How the heck do I get started?

[TSandM]

To answer a couple of your questions that haven't been addressed: What an open water certification from any agency gets you is the ability to get air fills, rent scuba equipment, and go out on charter boats. I have never gone anywhere where a dive operator hasn't wanted to see some proof that I had passed a training course. A couple have wanted more than an open water cert in order to allow me to do certain dives (particularly deeper ones). Yes, an open water certification will let you go places and see LOTS of cool stuff!

How long will it take? A lot of classes are given over a single weekend. My OW class ran over three weeks, with six classroom and pool sessions, and two weekends of OW dives. I think spreading things out that way helps you do some mental integration between sessions -- but at any rate, you can easily finish an OW class between January and April. The only problem with that may be where you are, as it may be hard to find someplace to do the open water dives at that time of year. (I don't know, and that's something to talk to a shop about.)

Now to my opinion: Have you ever gone skiing? Skiing is tremendous fun . . . when you reach a certain skill level. Before that, it's pretty much frustrating, and you don't get to go to the cool places on the mountain, and you don't see very much. Plus, you're a setup for an accident, especially if you end up on a run you didn't realize was too hard.

Diving is a lot like that, except the stakes are frequently higher. As a brand new diver, you're often so preoccupied with simple executing the mechanics of diving that you don't see very much. In addition, with poor diving skills, being down there is a lot of work, and your tank doesn't last you very long, which means you paid $150 for a dive charter in order to enjoy a couple of 20 minute dives. In addition, a poorly trained new diver encountering ANY kind of problem during a dive is a setup for an accident.

The way to avoid that is to get good training. Spending a little more money and a little more time on a class that gets you more pool time (more PRACTICE!) and more attention from an instructor, puts you into the water on that Cancun trip more relaxed, more capable, and prepared to have a lot more FUN.

Just my two cents' worth . . .

 

[Heatherly30]

Wowee...this is quite overwhelming. Guess a good starting place would be to call around here in town.

Main question from all of this I have read. We will do our book work, then practice dives in a pool. To do our actual test, we will either do it here in Ohio, or in Cancun. So if we do it on Ohio, where will we do it? In a pool, or outdoors somewhere? How long will that take? How many sessions. More importantly, if we do it in Cancun, how long will that take. don Francisco mentioned 4 sessions. We will only be in Cancun for 4 days, but only 3 days with freetime. Will we even have enough time? Will we be better off doing it up here? Due to the $$, I don't think we'll even be able to get started until after the new year. Due to the cold weather will it even be possible to test up here?

Thanks for all of your help! Hmmm...our birthdays are 9/27 and 9/28, maybe we can talk our families into helping us with at least one of us...

 

[tomboone]

Heather, welcome to the forum, and welcome to my boat, because you are very close to where I am now. I live in Cinci (Price Hill), and although I've never snorkeled or scuba'd before, I'm jumping in this month with my classes and cert dives. I get free flights through work, so we're in similar situations with relying on trips for fun dives.

I'll tell you my plans as it might give you an idea of some possibilities. This Mon I'm starting my clases at the Scuba Shack (I'll talk about the local dive shops, or LDS's below), and they are Mon and Weds nights for 2 weeks. They include classroom and in pool work. Almost immediately following that, I'm going to Hawaii for the 2 days of certification dives (2 dives per day). Assuming all goes well, I'll be certified then.

As far as places in the area for classes, there are 2: Central Coast Diving ( Scuba Diving in Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky region ) and the Scuba Shack ( The Scuba Shack - Scuba Diving in Kentucky, KY, Cincinnati, Indiana - Home ). They are both around Florence.

I found Central Coast to be slightly more "uppity" and the people seemed geared a little towards more experienced divers. Your experience may be completely different. I liked the Scuba Shack, as it seems to have a smaller and more personal approach. Both places gear was fairly pricey, and although there are numerous reasons not to buy online (fitting especially with masks, returns, lack of immediate service, etc), I decided to as I saved probably $150. Both places classes are similarly priced, but the Scuba Shack is so only if you sign up...actually, today is the last day for their "July special". With it, both places are similarly priced (around $350 for the basic class and the student book, dvd, etc).

Feel free to check both places out, and if you decide to jump in, I'll be in the class starting this Monday night if you and your husband can get in . If you have any other questions (about either of the LDS only lol because I'm still a noob about gear and most other things), let me know.

Tom

EDIT TO ANSWER ?'S:
The test dives for both places are held regularly at quarries within 1-2 hrs of Cinci. Both places also do semi-annual trips to various places worldwide where the cert dives can be done. I realized that believe it or not, doing the cert dives elsewhere can be relatively cheap (not including other costs of the trips if done nonlocally such as airfare, hotels, etc). If you do your dives in Cancun it will take 2 days, and you need 1 day (well, 18-24 hrs depending on saturation; this is a whole other non-beginner topic lol) after diving before flying home. It could likely work based on having 4 days in Cancun.

 

[blackcloud]

My reply is going to be a little differnt than most I would look to get my training done completely now get your open water dives complete this summer. The water temps will still be comfortable until october. After getting your c card rent equipment and make some nice easy dives in the lake or quarry where certified this will give you more experince and make you more comfortable underwater then a month or so before your trip go to your lds and ask for a quick refresher on the skills and a little extra work on bouyancy this will make your vacation so much better because you will be more relaxed and you will see more of the amazing life underwater

 

[highdesert]

About gear ... you will find countless threads here by noobies asking what gear they should buy, and hundreds of responses suggesting they wait to buy gear until they rent some different setups and get a feel for them. Sure, it's nice to have your own snorkel gear (mask, fins, and snorkel) up front, maybe even a wetsuit. But you can get all of that, and of decent quality, for about $350 if you shop carefully. But a BC and reg set are big $$$, and that's where a rental might be a good place to start.
And steer clear of any shop that tells you that only the gear they sell is decent quality, everything else is junk, and insists that you buy a full set of gear from them for your class. They are simply taking advantage of you.

 

[TishaDee]

My husband and I are both NAUI and PADI certified, so we know a little about the differences both in training and in costs.

~PADI offers e-learning which is $120 just for the online books and quizzes, in addition to the instructor fee for the pool work, open water dives and final test. Most dive shops charge around $299 for their piece of the action which again is in addition to the PADI e-learning fee and in addition to the $25 fee PADI charges for the C-Card. Some shops will offer you better pricing on the class if you agree to buy all of your personal gear from them. PADI requires 2 nights of pool work and 2 days of ocean dives, so it's feasable to be certified within two weeks time. Although, chances are your c-card won't arrive for a month or two, so you will need to request a temporary card to bring along with you.

The Pros to PADI are: The training is regulated and scripted, and therefore consistent from one dive shop to the next, meaning everyone is required to teach the same things, in the same manner everytime, everywhere. Secondly, PADI is probably the most recongnized agency worldwide, mainly due to their aggressive advertising.

The Cons to PADI are: Training is divied up into many many specialities, which can mean that you'll end up spending a lot more money over some of the other agencies for the same knowledge and skills.

~NAUI does not offer an e-learning option, so you will be required to attend the classroom sessions and although NAUI does offer an "accelerated program" most of the NAUI dive shops (at least here in Northern CA) don't offer them strictly on principal. So you are looking at several nights of classroom work (spread out over a few weeks) in addition to the 3 or 4 nights of pool work (it's been a while, so I don't remember exactly but it was a few days) and then you will need to do 7 ocean dives (the first one is a skin dive, so it's really 6 scuba dives and 1 skin dive). The costs for NAUI is usually around $399 but that does include your C-Card. That said, unless you take the accelerated class, then you are looking at approx 4 weeks until you are certified and again you would want to request a temporary card just in case your c-card didn't make it in time for your trip.

The Pros to NAUI: It requires more from a diver to certify them (which can be a con if you just want a card and don't care about the quality of education), it's tables are slightly more conservative (SIT, MDT, MOD, etc.), and you get to choose 2 specialities with each level of dive training you take, so you don't pay extra to learn what some other agencies charge you for (although they don't issue speciality cards, so if you are a card collector NAUI isn't for you).

The Cons to NAUI are: The training is not scripted so each instructor has full autonomy to teach as he/she sees fit, so doing your homework to find a good instructor is necessary.

That said, I can only speak from my experience and my experience as far as training goes has been limited to only Northern CA. So fees and some of the other things will vary from location to location and dive shop to dive shop. Call around and do your homework to make sure you make the best choice possible given your circumstances and goals.

Either route you go, you will be required to own all of your own personal gear (mask, fins, snorkel, and if your in temperate to colder waters...gloves and boots) I think both training agencies are good for different reasons. I am not suggesting that one is better then the other, I am merely presenting what I have learned about both from my own experiences.

Since we've established that you're probably looking at approx $300-400 each for training regardless of the agency. Now to answer your question about overall cost. That's a tricky one because it depends on the type and quality of "personal" gear you buy. If you're the type who likes top end best of everything, then you'd be hard pressed to keep it under $500 each inlcuding classes. But if you're o.k. low end products, then you might be able to hit your price point. But as I always tell my husband, quality only hurts once. You buy a cheap mask, but then find it leaks then you'll have to replace it. You buy a high end mask that fits right and it will last you for you years. You buy cheap fins and they make your legs cramp cause there so stiff, then eventually you'll spend money to buy the good ones that don't make your legs cramp. So I said it before and I'll say it again quality only hurts once.

Now I'm sure there will be a few people who feel the need to have the last word and say how all they buy is cheap gear and how it works great for them and they would never spend the money on the more expensive stuff..but hey everyone is entitled to their oppinnion and that's my 2 bar on the subject.

 

[TSandM]

If your time in Cancun is that short, ABSOLUTELY do your open water dives at home. You do not want to spend precious warm water time kneeling in the sand, flooding and clearing your mask!

 

[redrover]

With such little time there in Cancun, have you considered just do a Discover Scuba dive or two? And see how that goes before committing what appears significant $ for you to be come Certified divers.

 

[NancyLynn]

Some people will tell you to do a "referral" do the class and pool at home and then do the open water on vacation. I am against this as when you are on vacation, why do dives where you kneel on the bottom, remove your mask, and other skills, and follow around an instructor. Get it all done at home that way when you are on vacation, you do the dive you want to do.

Since you're going to Cancun, I suggest a referral course, wherein you do your pool and class work in Ohio, and then do the 4 open water certifiaction dives in Cancun, or if you can swap your lodging, Cozumel.

My reply is going to be a little differnt than most I would look to get my training done completely now get your open water dives complete this summer. The water temps will still be comfortable until october.

If your time in Cancun is that short, ABSOLUTELY do your open water dives at home. You do not want to spend precious warm water time kneeling in the sand, flooding and clearing your mask!

Here's my take on the referral v. complete certification before you go:

There are advantages and disadvantages to both. I went the referral route out of necessity. By the time I decided to get training before my trip to Austrailia, there weren't any classes I could take and still complete the checkout dives before the trip. It turned out to be perfect for me.

If you go as a certified diver to a place with boat diving, you will generally be treated as if you are as skilled as everyone else on the boat. This can be disconcerting if the only dives you have done ahead of time are the minimum checkout dives. There is generally a big push to get off the boat in a hurry to keep everyone on roughly the same schedule - or if you are drift diving, to keep the pack together in the current.

As a diver-in-training, you will have more personal attention from a trainer, and you will generally be permitted a more leisurely entry into the water from the boat since the expectation is that you don't know what you're doing yet.

As has been mentioned, a potential disadvantage to going as a diver-in-training (with a referral) is that in order to become certified you have to spend some dive time proving you can perform the skills to get your C-card, and you may miss out on seeing everything you want to see.

It wasn't much of a disadvantage, in my case - but it potentially is, particularly if the number of days you can dive is short. In my case, the time on each checkout dives was about evenly split between skill performance and exploration - and I was on a liveaboard so there were a number of opportunities to dive beyond the checkout dives. In addition, there was so much to see and the water was so clear during the checkout dives that I even enjoyed kneeling on the sand looking around while the other waiting for each of the other divers to perform their skills.

A disadvantage to completing certification before you go - at least in northern Ohio, the quarries are cold and nothing to write home about. If I have to kneel on the bottom and take my mask off (and sit there while others do the same), I'd rather have decent visibility, comfortable temperatures, and colorful critters to watch. The quarries in southern Ohio may be different.

As for agencies - here's my two cents about the two I have experience with. My daughter certified through the YMCA and I certified through PADI. Between the two, I would recommend the YMCA for all divers who are younger or less sure of themselves as swimmers and/or in the water.

The PADI course moves quickly and doesn't formally allow for much pool time (although the instructors I had were willing to provide extra sessions if needed). The YMCA course has stricter requirements to get into the course (300 yd swim, as opposed to 200 yd, and 15 minute treading water as opposed to 10 minutes), and includes both more classroom sessions and more OW sessions.

There are risks associated with diving - and I believe those are greater for younger divers (who may find it more challenging to integrate the classroom learning) and for folks who aren't already fish. I think the additional training and slower pace of the YMCA program helps lower the potentially higher risks for folks in those two groups - although it's not a bad idea for anyone.

 

[don Francisco]

As far as timing is concerned, most Cancun operators operate on a basis of two dives in a day with a 1 hour interval between them, so you'd need 2 days for the OW certification, leaving the 3rd for 2 regular dives if you want to and if your flight schedule allows. Diving is usually in the AM and typically ends by about 1-2PM, leaving time for other activities.

Asssuming you're fairly well pool-trained in the skills, they can be done fairly quickly, leaving time on the later two dives for some general sightseeing.

When I was certified in Rhode Island we did all the skills in 3 dives and the instructor had us plan and execute a regular dive under his observation for the 4th.

I'd hate to see you use up most of your vacation on a course, but the alternative is trying to do the OW dives in Ohio in the winter. One wild idea: given what your spending on airfare to get to Cancun, consider lengthening the trip, adding a few days in Playa del Carmen, or Cozumel.

The other suggestion, skipping the certification and doing resort courses also makes sense, but ends up costing more and leaves you where you started.

There is no easy answer, but with planning you should be able to work things out. dF