Open Water Dives to Complete Certification? (DESPERATE!)

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Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Location
Malibu
# of dives
25 - 49
We are in quite a bind. We paid to get certified with a local dive shop, told them the urgent nature of completing certification (need to be done before a trip on March 16) and they failed to put us on the boat dive roster. So, my husband and son have completed PADI online training, doing pool dives this weekend with the shop and ONE can squeeze in the full trip on March 12th :( (I'm already certified)

We DESPERATELY need a spot on a boat between the 7th and 16th for one of them to complete the shore or boat dives needed to gain Open Water Certification. That will be the one missing piece for one of them.

I saw LA Divers was also full for their boat dives on March 12, but shouldn't there be other dive shops with dives between March 7th and March 16 that we can go on? It WOULD HAVE BEEN around $200 extra to do all the dives necessary in the ocean and NOW, we're faced with a much higher price if we have to charter or send one to Catalina to dive off the steps.

Please let me know if you know of a dive shop with boats going out for certification dives that could fit one or maybe two guys in. My 20 something son could do most any day(s) between March 7 to March 16th.

Thanks so much!
 
My suggestion is to have them both go and dive at Casino Point in Catalina.

You can have either Scuba Luv or Catalina Divers Supply instructors do the open water sign offs for them.

Ocean dives on your own schedule. Don't have to worry about getting spots on dive boats. The Catalina Express ferry runs all the time, and at this time of the year, the instructors will be easily available for these sorts of things.
 
Thanks! That's a viable option a kind dive shop also told us about. The only thing is the price. $300 for the route we were going TOTAL or now, $99 per dive ($600) to do the Catalina option plus add either $100 per person round-trip plus hotel or $200 for round trips for 2 days to Catalina and a LOT more time spent enroute and being there. What a drag!!! Wish there were something like that here in SoCal.
 
Why not talk with your shop instructor(s) to do shore dives for both of your husband and son? There's nothing that says open water has to be done from a boat.

If schedule is tight then two shore dives on Saturday and two shore dives on Sunday then they're done. Assuming that Mother Nature agrees.

One way or another, it'll cost your family a lot to expedite. Boat trip fees for both of them (and possibly you) plus instructor's cost and instructor's boat trip fee. Not to mention that the referral instructor might even want to do a pool session with them to make sure that they even have the basic skills down.
 
My sister was in a similar situation last year. She, her husband, and I did our classroom and pool work together, but only my brother-in-law and I were able to complete our OW certification dives just before a diving cruise. She was not able to do the cert dives at the last moment. We all went on the cruise and she was able to dive with us at every stop. The dive shops just treated it as a "discovery dive" for her and as we were doing guided dives anyway, she just buddied up with the DM and we were good to go. they charged us exactly the same as if she had been certified. She completed her certification dives after she returned home later in the year. And also now having done several dives before her cert dive, the cert dives were very easy for her.
 
Please don't rush the certification. Shore dives are great if mother nature agrees, but you do probably have the option of finishing at your destination.

Relax, enjoy the process...You can't control everything.
 
We all have dived the Great Barrier Reef, Fiji and the Caribbean. This is a technicality -- to get certified. We are staying at Beaches starting March 17th. Free diving if everyone is certified. Megabucks if not. So, that's the only pressure here. And my guys have wanted to be certified forever. I SO appreciate all of your input. It may work out. Maybe the Dive Shop saw this thread, felt bad and is being more helpful to place them on another boat: LOL!
 
I was in San Diego once and got blown out for going to La Jolla so we went and played in Mission Bay. Saw a bunch of dive groups there. Think they run classes or some such a high tide. You just need a place that is legally called open water. Lake, quarry, cove, .... Not as much fun as a boat but cheaper and gets you the cert.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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