1000RR
Contributor
My daughter (13) and I just finished our certification over the weekend. We're definitely in love with the new adventure!! Along the way, I picked up our equipment (everything but tanks) thanks to the vast information on this Board - so thank you guys for your infinite wisdom, opinions, and knowledge! I believe we made very good choices for the equipment (mostly used) such that it won't be an expensive "oops" as we continue to progress with our new adventure.
All our dives were down here in Florida. Dived springs (~72) up to salt (84-86) and really enjoyed it all. About the only negative thing I'd say is my right ear is slightly unhappy. Started to clog slightly (a day after the dive) and then a little irritated inside (like swimmer's ear). I use to get swimmer's ear as a kid and I also tend to get wax build up quite significantly. After our last dive, I went to the doc and had em take a look and flush the wax out. Quite a bit came out and he also gave me some drops for such...
Next, we'll be working on trying to figure out what kind of environmental protection as well as thermal protection we need. I hope to dive year around down here, more in the Summer, but hopefully some in the Winter too. The warm dives we did, we just had rash guards and board shorts and that was fine from the thermal side. I've been reading quite a bit about various wetsuits, what to look for, thicknesses, etc. so we'll be taking that part slower (the purchase of) as I want to try and make sure we know what we really need and get something that works well for us and how we approach diving (repetitive dives, year around dives, etc.). Plenty to learn, but we have the basic gear and a card - so we're about to embark on plenty of fun!
My daughter is already on me to schedule something over on the Gulf side (Venice Beach area) for some Megaladon Shark Tooth hunting. She wants to go back down to Blue Heron Bridge as well. Once we get a few more dives, we'll probably take a boat out from Palm Beach and do some drift dives. And of course we will be finding our way down to the Keys for sure. May have to check out some Springs up North too, just have to figure out where etc. We have a trip planned next summer (2018) for Grand Cayman, so me and her will do some diving, the rest of the family will do some snorkeling and beach stuff... as will we when not diving.
Thanks again Board - a tremendous amount of information here. I'll be around for quite a while I'm sure!
Safe diving!
All our dives were down here in Florida. Dived springs (~72) up to salt (84-86) and really enjoyed it all. About the only negative thing I'd say is my right ear is slightly unhappy. Started to clog slightly (a day after the dive) and then a little irritated inside (like swimmer's ear). I use to get swimmer's ear as a kid and I also tend to get wax build up quite significantly. After our last dive, I went to the doc and had em take a look and flush the wax out. Quite a bit came out and he also gave me some drops for such...
Next, we'll be working on trying to figure out what kind of environmental protection as well as thermal protection we need. I hope to dive year around down here, more in the Summer, but hopefully some in the Winter too. The warm dives we did, we just had rash guards and board shorts and that was fine from the thermal side. I've been reading quite a bit about various wetsuits, what to look for, thicknesses, etc. so we'll be taking that part slower (the purchase of) as I want to try and make sure we know what we really need and get something that works well for us and how we approach diving (repetitive dives, year around dives, etc.). Plenty to learn, but we have the basic gear and a card - so we're about to embark on plenty of fun!
My daughter is already on me to schedule something over on the Gulf side (Venice Beach area) for some Megaladon Shark Tooth hunting. She wants to go back down to Blue Heron Bridge as well. Once we get a few more dives, we'll probably take a boat out from Palm Beach and do some drift dives. And of course we will be finding our way down to the Keys for sure. May have to check out some Springs up North too, just have to figure out where etc. We have a trip planned next summer (2018) for Grand Cayman, so me and her will do some diving, the rest of the family will do some snorkeling and beach stuff... as will we when not diving.
Thanks again Board - a tremendous amount of information here. I'll be around for quite a while I'm sure!
Safe diving!
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