Beginner diver in hilo

[Robert singleton]

Aloha, I have been certified through SSI for about 30 years. I have not dove in about 20. Used to dive weekly in California when I was stationed there. Have lived in hilo for 7 years and have been snorkeling all over the big island. I want to get back into diving and am looking for a club in hilo that I could go out with.

 

[NorCalDM]

I would go talk to Bill at Nautilus Dive in Hilo he’s been teaching and leading shore dives there for over 30 years. We use him every time we are in Hilo to dive.

 

[DanSinks]

The local dive shop will have either refresher classes in scuba or maybe you might want to take an advanced open water class.
If you hook up with a local dive club that's cool but some seasoned divers might shy away from diving with a person who has not been on a dive in 20 years, they may feel you are in need of a refresher. Getting your gear organized and ready will take some effort. Even though you have 10 years of diving experience, a class will tie everything together for you in an efficient way and be a good introduction to Nautilus Dive Center(if you go there).

 

[diversteve]

I don't think there's anyone else except Bill at Nautlus on the Hilo side. No dive boats either afaik. maybe you could find a private instructor?

I'm pretty sure Nautilus is PADI. If you want to make the drive over to Kona, I believe Kona Honu and Blue Wilderness can do SSI refreshers.

 

[DanSinks]

If you want to do the advanced open water, it will serve the purpose of a refresher as well as cover new areas. The PADI shop will most likely accept your SSI as an acceptable prerequisite for AOW(at least they did for me when I did the PADI AOW with an old YMCA basic cert)

There are definite differences to the way things are done now compared to 30 years ago, for example back then in my YMCA Basic Scuba course they taught the decompression tables as something you needed to know in case you wanted to do that, but today the basic diver or AOW diver are advised not to do decompression dives.(at least that's what my instructor seemed to say, please correct me if I'm over stating this)