How to meet San Diego divers?

[Quero]

I've just certified a new diver here in Thailand who lives in the San Diego area. He's aware that he now has a "license to learn," and in that spirit, he'd like to find some dive buddy/mentors and/or a private instructor to dive with him as he continues to solidify his skills. He's got ten warm-water dives so far and is working hard on maintaining good trim, stable buoyancy, and breathing patterns for comfortable dives. Can you help welcome this new diver to SoCal and maybe point him in the direction of a good mentor/club/instructor?

I'm sending him a link to this thread so that he can join SB and participate in this and other discussions.

 

[geoff w]

Check out the Power Scuba meetup at Power Scuba (aka Scuba Diving in San Diego County ) (San Diego, CA) - Meetup I was in San Diego in November for a wedding and looking for advice for a shore dive one morning. Bill Power was extremely helpful. Even though the conditions were less than ideal, my wife and I still had a great dive. There were somewhere around 50 divers in the area for classes. It seems like they do some dive event at least once a week

 

[liuk3]

A good start would be for him to introduce himself, fill out his profile on scubaboard, and post in the socal section like you are doing (only he needs to do it for himself). There is definitely a strong community of active divers in San Diego. The Internet is a wonderful way to plug into them. When I came out of open water, I met my first dive buddies from scubaboard. There are also dive clubs all over the place. You just have to show up and see if you like the vibe of the people.

 

[drbill]

Power SCUBA is a great suggestion... Bill has created a great group of active divers in the San Diego area. Another suggestion is to join the divebums e-mail list (see their website at Divebums - A San Diego Dive Website). And, of course, the SoCal forum right here on SB.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Can you help welcome this new diver to SoCal and maybe point him in the direction of a good mentor/club/instructor?

The Divebums.com email list is an excellent way to get hooked into the diving community here in San Diego. There are active, helpful, experienced people diving beginner-friendly sites (e.g., La Jolla Shores) everyday. All your student has to do is show some initiative in seeking out new dive buddies.

We also have many dive clubs in the area, such as Power Scuba. Most have some sort of affiliation with a local dive shop. Tell your student to inquire about clubs at any of the local shops.

Many of the divers here in San Diego get certified in local water (cold temps, low vis) and continue to dive locally because, for lack of a better way to describe it, they don't know any better. Eventually, they do a warm water trip and see how different/wonderful that kind of diving is. At that point, some people give up on SoCal diving altogether. The challenge your student will have is that his expectations might be set for warm water temps and high vis conditions. Dealing with a thick wetsuit, surf, no tropical fish might be difficult to get past. Hopefully, he'll get hooked up with someone that can show him all that our local water has to offer. There's an abundance of life here if you know where to look.

Hope this helps...

 

[Quero]

I knew I could count on all of you to provide some really excellent suggestions such as Divebums and Power meetup! Thanks!

A good start would be for him to introduce himself, fill out his profile on scubaboard, and post in the socal section like you are doing (only he needs to do it for himself).

I agree completely. As I said, I've sent him the link. He's on a plane on his way home, and I'm guessing a pile of work emails to get through when he does log on to a computer, so it may be a couple of days. I just thought I'd jump-start the discussion a little so he's got something to look forward to when he is able to check the link. (Believe me, in my role on SB, I know how helpful it is for us "SB veterans" to guide new members into our community in a welcoming manner.)

The challenge your student will have is that his expectations might be set for warm water temps and high vis conditions. Dealing with a thick wetsuit, surf, no tropical fish might be difficult to get past. Hopefully, he'll get hooked up with someone that can show him all that our local water has to offer. There's an abundance of life here if you know where to look.

Hope this helps...

Actually, I've made sure to give him a heads-up about water temps so that he can adjust his expectations, and he's had a 7-mm wetsuit tailored while he was here in preparation for the colder water. But of course buoyancy control and weighting will be different in all that rubber! We didn't do any shore diving, so that will be a new skill set altogether.

Thanks again!