Quarry diving with wife

[buddhasummer]

I live in NC

There are several quarries. Generally Fantasy Lake runs warmer than the other quarries. It is still cold but warming up. Depending on when you are doing the OW you might pick up a few degrees water temp by going to Fantasy Lake. It is 15 minutes NE of Raleigh.

I never just show up. The only insta buddies I get are when I do liveaboards and thus far have always been paired with similarly experienced divers. I tend to ask questions prior to booking. Maybe it depends on your definition of "buddy", to me an uncertified diver, and assuming zero experience, does not qualify as a buddy. If I'm paying for a "fun dive "I expect it to be just that, I don't expect to be having to watch out for an unqualified diver or tag along while those new divers are completing their course. I'll admit the expectation to keep a very close eye on the uncertified diver is my own but none the less it would make the "fun dive", I've paid for, less fun. Buddy diving to me is a two way street, I'll help you the best I can and hope you'll help me the best you can. Knowingly diving with an unqualified diver does not increase my chances of getting useful assistance should I need it. So yes, I would point blank refuse. Now if they were comping the dive then I'll happily act as DM as now the dive is no longer a fun dive but a working dive, my mind set changes accordingly. I think the whole situation is fairly easy to avoid simply by asking a question or two about the dive/dives before booking. I'll admit in part it's also about the principle, a diver paying for a fun dive has different expectations than a person doing their OW. In my experience as a DM many divers doing their OW tend to go through air pretty fast, if I've paid X amount for a fun dive I'd be a little grumpy if the dive was called at 30 minutes. It's late, sorry if this comes off as argumentative it's not my intention. Cheers.

---------- Post added April 21st, 2015 at 11:49 AM ----------

It's must be late, sorry Steve this post is in response to RJP.

---------- Post added April 21st, 2015 at 11:55 AM ----------

To the OP, sorry for the hijack (?).

 

[Steve_C]

When traveling or in the Keys I frequently just show up. It is show up or not dive. I show up. If the dive is "special" I will hire a DM for a private guide. The only time I have been with an OW class (or a discover scuba class) is when I was the only non class diver on the boat. This has happened three times all after I had 100 or more dives. Basically my job was to keep the class in sight. No different than on the few group guided dives I have been on. Since I like to poke around and look for stuff staying in the vicinity of the class was no problem for me.

 

[buddhasummer]

Maybe it's because I have no real experience on day boat dives as almost all my non local diving is liveaboard, maybe I've been lucky. I wouldn't mind tagging along necessarily it's just being allocated an uncertified diver as my buddy that would concern me.

 

[stuartv]

Maybe it's because I have no real experience on day boat dives as almost all my non local diving is liveaboard, maybe I've been lucky. I wouldn't mind tagging along necessarily it's just being allocated an uncertified diver as my buddy that would concern me.

In my case, since there was only 4 of us on the whole boat, counting the boat captain, and the Instructor was chaperoning the kid and the site was something like 40 feet deep to the bottom with excellent viz, I wasn't really TOO concerned about having a problem that couldn't be safely handled either by myself or with the Instructor's help. And the student was a 12 y/o boy who was actually great and his tank lasted as long as mine did. I might have been annoyed if my dive was cut short by a 30-minute air hog, but it turned out to not even remotely be an issue.

 

[TSandM]

There is no requirement to complete academics before doing OW dives in a dry suit. It's preferred, but not required. A pool dry suit orientation IS required. We have between a third and a half of our OW students do their OW dives in a dry suit.

But if your shop doesn't rent dry suits or teach OW in dry suits, you have a few options. You can put your wife in the heaviest wetsuit they have -- our students do their dives in 7 mil Farmer Johns -- and have her gut it out. Our thin female students DO get cold, and we try to discourage them from doing the dives wet, but the OW dives are fairly short because of gas consumption, so they usually manage. Or you can do the dives by referral -- as mentioned, the skills don't take much time, and you still get to enjoy the dives. Most resort places won't take you someplace completely boring to do the dives.

 

[WarrenZ]

I dont know what it is with dive shops these days I saw a shop do confined water dives 1 and 2 over a 3.5 hour pool session then once everyone was cold they adjourned to the open water site the next weekend to do the combined open water dives and the rest of the confined water dives there. People were shivering by mid day seems that these accelerated dive courses should come with a warning for anyone who gets cold easily.

 

[Lorenzoid]

The one time I tried quarry diving, with a rented 7 mm wetsuit (and hood, gloves, etc.), my buddies said my face turned white as a sheet when I hit the 40-something degree thermocline, before I thumbed the dive and said "no way." I have dived in 65 degree waters in California, and even that felt cold after a while in a 7 mm. Everyone has a different cold tolerance, so speaking only for myself, I will never dive in temps below the mid-60s without a drysuit. It's just not worth the misery to me. Diving is supposed to be enjoyable.

It's not uncommon for people feel chilly in a bathing suit in an 82 degree indoor pool after a while if not exerting much energy. If I were doing indoor poolwork, I would definitely want a thin wetsuit.

 

[drrich2]

She wears sweaters when it's 90 degrees outside.

Whether she uses a dry suit for her OW course or not, you may still want to get her dry suit trained & certified. That way she can be as warm as she wants in most any conditions she is apt to enter.

Richard.

 

[Sn1per9000]

I agree about dry suits. If we had the cash that would be done. We would both be nice and toasty.

The thing is cash. We got hammered on taxes and the class and gear hurt too. I also sprung this on the wife after she prune a trip to Cozumel on me to do some snorkeling.

So to put it lightly we are spent. If we dive the quarry we have to buy hoods and gloves. $200 in the shop we are using. Plus quarry fee ($40 each).

If we checkout in Cozumel it looks like we could do that for $175 each. That would include gear. Anyone else have any shops to recommend? We are Sdi.

If we don't do the dives in Cozumel I believe we are planning on waiting until August or so to checkout.




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[RJP]

I agree about dry suits. If we had the cash that would be done. We would both be nice and toasty.

The thing is cash. We got hammered on taxes and the class and gear hurt too. I also sprung this on the wife after she prune a trip to Cozumel on me to do some snorkeling.

So to put it lightly we are spent. If we dive the quarry we have to buy hoods and gloves. $200 in the shop we are using. Plus quarry fee ($40 each).

If we checkout in Cozumel it looks like we could do that for $175 each. That would include gear. Anyone else have any shops to recommend? We are Sdi.

If we don't do the dives in Cozumel I believe we are planning on waiting until August or so to checkout.




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I say do it in Coz... if you want your wife to have any chance of enjoying/staying with diving. The fact that it may actually be cheaper is just icing on the cake!