group in Madison, Diversions, the owner there seems to know her ****. At least by the resume posted, IE was awarded the Sheck Exely back in '08, women's HOF Diver etc etc. Among 3 pages of others haha. I'm still a lot of dives out from being eligible for that training, hopefully she still in the teaching game.

 

[Georgefromearth]

Welcome. I only to recreational level diving, no technical diving, but you sound 'headed for tec.' at some point. With that in mind, a couple of suggestions if you haven't already gotten to it:

1.) You may be best served starting out with a back plate/wing setup rather than a traditional jacket BCD, as that's what you're more likely to encounter in technical diving. That said, you may end up with 2 setups, and here's why I say that. Watching the dive shop guy thread the harness webbing through my backplate/wing setup looked like a nightmare; I can't imagine swapping wings back and forth often (between a smaller wing for single tank diving and a larger one to handle twin tank diving), so you may want one setup for single tank diving and another for doubles.

Someone may come along and argue that wing swapping is no big deal; granted I have not done it (and if I have my way, never will!).

2.) Other threads will show there are different views on how to go about diving; GUE (Global Underwater Explorers) and D.I.R. (Doing It Right) come to mind. I'm not familiar with the adherence standards they expect, but it's possible you may want to go this route, so if you haven't already, read up on that before you buy much gear.

Hey, for sure. Appreciate the advice. I am incredibly interested in GUE and could tell within 30 seconds of watching that their style of diving is exactly what I'm looking for. I would go GUE rec 1/2/3 if it was available near me.

Based off of my research, the most cost effective route is going to be to go to the NAUI shop in my state (all instructors unknown from the local PADI/SSI/NAUI), so I am just defaulting to advice seen plastered all over - "If you can take NAUI training, do it". I am looking to gain a total education, not just somebody to checklist me into the water. I mean hell, at this stage of the game anybody that's half intelligent could figure it out alone, but that won't teach you all the nuances or standardized drills for emergencies etc.

I appreciate the gear advice. I am definitely going bp/w from the start so I can build the muscle memory with what i'm going to dive with. On another forum I visit the DGX bp/w for 350 is highly reccommended for singles, so I snatched that up. Figure I'll grab the doubles plate/wing when I hit that stage.