Did you do a Discover Scuba?

[TSandM]

I had a ton of fun last night with six very nice people in our shop's pool. All of them had snorkeled, but only one had ever been on scuba before. I really enjoyed introducing them to the equipment and the experience of diving (and would you believe it, the 12 year old boy ended up in a perfect hover in midwater, and cleared his mask for me?).

I got to thinking, after I went home, about what the experience meant to them, and I wondered: How many of you did a Discover Scuba before you got certified? How did it affect your decision to go on to learn to dive? What did you like about the way it was run, and what would you have had done differently? (I'm particularly interested in pool sessions, since that is what we do here in Puget Sound.)

 

[scallop]

I had always wanted to dive but there always seemed to be something else that came up and never did anything about it. Flash forward to 2011 and on vacation in Myrtle Beach my then 10 yr old son much to my surprise saw an ad for a discover class and talked me into it. I could not get clearance from my Dr. at that time to do the ocean portion (had some med issues) but he did ok the pool. It was better than I had ever expected. This experience hooked both me and my son. After coming home and consulting with Dr. received clearance to be fully certified. Ended up doing another discover class here in Columbus with a few other family members to see if they liked it, some did some did not. Ended up finishing class portions here and going to Key Largo for check dives in Dec. of 2011. If we did not do that first discover class I highly doubt either myself or my son would have even considered certification.

 

[00wabbit]

I did 3.

The first was in Cancun.
We did our pool session in the 4 ft swimming pool. It was a little weird sitting on the bottom while people were walking around. I took to it well and didn't have any real issues with equipment. My wife tried too but she couldn't get comfortable equalizing so the instructor helped her out while I laid at their feet breathing under water.
She ended up not going on the open water dive so I went by myself. The open water dive was from a boat and there were about 4-5 other discover people there.

The boat motored out away from land into open water. The depth was only around 30ft but it made me a little nervous. I didn't want to get left behind. I had some trouble getting down to depth. I know now that I went too far before equalizing.

I don't remember much from this dive thoug because I was so focused on following the instructor. I just remember watching his fins. I felt very safe though because there was at least 5 divers with us for the 5 discover students.

After this dive I was just kind of "meh" on the whole experience.

Another year we went to Cozumel and they took us to a beach club on the south part of the island. My wife and I were snorkeling here and I saw divers go underneath us about 20ft down. We had been snorkeling every day and I wanted more. When I saw them down there I wanted to be them. There was a guy with a scuba stand there so I signed up for another discover. This guy didn't have a pool. But we went through skills and the flip chart on land then when we got in the shallows he confirmed the skills.
This time it was just me and the guide. I also had my digital camera in housing and he saw that so he looked for things for me to photograph. We saw eels, octopus, tarpin. We did some cool swim throughs.
This dive I was much more relaxed because we gradually went to depth from the beach and I was able to keep my sense of direction. Also the water was crystal clear.
This is the dive that hooked me.
We went back to the beach club later that week and I dove with this guy again.

After that trip I told my wife if we are going to the warm water again I am getting certified.

last year my wife's father scheduled a cruise so I got certified. Originally I thought I would just be a warm water diver, but now I have a drysuit and dive year round.

 

[Scuba_Noob]

I did one around three or four months before I got certified. The guys said how much life there was in the Pacific Northwest, and I'm sure that info influenced my decision to eventually get certified.

 

[CoasterFreak]

Sure did. I was very fearful of ear issues, and so I saw the $40 Discover SCUBA class as an insurance plan. All it took to is to be on my knees in four feet of water, breathing normally woe watching the kids play at the other end of the pool. Two months later I was certified.

 

[Tessunderwater]

I guess yes since my LDS does a first class session at a cheap price. They basically show you how to set up gear on the tank and breath off the regulator in four feet of water. Basic mask clear and regulator recovery. I was hooked and signed up for more classes after that. Fast forward 3 years and 105 dives later, I'm getting ready to take a cavern class.


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[NAM001]

No. They did not have that when i did my first.

 

[yodelhawk]

I tried snuba once many years ago and told myself that i would get certified before the the next tropical vacation. Life got in the way and did not get it done. On the vacation to the Bahamas I was given a DS class by my wife and once back home did not put it on the back burner. Loved the personal attention and the safety that was stressed. It sure got me hooked

 

[macado]

Yes. I was in Cancun (11 years ago?) and saw they were advertising it. I was always interested in diving though I thought it might be too hard or not affordable so I never tried it until then. As soon as I got home from vacation I started heavily researching classes and got certified the next year.

Without discover scuba, I probably would have never became obsessed with diving.

 

[Wineaux]

Yes, I was planning to take the classes before I found out about the Discover class. I was all over getting to try it before signing up for the class and buying everything I couldn't rent. I loved it! I did that one with my boyfriend and then another one with a friend who thought she might want to take the classes too. They were with different shops and were very different experiences. The first one was very structured, some time in a classroom, watching a video, going over the questions, etc. in the pool the gear was all set up and we went over some skills (reg out/back in and clearing, mask clearing, swimming in the shallow end to get used to buoyancy) before getting to swim around the deep end a bit. The second was very off the cuff, just stood at the edge of the pool to gloss over the questions, we got to watch the gear be set up (mainly because it wasn't ready ahead of time) and then got in the pool. We didn't really go over any skills, just got to start swimming around, so to let my friend see some skills I started doing some so the instructor would go over them with her. Then we just swam around some more. That was in January... I just finished my Advanced class last weekend! I have recommended the Discover class to just about anyone who has expressed any interest at all.