Intoduction - hoping to get back to diving - question

[richl025]

Well, I always ignore these introduction threads, but since I'm starting off asking a question, I suppose it would be polite to introduce myself after all....

I used to dive for the military, and used to do some recreational and cave stuff in Florida. This was back in the good old days (j/k) when the best internet source of info was the USENET newsgroup rec.scuba. Seems like USENET has faded into obscurity, and some poking around with google suggests this is a well-attended replacement.

I have been in the water very sparingly since leaving Florida (2002) and got rid of all my old dry suits, steel stanks etc, but kept some basic recreational gear. I'm now looking at taking a trip to some warm water destinations with my S.O. who is not dive qualified, but interested in becoming so.

She is most assuredly NOT interested in cold-water diving, and although the diving up here is supposed to be spectacular, it's _always_ cold water in the Pacific Northwest...

I was thinking of getting her a "referral course" so she can do classroom & pool work up here, and OW dives shortly afterwards in a warm destination... but poking around the websites for the local dive shops, they don't really seem too excited about referral dive courses. I understand they hope to get people excited about diving locally, but I don't think that's an option for my girl

I suppose another option is just to do a full course at a resort location, but then you lose some valuable vacay time to classes and pool stuff.

I was curious if anyone here had any experience with either of those 2 options, and could chime in with their thoughts?

 

[sandpointyuma]

If you wait 6 months the lakes in north Idaho are very comfortable with a 3mm. I'm out of Sandpoint where there's one dive shop (a bit more expensive) or try Coeur d'Alene and Spokane Valley, WA where there are several who all do a nice job.

Make it a fun week or weekend; they'll git 'er done if she's read her bookwork and can go through the classwork without much ado.

 

[scubadan1962]

Hi, my wife and I learned to dive on holiday and it was great fun. Yes, you have to devote some time to the classroom but the instructors remember that you're there on holiday and it is nice to share the common experience with a group of other people. We found that we were spending a lot of time in the coffee shop/snack bar chatting with our new found friends and all fearing the mask removal test. It becomes part of the holiday and it is over quite quickly and you are away doing the real dives.

 

[Insta-Gator]

Hi, my wife and I learned to dive on holiday and it was great fun. Yes, you have to devote some time to the classroom but the instructors remember that you're there on holiday and it is nice to share the common experience with a group of other people. We found that we were spending a lot of time in the coffee shop/snack bar chatting with our new found friends and all fearing the mask removal test. It becomes part of the holiday and it is over quite quickly and you are away doing the real dives.

+1 : my thoughts exactly. It's all part of the vacation (holiday I could hear the accent in my head )

 

[orlandoscuba]

Another option would be doing e-learning online. It is expensive and you pay more then just doing the regular course. But all you would have to do is take the paper from the course, do a 1 page scuba review page, and do the confined and open water checkout dives.

This is how I originally did it with PADI. Just another option.

 

[richl025]

Thanks Orlando, I'll look into that!

 

[TSandM]

Rich, I don't know what shops you talked to locally, but the one my husband teaches for has no problem doing referral classes (Bubbles Below in Woodinville). In addition, if you are interested in private classes, either NW Grateful Diver or Blitz are down in the south end, and both are very accomplished divers and teachers. I believe Blitz teaches through Tacoma Scuba as well (and that shop has a VERY good reputation among local divers).

If you have any other questions, or if I can help you in any way, please just shoot me a PM. And should you want to get back into local diving at all, yourself, we have quite a community of cave-trained folks who are a lot of fun to go diving with!

 

[randyf]

Rich, I recommend considering Kona, Hawaii. Your SO can get certified with Jack's Diving Locker in clear, relatively warm water. (It is warmest from June through November, when I use only a skin and sometimes a nonneoprene hooded vest, but tolerable year round with a 3 or 4 mil wet suit.) 100 ft visibility is common. I did my certification there in December of 1985 with Dive Makai (no longer operating). They sent me the book to read, and I did everything on site. It changed my life, and I spent my honeymoon diving Truk lagoon, pohnphei, and Palau with my wife. We have done regular dive vacations thereafter and have seen magnificent parts of the underwater world. But we still come back to Kona, where we now have a second home because of the diving.