Senior trip for my son.

[DeanQuest]

Hello Everyone,

I would like to surprise my son with a scuba diving trip this Christmas. He will be graduating from HS this year. I am his dad. We live in Dayton, Ohio.

We have snorkeled for years and love the adventure. We have been thinking seriously about scuba diving this past year.

Our pool instruction for scuba diving will be complete around 15 December.

I have two questions:

1) Any suggestions for attaining Open Water Certification other than driving to a warmer climate(e.g., Florida)? It would be nice if we had our certification before our premium vacation time starts.

2) Because of travel costs, I believe our budget will limit us to diving in the Gulf of Mexico or maybe the Carribean. I know there are many diving sites to choose from, but can anyone tell me if Hurricane Wilma has churned up the ocean water so much that the trip may be a disappointment for my son? Like any dad, I want so much for this trip to go well for my son.

Thanks for your time in reading this post and your advice.

DeanQuest

 

[Wayward Son]

You can get a referal to do your OW dives while on vacation. Example: Your LDS is a PADI shop, you take the course, pass the exam, complete the pool work. Then book your checkout dives through a PADI shop in Miami, go down, get your certs done & then go diving the rest of the trip. Just check with your LDS, they should be able to help you arrange this.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Who are you training with? When would you like to have your certifications? Would March work? Here's an offer: finish your class then sit in on mine to keep practicing your skills all winter and join us on our Ohio check-out dives after WSU's finals week in March. I'm a NAUI instructor so my class will be different than a PADI class but I think you will be pleased. PM me if you're interested.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[The Natural]

You can get a referal to do your OW dives while on vacation. Example: Your LDS is a PADI shop, you take the course, pass the exam, complete the pool work. Then book your checkout dives through a PADI shop in Miami, go down, get your certs done & then go diving the rest of the trip. Just check with your LDS, they should be able to help you arrange this.

This is probably your best bet if you want to do the trip around Christmas time.

 

[DavidHickey]

Congrats on getting certified this winter. I also live in the Dayton Ohio area. Small world I guess! Anyhow I did the training thru Aquatic Realm in Centerville and did 2 OW dives local at the Circleville quarry in late October of 2004. Due to an ear problem I could not complete my last 2 dives "which were the last scheduled for the year" so I opted to get a referal and went to St Thomas to complete my last to OW dives. It was the difference between night and day. Circleville was 58 degrees with low visibility, there were about 10 others certifying so you bascially waited on your knees for your turn to perform skills. Not very fun in my opinion. We hired an instructor out of the dive shop at our hotel in St Thomas, my Fiancee was already certified but decided to do a refresher. We basically entered the water 10 feet from our room, did 2 nice dives which were actual dives saw all sorts of sea life and in between things he would stop and have me perform needed skills and then go on with the dives. Our instructor was great, a retired search and rescue diver from the New York police department. Anyway I would definitely go for a referal, it was a much better experience. The referal process wasted NO vacation time for us. We called when we arrived scheduled the dives and were in the water 20 minutes after showing up at the dive shop and within and hour and a half to 2 hours we were done with our dives and certified.
As far as location, not sure of your budget but I have been to Cayman quite a few times and love it there. BUT its not cheap, the american dollar is only worth about .80 in Cayman so you lose 20% off the top. I've only snorkeld there and it was beautiful, could'nt begin to imagine what it would be like now that I'm certified. Good luck and maybe I'll see you at a quarry in the spring!!!
David

PS: Just thinking one more option is S.O.D.A "Southern Ohio diving in Kettering and Vandalia" I think offer a 3 day trip to northern Florida in the winter just to certify the winter bunch. If I remember right its fairly reasonable. You basically drive down and pay for a hotel room. I'm guessing 10 to 12 hour drive. Just a guess though

 

[ABQdiver]

All the agencies offer a "Referral" which basically takes you to a place of your choice to do your open water check out dives. Like the others have mentioned; do your class work and pool dives locally and then head to warmer waters for the open water portion. The local dive shop will need to have a place to refer you to, so you need to make that decision (they can help you).

Try Key Largo area. The water will be warmer and fairly shallow, which will help the new divers get used to diving without the stress of deep water.

 

[PAdiver93]

Hello Everyone,

I would like to surprise my son with a scuba diving trip this Christmas. He will be graduating from HS this year. I am his dad. We live in Dayton, Ohio.

We have snorkeled for years and love the adventure. We have been thinking seriously about scuba diving this past year.

Our pool instruction for scuba diving will be complete around 15 December.

I have two questions:

1) Any suggestions for attaining Open Water Certification other than driving to a warmer climate(e.g., Florida)? It would be nice if we had our certification before our premium vacation time starts.

2) Because of travel costs, I believe our budget will limit us to diving in the Gulf of Mexico or maybe the Carribean. I know there are many diving sites to choose from, but can anyone tell me if Hurricane Wilma has churned up the ocean water so much that the trip may be a disappointment for my son? Like any dad, I want so much for this trip to go well for my son.

Thanks for your time in reading this post and your advice.

DeanQuest

December 15th???? Can't think of a better place to dive than Jersey shore around that time... Especially wet... Could be a great bonding experience. (Bonding, sticking, freezing - all the same)...

I would strongly suggest Cozumel - best place (IMHO) to dive - but hurricanes could have screwed it up... (and they did)... But definetely congrats on finally taking a class and I would suggest to get your cert dives in Dutch Springs done (cold but all facilities are right there).

 

[herman]

Welcome to the board.
A couple of places come to mind depending on your budget, both money and time. The cheapest place I can think of is the springs in upper Florida. A place like Blue Grotto or Devils Den is a lot cheaper than the Keys and you don't have to add in the extra problems boat diving adds. Lots of ow checkouts are done there. The wow factor is not as good as the Keys but the cost would be a lot less. You could drive down, do your checkouts there and then drive on down to the Keys for some "real" diving. If you want to do some international travel, either Curacao or Bonaire are great places. If you do your homework and don't insist on first class accomidations, you can often dive these islands for about the same price as the Keys assuming your are planning a week long trip.
One final consideration is the possibility of getting "blown out"- not diving due to weather. This is a real possibility in the Keys but not nearly as likely in the springs or Curacao/ Bonaire.

 

[moneysavr]

Welcome to Scubaboard
Hey, I would do the Florida trip,Gulf is mostly all low viz=not bad to learn in for worst case dives but the Atlantic from Palmbeach to the Keys is SWEET!
As said the Springs,DevilsDen,Blue Grotto,Hal Watts 40 Fathoms are less of a drive mid Florida area,they will get you a instructor=call ask! and weather will not shut you down,did several dives for training in the Springs=they are clear,safe!fun! I second that one!
Off ocean rates Motels are cheap,many good opps to pick from,you will get boat,drift reef and lots more down>! but course may get called due to weather so???? have some extra days.
I'm on my way down in a few weeks! and back several times this year and next year,the Florida conchs are a great lot of folks =heck they dive year round ! so they are all in all good divers!
Thats a great gift,my 13 yrold Son will get his class as soon as he ask's
Dive safe,
Brad

 

[DeanQuest]

Thanks, everyone, for you informative posts. Sorry I haven't gotten back to the board until now.

I think we will go some place like Blue Grotto or Devil's Den to get the OW cert and then head on down to Islamorada in the Keys. I hope the water clears by then. I'm sure we'll enjoy it regardless. This is really going to be exciting!

Thanks again, All. I look forward to becoming a regular vistor to this forum. Lots of good and adventurous people seem to hang out here.


Take care,

Dean Quest