Zach The Diver
Contributor
Good evening, everyone. I'll be moving to the Dothan, Alabama area here in a few weeks from Tacoma, Washington and would love any advice or tips you'd have for an avid diver coming over there. I have never dove in the Gulf area and would love any advice you may offer regarding sites (I'm aware of some of the more famous ones, like the Oriskany and Vortex), shops, and charters.
I'm AOW-certified with a dry suit cert and I have about 140 dives under my belt. Aside from a couple of vacation trips to Hawaii, all of my diving has been restricted to the Pacific Northwest in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia. I'm interested in wreck diving, and- if time from my career permits- to possibly get into tech and cavern diving. I'd I'd like to find a GUE shop to do fundies and a doubles primer with as well, but the only one I know about is around 6 hours from where I will be.
I definitely appreciate advice on good shops in this regard- based on what I've heard and what I've seen on Youtube, it seems many of the shops down there cater to "vacation diving" with an emphasis on making money and not teaching fundamentals. I witnessed the same thing in Hawaii. I'm not interested in wasting time with instructors who kick the reef for twenty minutes and call that a "good dive".
I appreciate any and all help! I'm looking forward to diving with a new community of likeminded folks!
I'm AOW-certified with a dry suit cert and I have about 140 dives under my belt. Aside from a couple of vacation trips to Hawaii, all of my diving has been restricted to the Pacific Northwest in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia. I'm interested in wreck diving, and- if time from my career permits- to possibly get into tech and cavern diving. I'd I'd like to find a GUE shop to do fundies and a doubles primer with as well, but the only one I know about is around 6 hours from where I will be.
I definitely appreciate advice on good shops in this regard- based on what I've heard and what I've seen on Youtube, it seems many of the shops down there cater to "vacation diving" with an emphasis on making money and not teaching fundamentals. I witnessed the same thing in Hawaii. I'm not interested in wasting time with instructors who kick the reef for twenty minutes and call that a "good dive".
I appreciate any and all help! I'm looking forward to diving with a new community of likeminded folks!
