Big Dan K
Contributor
My name is Dan and i am both old and large. I was certified in college 30+ years ago. Dove some both before and after certification with college friends. My only diving after that was an occasional vacation dive every few years. Skills were always rusty, but always came back after a few minutes of diving. Life got busy and I did not dive for 17 years before resuming on a trip. Since I also need some advice about my next trip, I am going to be frank about my return to diving. I took a refresher and a couple of short shallow open water dives with the instructor. He did his best to help me and seemed to think I was ready, but I was definitely not. Three dives the first day and I started rusty on the first dive and fatigue made it worse by the end. I knew I should have sat out the last dive, but it was the USAT Liberty and the reason I wanted to dive there in the first place. I almost quit again, but decided to do two tanks with a private DM first. It helped a lot. After Covid I went looking for close beginner friendly diving. Found Scubaboard while researching replacement gear. Did two days of two tank diving with private DM before trip. Felt Ok on skills, but worn out after each day. Went nitrox in AKUMAL and did two three tank days with private AOWI. Thought I dove as good as ever by the end. No noticeable fatigue using nitrox. Heading to Cozumel this year and doing a local dive first, then a SSI AOW bundle before I go. Planning a night dive and have not done one in 20 years, so the course seems attractive for practice. My question in what dive op I should use. Need for a night dive has me looking at ScubaTony or Aldora. My wife will only let me dive 4 days, so the larger tanks with Aldora are appealing. But is it biting off more than I can chew? I am 57, 6’4” and 270 pounds with medication controlled hypertension. Averaged 54 minutes with somewhat underfilled AL100s on last trip, so I am also an air hog. Is Aldora reasonable for me?
