Central Ohio Newbie

[Skipraha]

New to the boards and realively new to diving. Found this site while surfing and it is awesome.

Only got about 3 dives (1 Aruba wreck, 2 Peurto Vallarta crappy underwater rock dives!) beneath the belt with a couple of resort courses. Headed to Mayan Riveria in a couple months with my wife and if my tax return makes it in time I will be certified, otherwise another resort course for me.

Wrong place I know and I'll probably find the info elsewhere, but here are my 3 newbie questions.

1) Bought a Cressi Horizon mask today. Best fit of the ones I tried. Any qord on Cressi quality or brand quirks?

2) Headed about 60 miles / 80km south of Cancun. Any suggestions for dive shops or dives?

3) Wife only snorkels so I will be snorkling with her occasionally. Looking at Cresis Alpha-2 for snokeling (it will prob sit on shelf for scuba). Any feedback.

Looking forward to talking with you.

 

[DandyDon]

And welcome to Scuba Board. :happywave Put us in your Favorties and check in often. Hope you get certified soon; there's a lot more beyond resort courses! :hyper:

South of Cancun, eh? Playa del Carmen? Akamal? You might use SEARCH on the MEXICO forum, and narrow your questions down - best asked there.

Otherwise, just in case - don't do any Free Diving with 24 hours of Scuba. If you don't know why, we can detail that.

And I wear my snorkel on every dive. I know that many don't, but - it's a piece of safety equipment that I like to keep handy in case of a surface swim or wait.

don

 

[penguinbuddy]

Hi! And Welcome to SB! It's great that you found us!

 

[scubajoe]

You didn't say where you are from but you may be able to get certified locally for quite a bit less money. I haven't priced resort courses lately but if my memory serves me correct they are not cheap. You may be able to do the classroom and pool parts of the course for the same amount of money. Then do your checkout dives in Mexico. You can then spend more time diving then studying in Mexico.

Joe

 

[slowdiver]

Welcome Skipraha. Glad to hear from you. Hope you like your mask. I bought one about a year and a half ago for a trip to Hawaii. Wouldn't you know.. it got stepped on before my first dive and one of the side plastic frames got cracked and leaked. When I got home the Shop where I purchased it gave me a new one.. I couldn't believe it.
I really like the mask because of the side vision. Used it over 100 dives and still love it.
Enjoy.

 

[Skipraha]

I know it'd be cheaper, but I am afraid the job may interfere with getting a PADI course in before the trip. By resort course, I'm not planning on doing an entire OW cert, but the quickie temporary cert so I can get one or two shallow dives in while down in PDC.

I'm am actually from the Columbus area so any recommendations on local dive shops would be appreciated.

Don

BTW, Am I seeing things or does it seem like there are fifty "Don's" on this board and I don't mean the Italian kind

 

[AmyJ]

New to the boards and realively new to diving. Found this site while surfing and it is awesome.

Only got about 3 dives (1 Aruba wreck, 2 Peurto Vallarta crappy underwater rock dives!) beneath the belt with a couple of resort courses. Headed to Mayan Riveria in a couple months with my wife and if my tax return makes it in time I will be certified, otherwise another resort course for me.

Wrong place I know and I'll probably find the info elsewhere, but here are my 3 newbie questions.

1) Bought a Cressi Horizon mask today. Best fit of the ones I tried. Any qord on Cressi quality or brand quirks?

2) Headed about 60 miles / 80km south of Cancun. Any suggestions for dive shops or dives?

3) Wife only snorkels so I will be snorkling with her occasionally. Looking at Cresis Alpha-2 for snokeling (it will prob sit on shelf for scuba). Any feedback.

Looking forward to talking with you.

Hi there,

I'm also in Ohio and new to this...

I was wondering what you can me about PV? My husband and I are heading there in 2 1/2 weeks to do our OW cert. dives. Never been there.

However... the riviera... Our fav! place. Love it. Akumal is great and there are several (3?) dive shops there. Also great snorkeling.... try snorkeling at Ya-Kul, also in Akumal. There are also some great sounding snorkel/dive opportunities in the cenotes, but we haven't done that yet. Feel free to PM if you would like. where will you be staying?

 

[cstreu1026]

Welcome to the board. I haven't been to Mexico so I can't help you there. But you will find there are some very active divers in the area. I am not familiar with any shops in the Columbus area, but the ones I deal with here in the Cincinnati area are usually pretty flexible on schedules and will usually try to work with you get through the required material , especially those with their own pools.

 

[Big-t-2538]

Well, welcome to the board...

I too am an Ohio goo...I mean resident. What part of Ohio are all of you from...we call my little area Dayton.

Anyway...there is diving in OH for those of you who enjoy cold water quarry dives...or for those of you like me with a lack of time & $$ who just have to get in the water before someone is murdered.

Well, I can't offer much travel advice, or really snorkel advice other than if your wife is going to snorkel all the time, get a decent one...but I'm still not convinced a dry snorkel is all that the LDSs crack it up to be.

Enjoy the board

-T

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Greetings from another Ohio diver! Welcome to the friendliest board on the net, there's a ton of information to be had here, feel free to use the search function to see how much information you can get about different topics. Can't find what you need, just ask! We LOVE helping fellow divers! I did a quick search and found the following list of Ohio dive shops:
http://www.scubawizard.com/usa/ohio.html

Can you believe Ohio has that many! I'm sure you'll be able to find one that can work with your schedule.

Make sure you check out the Kentucky Piranha Patrol section of the board, that's where a lot of the Ohio divers hang out and discuss our local dive plans. You're welcome to join us once you're certified!

Have a great time on the board and on your trip!
Ber