Stewart Winter so far. Great kid(yes i know but i'm in my thirties he's a kid). I also meet Isaac. Don't know him that well yet. The student where more interested in my adventures in the Marine's then diving. Even Stewart was interested in my skydiving exploits. They have been good to me so far and I see no problem getting my dive master through them.
Are part of a dive club? I am looking to find a club that a noob like me can learn from more experienced divers. Driving to madison all the time costs way to much in gas. All the dive gear and training is enough.
There is one in west bend I'm looking into.
Not sure I've met Stewart. I know Isaac, Aaron and Tamara. I haven't done any training through them....DH and I've done everything with private instructors that are friends.
I would think West Bend would be the same distance...but not sure on that. My dad lives on Big Cedar lake in WB. I feel like it's about 45 minutes from his place to BD and 45 minutes from Madison to BD....I guess it's just about what your preference is. Madison has two dive clubs...one is for the college students mainly (not exclusively - Hoofers) and the other my husband and I are looking into. (Being former military myself and being that I tend to lean more right, I have a hard time fitting in with the dive stuff in the Madison area. But dive clubs are a great way to meet people and get diving.)
I know how driving sucks as we were driving to Milwaukee for the Badger State Dive Club meetings and couldn't do that anymore. The other Madison one is Four Lakes Scuba (
http://www.fourlakesscubaclub.org/) but unfortunately they meet almost on the west side of Madison which would be even further for you. West Bend does have a dive club:
Urge To Submerge - Main. That one may just work out to your advantage. Oh, the far east side of Madison (actually Sun Prairie) has a new shop called Madison Scuba. He's a little nuts (PM and I will tell you more b/c it's military related) but does a lot of diving and may be worth checking out
MadisonScuba ? (608) 219-5075 ? Snorkeling and Dive Center. He actually has a saltwater pool on location where you can try gear out before you buy...and they organize a ton of dive trips and do a lot of weeknight and weekend diving in the area. And to be honest, he may be priced slightly less than Diversions...I cannot remember. Oh, and check out AquaMunkee Scuba...this is one of our buddies that teaches and has his own (small) dive club:
http://www.aquamunkee.com/scuba/index.php. He's a great instructor as well. My husband is working on his DM with him right now (I was but decided I'm not interested in doing the DM thing).
Have you purchased your own gear already? Be sure to keep an eye out on Craigslist and ebay...great way to get relatively new equipment cheap. Our good buddy who has been diving for years and needed to replace some stuff just got an amazing deal through Craigslist: BCD, reg/gauges, dive computer, wetsuit, weights, tanks, etc., all only used 7 times for $800. The stuff looks brand new.
Generally when we purchase new we work with Diversions or I buy online. I like to spread the wealth around.
Once you finish up your cert, keep in touch with me and I'll keep you posted on our diving schedule. We do quite a lot of local diving (my hubby is all about at least 1 dive a month...which may include ice diving) and we have a local group of friends that dive with us. We've dove just off my dad's place in Big Cedar. We head up to Devil's Lake, Wazee up in BRF, and down Pearl Lake in South Beloit. We'll head out to Lake MI and up to MI as well.
How long were you in the Marines? What did you do?
