LDS recommendations for certification

[Diver Mike]

You can rest assured that she will in fact be jealous of your new found reason to not do chores or work ont he "Honey Do" list on Saturday or Sunday mornings.

Dive Safe...

 

[geraldp]

So assuming I get certified, and enjoy the dry suit dives in PS, my goal will be to average a dive day each month in PS, and then get as much diving in on vacation that my wife will allow. It'll be hard to get out much more as my wife likes me to stick around with her and my son on the weekends. I'm still on the fence about buying any additional equipment besides maybe a dive computer. If I only dive say 10-15 times at most a year does it make cent$ to get your own stuff?

That's the same goal I have - to get 2 tanks in every month. So far so good, 41 dives in 20 months. For me that's a long Saturday or Sunday once a month (and a 400 mile round trip drive to the Sound or Hoods Canal), which is about the limit that my wife is comfortable with.

As far as additional gear - you're faced with a dilema. As you'll find out it's pretty expensive to rent gear - my LDS charges about $200 a weekend for reg, BC, computer, tanks, weights, drysuit & hood. You already know you can get iffy quality stuff if you rent from a tropical location. On top of that the SSI OW manual (and especially your SSI dealer) tells you that "For comfort and safety you should own your own gear". The flip side to this is that you don't know what you want or need until you've tried and dived with it, AND you know where you'll be doing your diving. Then of course there's the little matter of being able to afford to lay out the cash for some big ticket items.

I think the best trade off is to rent/borrow as long as you can until it fiscally doesn't makes sense anymore. During that time try out lots of gear, ask lots of questions, save your pennies, and wait for huge sales.

Jerry

 

[kalvyn]

Also, Aquatically Induced Bankruptcy Syndrome.

LOL... I think I singlehandedly kept BankOne in business during 2003. I certainly know I'm still paying them in 2004!

Have fun in your class, Jason! I did basically exactly what you're doing (got certified right before going to Hawaii), and my wife's regretted it ever since.

Jimmie

 

[bcsean]

Drysuit is definitely a good idea if it's within budget and you plan to continue diving.

DIR-F = Doing it right, fundamentals. Its a GUE class. Kinda intro to tech. Take a look through the DIR section of the board to investigate it better. Some people seem a little harsh, but read it for the facts. It's a fantastic class if you ask me. It made the biggest difference in my diving by far.

 

[seabat]

You have a wife? Multiply your costs times two!

 

[JasonH20]

You have a wife? Multiply your costs times two!

LOL, I asked her several times on our vacation about trying it, but she didn't warm up to the idea much. In fact, I don't think she was too crazy about me diving, let alone her too. I kept telling her how much fun it was, but she just wouldn't buy into it...

Funniest thing though, on Monday she watched the first couple chapters of the SSI training DVD with me and now she says she wants to try it!!! There must be subliminal messages in there or something!

BTW, class last night went well. Turns out there will only be 3 students. So with the instructor and the dive master (is that the proper term for the instructor's gopher) I'm sure to get lots of personal attention.

It helps that I've been reading extensively on this site the past couple weeks and had 4 dives a couple weeks ago. Nothing new really presented, just a review of the equipment, how it works, and the general physics of diving. I can't wait for tomorrow when we actually get some pool time!

One thing that stuck out was the instructor said max depth for rec diving was 100 fsw? I questioned him on it, saying I though it was 130. He said that SSI now recomends 100 max for rec, and 60 max with just the OW cert. Not that I was planning on immediatly pushing either of these for the time being, but I was looking forward to getting narc'd somewhere down the road.

 

[dlndavid]

I was looking forward to getting narc'd somewhere down the road.

First you ask about recommending an LSD, and you seem to be addicted to scuba and now you talk about getting narc'd. You might want to join a scubaholics program.
But definately I would recommend LSD 25 or windowpane. Purple haze is good too, but hard to find.

 

[JasonH20]

First yous ask about recommending an LSD

You know I didn't even pick up on that until yesterday. lol
I think one of the admins is playing a joke though, because if you check my first post, you can see the post title is "LDS", but then the thread title is "LSD". As far as I'm aware, I can't intentially make those different?

But your are correct, I am exhibiting some troubling behavior. My only defense is I'm learning it from ALL of you!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

You know I didn't even pick up on that until yesterday. lol
I think one of the admins is playing a joke though, because if you check my first post, you can see the post title is "LDS", but then the thread title is "LSD". As far as I'm aware, I can't intentially make those different?

Actually, I corrected the spelling in your first post Jason ... but can't "reach" the title of the thread to change it too.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[JasonH20]

Actually, I corrected the spelling in your first post Jason ... but can't "reach" the title of the thread to change it too.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I guess we can add denial to my problems.