Hello from Central California, USA

[marginwalker]

Greetings! I am a new diver who has recently completed OWD with the local PADI dive center along with my girlfriend (perma-buddy) here in Fresno, CA. She's looking to make a career of scientific diving while I am just here to have some fun and learn while being challenged in new ways. I had never really given scuba much thought, but she convinced me to give it a go. Wow... so glad I did and am totally hooked!
We have taken one boat trip on the Spectre out of Ventura to dive Anacapa Island which was a really fantastic experience. We are now looking to start doing some shore diving in Monterey to gain more experience and enjoy the scenery. We both bought mask/snorkel/fins/boots/gloves for our initial training dives and are now looking around for all of the other gear we need to be able to dive without using rentals. Likely to buy BPW and also considering the long hose/primary donate setups as well. We'll probably start with buying exposure suit and computer first and leave the decisions about the rest of the rig until we get a few more dives under our belt (I currently have 7 dives and she has 11). Looking forward to joining the conversation here and learning from all of the various experiences of SB users. Cheers!

 

[drrich2]

Welcome. You've done cold water diving and are already aware of BP/W and the long hose primary donate issues. You're ahead of the game compared to a lot of freshly OW-cert. divers. Enjoy the California diving!

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I love the Spectre, great boat and loads of fun!

You’ll love Monterey too. Get a handful of dives at the Breakwater. It’s rather benign shore diving but great for experience and some fun sea lion action along the breakwall.

Pacific Wilderness dive shop in San Pedro has all of that style gear you’re looking for.

Welcome to Scubaboard and scubadiving!

 

[Tripp]

Welcome to ScubaBoard! You're very fortunate to have a built-in dive buddy!

 

[Regulatrix]

Welcome! It's really rewarding, in my experience, to share an activity like diving with one's SO. Best wishes for many further adventures together.