Learing to Dive

[Ron Brandt]

Al,that is what I have been looking for.

Keep this in mind,I live in an area where we have open water for half a year with water temp between 38-65 degrees with 0-10 feet of vis . Is that local diving at its best or what!

I have been going into that water for the last 23 years,the last 5 taking students out on cert dives,never to see them again after certification. The only people diving that lake are going for cert dives only ,with the odd "old timer" going in.(ya,saw one with a horse collar on last weekend)

I am trying to do a study on Al's way of thinking.Easy first,then go into local and advanced training.

More input please

Thanks

Ron

 

[finstotheleft]

I would rather have been able to choose option #3...learn here and then do the cert. dives in the tropics. I say this simply because there is more to ocean diving (currents, surge, marine life) than to inland diving, and I wish I could have been trained around that.

This is not to say that I didn't recieve excellent training inland. I can say that I am getting plenty of experience in murky/low vis. waters; my u/w navigation skills are definitely getting good!

I had decided that I wanted to dive from the get-go, so I don't think it would have mattered much about the initial conditions.

What I ACTUALLY wish is that I lived near the ocean so I could do it all there, all the time!

 

[raposarose]

I am doing it all locally this summer. I have not even thought much about going to dive in the tropics. Even though the water is cold there are nice beaches here in San Diego with abundant sea life. And I feel an attachment to our local beaches.

If I lived inland where there were no beaches I probably would still want to get my certification locally. It seems nice to build relationships with the local dive community and it seems like more fun to go to the tropics already trained. Then there are more options for the trip and you don't have to spend your time taking open water certification classes. If you want to take a class you still have that option but if you would rather take another class, go on a diving tour, or go it alone you still have options.

 

[Ron Brandt]

Option 3 works very well Finstotheleft.

Severaly years back I assisted with training a local group , locally.
Classroom and pool in January,trip to Cozumel in Feb.The first day and a half were spent with finishing of some accademic and doing the cert dives.

The best thing about that trip was we had exclusive use of the dive boat(just us)at a great rate for four days of diving and a group rate for the accomodations.

But....as stated befor,none have continued to dive locally and one of the people has moved to Vancouver ,but will not dive there due to the need to use a drysuit or 6mm wetsuit.

Ron

 

[Charlie99]

I flew to Maui, did all of my OW cert there, and return often. Scuba is a good excuse to take off to a tropical island every couple months during the winter. Option 6: Learn to dive in the tropics. Make frequent return trips to dive.

BTW, the thread title "Learing to Dive" keeps getting my attention as I read it Leering to Dive, but keep mentally reversing it to Diving to Leer. Another nice thing about the tropics: bikinis.

 

[Ron Brandt]

Hey Charlie99. Granted it was a typo but agree with you.

Ron

 

[ScubaPete]

I wanted to get my training neer home because I heard that once you go to the ocean you never want to go back where there is low viz

 

[Ron Brandt]

I wanted to get my training neer home because I heard that once you go to the ocean you never want to go back where there is low viz

Yep,the only thing keeping me going now are doing cert dives with students.

Vis yesterday was less than 5 feet.

Ron

 

[ScubaPete]

We had like 15-20 feet viz during my training

 

[Ron Brandt]

We had like 15-20 feet viz during my training

Wow!!!

When the vis is that good here the water is usually 36 degrees.

Ron