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Aubie

Registered
Messages
13
Reaction score
13
Location
Atlanta, Georgia United States of America
# of dives
100 - 199
Hello everybody. I stumbled across this board while researching Galapagos liveaboards. I reside in the north metro Atlanta area and have recently started diving more. Got open water certified about 10 years ago and Advanced Open Water about 8 years ago, but was only doing one small trip a year (usually 4 dives) until this past year when I decided to start going more frequently and getting more dives in. In the past year I have had over 30 dives and am up to 85 logged, most of which came on a Bahamas Liveaboard. That liveaboard was great and now it is all I want to do.

Whereas I had some of my own equipment (mask, fins, wetsuit), I just took the leap and got a full set from our local shop after some recent rental equipment on multiple vacations having issues (mainly computers not working). So now I feel the desire to dive more and use this stuff and get comfortable with it. My trip to the Galapagos will be my first open water with my new gear. Thankfully some pool dives have helped get familiar with it.

My goals on this site are to continue researching areas to dive so I can be well prepared to make the most comfortable decision (I'm very analytical), but also to provide in-depth trip reports that may help others who are trying to research. For example, almost all of the liveaboard research focuses on the same areas - primarily what is in the water. While the diving is very important, many of the liveaboards travel to similar (or identical) locations, so knowing more about the yacht and the experience are what I care to learn and thus share. I would hope it would help others like me get a better feel for how to plan or what to expect.

Most of my experience is in the Carribbean, but want to travel all over. Places I'd like to visit include The Red Sea, Maldives, Hawaii, Palau, and Antarctica. There are probably a lot of places I haven't thought of yet as well. I would like to learn and experience cave diving, as well as dry suit diving. I believe I need to get a lot of cold water dives in if I want to dive in Antarctica. I love seeing wrecks and absolutely love the big marine life (which is why I had to choose Galapagos for my next trip). Sharks and Turtles are what I like to see the most.

One area that I want to continue to get better at is my buoyancy, breathing, and knowing my way under the water (I usually need to rely on others to find the boat). I have improved over the years, but still a lot I could continue to get better at.

Lastly, I am hoping to get oldest daughter into diving over the next year. She is about to turn 9. My wife used to enjoy traveling and diving, but not so much in recent years as she has other hobbies now. In the mean time and for the foreseeable future I am a single traveler on all my trips.

Liveaboard trips seem to be a great value and I will likely continue to visiting those over resort diving. I would like to do 2-3 a year if my job situation continues to be bless me
 
Welcome to SB! Sounds like you have a lot of goals. Another great resource for reviews on liveaboards and land-based dive resorts is undercurrent.org.
 
Thanks, I just requested to join the Facebook group. I will check out undercurrent.org as I will admit I have not come across that before. Most of my research has been via liveaboard.com and whatever Google will provide me.
 
Paul, I just posted my answers to all your questions about Calipso. Welcome to ScubaBoard! I was born in Athens, and lived in Atlanta from age 2 -5. We may have to meet somewhere and dive together, because my wife doesn't dive either!
 
Welcome. Based on your stated dive interests and future ambitions, a few links that may be of interest:

Cold water diving:
My Notes For Researching My California Dive Trip - My Notes for Researching My California Dive Trip Note: A lot has changed; Truth Aquatics had a terrible fire on one of their boats, the Conception, and many people died. California could be a nice way to ease yourself into some cold water diving...albeit nowhere near ice diving.

Big animals (you've been to the Galapagos, but my research notes write-up also has info. and links for the Socorros, Cocos Island and Malpelo), and you like sharks:
Morehead City, NC August 2015 - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/no...us-dive-center-aug-9-13-2015-trip-report.html
Jupiter 2014 - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/florida-diving/491927-jupiter-trip-report-9-7-14-9-11-14-a.html
Emerald Charters Trip Report 2017 - Trip Report - Emerald Dive Charters Trip Report
My Research Notes from Planning Galapagos Trip

My goals on this site are to continue researching areas to dive so I can be well prepared to make the most comfortable decision (I'm very analytical), but also to provide in-depth trip reports that may help others who are trying to research. For example, almost all of the liveaboard research focuses on the same areas - primarily what is in the water. While the diving is very important, many of the liveaboards travel to similar (or identical) locations, so knowing more about the yacht and the experience are what I care to learn and thus share. I would hope it would help others like me get a better feel for how to plan or what to expect.

Sounds great; that's also what I strive to do.

Places I'd like to visit include The Red Sea, Maldives, Hawaii, Palau, and Antarctica. There are probably a lot of places I haven't thought of yet as well.

Earlier on I had trouble discerning how to prioritize some of these prestigious far distant destinations. I still haven't been anywhere near that far away. A things I've noted from others' posts:

1.) If you want really great, diverse coral reef diving, Raja Ampat and Komodo (drift diving!) seem to get the most posts, with Papua New Guinea highly praised (and maybe even better, with WW 2 wrecks, but PNG is not nearly as tourist-focused). Raja Ampat was praised more highly than the Red Sea (though it has many fans). The Philippines are popular as more budget friendly and a little less distant, from what I understand. I mention this because earlier on, I got the impression Palau and PNG were the places to go, but over time I've learned there's more to it.
2.) Hawaii is famous for topside beauty, the water's cooler than much mainstream Caribbean diving and there are different islands to choose from (which complicates things). Known for endemic species. Friend of mine had a good time there.
 
Howdy! I'm from Atlanta too, and I just joined scubaboard to learn more as I grow as a diver.
 
Hello everybody. I stumbled across this board while researching Galapagos liveaboards. I reside in the north metro Atlanta area and have recently started diving more. Got open water certified about 10 years ago and Advanced Open Water about 8 years ago, but was only doing one small trip a year (usually 4 dives) until this past year when I decided to start going more frequently and getting more dives in. In the past year I have had over 30 dives and am up to 85 logged, most of which came on a Bahamas Liveaboard. That liveaboard was great and now it is all I want to do.

Whereas I had some of my own equipment (mask, fins, wetsuit), I just took the leap and got a full set from our local shop after some recent rental equipment on multiple vacations having issues (mainly computers not working). So now I feel the desire to dive more and use this stuff and get comfortable with it. My trip to the Galapagos will be my first open water with my new gear. Thankfully some pool dives have helped get familiar with it.

My goals on this site are to continue researching areas to dive so I can be well prepared to make the most comfortable decision (I'm very analytical), but also to provide in-depth trip reports that may help others who are trying to research. For example, almost all of the liveaboard research focuses on the same areas - primarily what is in the water. While the diving is very important, many of the liveaboards travel to similar (or identical) locations, so knowing more about the yacht and the experience are what I care to learn and thus share. I would hope it would help others like me get a better feel for how to plan or what to expect.

Most of my experience is in the Carribbean, but want to travel all over. Places I'd like to visit include The Red Sea, Maldives, Hawaii, Palau, and Antarctica. There are probably a lot of places I haven't thought of yet as well. I would like to learn and experience cave diving, as well as dry suit diving. I believe I need to get a lot of cold water dives in if I want to dive in Antarctica. I love seeing wrecks and absolutely love the big marine life (which is why I had to choose Galapagos for my next trip). Sharks and Turtles are what I like to see the most.

One area that I want to continue to get better at is my buoyancy, breathing, and knowing my way under the water (I usually need to rely on others to find the boat). I have improved over the years, but still a lot I could continue to get better at.

Lastly, I am hoping to get oldest daughter into diving over the next year. She is about to turn 9. My wife used to enjoy traveling and diving, but not so much in recent years as she has other hobbies now. In the mean time and for the foreseeable future I am a single traveler on all my trips.

Liveaboard trips seem to be a great value and I will likely continue to visiting those over resort diving. I would like to do 2-3 a year if my job situation continues to be bless me
Welcome to SB 😎
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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