New to Diving, from Iowa en route to Hawaii

[jessisca]

Hi everyone!

My DH and I just completed the Open Water PADI course over the past weekend, well, complete except for our open water dives. We are going to be doing those in Hawaii in about 2 weeks. We are in our mid-thirties and got certified at the hounding of friends of ours who have been diving for 15 years.

We are excited to jump in to diving. The only part of the open water dives I'm worried about is clearing my ears.

 

[warmwaterturner]

Start clearing before the dive and about every two feet once in the water works for me. Nice and slow and welcome aboard.

 

[smellzlikefish]

Welcome! Which island in Hawaii?

 

[IowaDiver]

Hi Jessica,

We are also from Iowa and have had the opportunity to dive from several islands in Hawaii. One of the huge differences you'll find there is the fact that you're diving in much warmer water so it seems that your ears will clear much more easily than in the midwest. Warmwaterturner is right you start clearing before you get in. Also if you feel like you're having problems just go back up a couple of feet, swallow, and start down again. The dive masters are used to having to wait for everyone to get down.
If you need suggestions on dive shops just let us know the islands and we can recommend a couple.

 

[jessisca]

Thanks for the advice! We will be on the Big Island. Friends that we are going with have been diving for a long time and they have helped us set up the diving with Jack's Diving Locker. We went back and forth about whether to buy any gear for this trip, but have decided to rent at least for our check out dives and figure we can purchase some things in Hawaii if we want to.