Best Place To Learn? And an OW Certification Question

[KathleenR]

My husband and I have never been diving and are thinking about learning before we go on a trip to Nicaragua and Costa Rica this winter. Are some places in Northern California easier to learn in than others? We're willing to go up to Bodega Bay or Salt Point or down to Monterey Bay.

Also, how well should we swim/tread water/float before taking the OW certification course? One of the LDS websites I looked at says that you need to tread water or float for 10 minutes before studying for certification. My husband and I are both decent swimmers, but he is slim and muscular (read: dense/rock-like, doesn't float), so he doesn't think he could stay above water in one place for that long. Should he practice treading water before we take a scuba course?

 

[fmw625]

The first pool session we swam 200 yards and floated/ tread water for 10 minutes. I too sink in water. This was the hardest part of the course for me. We did get about a 10 min. break between swim and float/ tread water. I wound up using survival float after about 7 min. of treading water. Longest 10 min. that I can remember, but I made it. After that just relax and enjoy the course. I certified PADI. I think most others are about the same. BTW I'm 53 years old and had not done any serious swimming in over 20 yrs. You sound like you both are much younger than I. If I can do it should be no sweat for you all.

 

[Brian Gilpin]

My husband and I have never been diving and are thinking about learning before we go on a trip to Nicaragua and Costa Rica this winter. Are some places in Northern California easier to learn in than others? We're willing to go up to Bodega Bay or Salt Point or down to Monterey Bay.

Do you really want it to be easy? Or would challenging be better? Most Nor Cal classes will go to Breakwater in Monterey or a protected cove on the north coast so don't worry about that. Try to find a quality instructor in your area.Do you have someone in mind?

If you really want it easy then do your classroom and pool training here and get a referral for your trip so you can do your open water in warm clear water. If you decide you want to dive locally after that you could do an advanced class in Monterey.

Keep us posted

 

[divenut2001]

If you can dive here you can dive anywhere.

 

[mech]

Ditto on being able to dive anywhere.

 

[Wristshot]

I am from San Jose, and I trained here in town, and I did my cert dives in Monterey.

First, the tread water was the hardest part for me. I was paddling and straining for the entire 10 minutes. It might have been good if I had practiced a little bit before hand, but who knows. (my buddy is super bouyant so he just laid back and almost feel asleep the ba$tard!)

The 200 yard swim was tiring (cause I am old and don't exercise enough!) but if you ever surfaced a distance away from a boat, you would want to know that you could swim a distance if you needed to.

Before we got certified, we heard from several people that old saying about if you can dive in Monterey, then you can dive anywhere. We also heard that people with "resort certifications" have to do check out dives at other resorts, but Monterey-trained divers don't have to. We thought, "yeah, right." However, since we got certified, we really have seen a difference in some cases, and many friends have echoed the sentiment.

In Key Largo once, when they found out that we had been certified in Monterey, we were dismissed as not being a problem while another group was "interogated" about their dive training and skills. They were even suggesting that the others should pay for a DM to accompany them on their first dives. I know that is extreme, but it really does tell people that you can dive in less than perfect conditions.

If you learn in the difficult Nor Cal conditions, then most vacation conditions should be a piece of cake.

My instructor took us to Lover's Point in Monterey for our check out dives because he hates how crowded it gets at Breakwater. One of the entries at Lover's is an easy beach entry, the other is a tough rocky stairway and rocky beach entry. We started at the tough one. I feel that facing hard stuff at the beginning set the standard for me, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

(I am not comparing my dive training to SEAL training but..) During SEAL training they push the recruits to (or beyond) their limits. Then when they are out on a mission and things go bad (like when Mr. Murphy shows up) and they will, then they have already endured worse.

Nothing I have encountered yet has been as challenging as our first certification dives. I feel that I could dive the PNW or just about anything normal because of my training. (I know that some of you out there dive in conditions that would be too much, but I don't consider that, or you, to be normal.)