Newly Certified and Looking to Get in the Water

[DivingDoug46]

Hey everyone!

I was just recently certified and was wondering what is the best way to get involved in the dive community? I want to get involved and go diving regularly, but am really new to diving being just certified. I want to plan a trip but with opportunities to dive around where I live I'd like to keep up on and keep practicing my skills before I start to lose them (since I can't always go on dive trips). I am located in Northeastern Ohio, near multiple quarries and Lake Erie, which I hear has great wrecks. I was certified in a quarry in Western PA and thought it was tons of fun.

Thanks!

 

[jonhall]

Congrats on the recent certification. An easy way to get involved is to find a local dive shop in your area that plans diving activities/trips or even has a local dive club operating through it (the club may not be associated with any dive shop.) The club would most likely also plan trips. The shop may plan some longer trips (week) to some nice Caribbean dive locales, while the club may plan shorter trips (days) to the quarries/Lake Erie. Kind of like it is here in Indiana, except it’s Lake Michigan.

 

[Marie13]

Get thee to the Great Lakes Wrecking Crew Facebook page. Lots of people post there when they are looking for buddies at the quarries. And people post up Great Lakes trips. Or you can post what you’re looking for.

 

[Dubious]

My wife and I were certified less than two months ago.

We are about 45 minutes from 3 different dive shops. We hooked up with all 3 to do the "fun dives" they offer. One of the dive shops has its own quarry they lease. The other dive shops meet up at different local lakes and quarries. The dive shop with the quarry rents out full gear set for $17.00. It seems like a lot of the lds offer discounted gear rental for fun dives in Wisconsin. It is my guess it would be similar in Ohio.

For us the first hurdle was our own minds. The unknown of diving with new people and at new locations took a bit of courage. We just had to suck it up and commit to the dives. We have a weekend of diving planned at Wazee lake next weekend with the LDS who certified us.

I think the thing that has really pushed us to go out diving was buying our own gear and tanks. Our LDS even gave us free air fills for two years.

 

[happy-diver]

I think the thing that has really pushed us to go out diving was buying our own gear and tanks. Our LDS even gave us free air fills for two years.

Wow yeah owning your own gear is gold, and hitting the second hand market with vigour the key.

and having just spent one hundred and fifteen dollars ONLY, on a Faber steel 120 in test
I am able to afford air fills for the rest of my life

 

[Outbound]

As others have said, definitely ask around at your local dive shop(s). There will almost always be either a formal dive group that meets or an informal group of people who dive regularly and don't mind newbies joining them. It's how I made the transition from newly certified diver to someone who dives regularly. I was fortunate enough to fall in with a small group of divers who are always up for checking out new local dive sites.

You can also check out meetup.com to see if there are groups listed on there.

Good luck!

 

[S3dition]

Have you spoken to your instructor or dive shop? Mine even has a dive buddy board.