How to find dive buddies

[Swimadam123]

I am not scuba certified yet, but I am planning to get certified around august/september in time for college, which is only 15 minutes away from the beach. Once I have everything set up gear and certification wise, how would I go about finding dive buddies? There is no scuba club at my college, but the beaches nearby are fairly popular for scuba diving. Any help would be appreciated

 

[KatieMac]

I am not scuba certified yet, but I am planning to get certified around august/september in time for college, which is only 15 minutes away from the beach. Once I have everything set up gear and certification wise, how would I go about finding dive buddies? There is no scuba club at my college, but the beaches nearby are fairly popular for scuba diving. Any help would be appreciated

Start by looking for people who dive out of the shop you want to dive out of. The dive shop will be able to connect you with people in the area. They may also have a facebook page where you can connect with other divers who also dive with your preferred dive shop.

It would also help if you revealed some details about where you will be going to school/nearby beaches so you could connect with people on this board

 

[formernuke]

What @KatieMac said. Also look into dive clubs (Facebook might have some) in your area. There is a regional section here on scubaboard where you can also find some.

 

[Mark Newland]

There are several clubs near me that use "Meetup"

 

[OTF]

start a school dive club and dive on the school's dime

 

[TMHeimer]

Yes, what KatieMac said. I found my first dive buddy by adding my phone no. to a sign up board in the local shop. Years ago that was taken down-- for privacy perhaps. I have found several dive buddies on the FL panhandle, one in NYC and one locally by using the area/country subforums on Scubaboard.

 

[Rick Brant]

I found a great one on divebuddy.com. It was a fluke really, we were the only two people on Kauai looking for dive buddies at that time. We ended up being very compatible and have 100+ dives below us now.

 

[Chavodel8en]

There are likely many Facebook scuba pages in Los Angeles area - do a search on Facebook. It is how I find buddies.

Meetup.com is also a resource - there are likely several scuba Meetup groups as well.

You can either find informal buddies or a more structured scuba dive club - I am sure there are many in So Cal.

Also, note that scubaboard has a So. Cal. regional forum as well.

 

[oly5050user]

I am not scuba certified yet, but I am planning to get certified around august/september in time for college, which is only 15 minutes away from the beach. Once I have everything set up gear and certification wise, how would I go about finding dive buddies? There is no scuba club at my college, but the beaches nearby are fairly popular for scuba diving. Any help would be appreciated

Try to network with others in your open water class, take continue education classes at the Facility you dive with

 

[Bert van den Berg]

You would be amazed how many dive buddies you would have if you owned a boat!