the newbie question.. where to start in Doral?

[kensuguro]

Yeah, so I guess you've all seen this a zillion times. I'm the guy that moved from Tokyo to Doral. Where do I go about to get back into the water? I've never dived in the US, so that's one thing...

I've been in Doral for about a month now, and have managed to find my way down to the Key Largo area, where I suppose has lots of great subaqua action going on. Beautiful area.

My wife and I are really new to diving. We only have a couple of logged dives after we got our certificate. So where do we go from here? Like equipment. The general trend in Japan was to atleast try to get a wetsuit, goggles and fins, and maybe a dive computer. And most poeple would rent the rest. Does it work like that in the US also?

But anyway, I really can't wait to get started so any pointers would be super cool!

 

[baitedstorm]

I think the general goal would be to own all of your own gear. If you'll be buying it piece by piece, start with your basic Masks, Snorkel, Fins, wetsuit. I would say a computer and a regulator would be the very next thing I would buy, and then your BDC. Careful shopping though. Many times you can get a better price if you buy the entire set-up at one time, most shops will even offer a lay-a-way plan that you can use to lock in the price and just make payments as you go. As far as where to get your gear from, I'm not familiar with the Miami area at all, but Im sure some of our fellow Florida Conchs will be able to chime in here soon.


Where to dive........ Keep checking the Florida Conch Divers forum under trips and happenings. We are very active and ya'll being our newest members can always come along. I think it would benifit you both of you to do some diving with the locals, most of us have 100+ dives under our belt and never mind showing a newer diver the ropes in the area. Please, feel free to pm anyone of us, we are here to help and have fun!

Welcome to Florida (again)

Vickie

 

[blondey]

I live in Doral myself - I guess our local diveshop is Florida Frogman on Milam Dairy, I haven't yet been in there so I can't give much help there. I tend to use Austin's in South Miami and Underwater Unlimited on Lejeune and US1. I used to rent equipment from Austin's a lot before I bought my own - they have standard the rental equipment but have reasonable prices and a very reasonable policy when you lose their dive computers!

 

[WaterDawg]

While I was there I went to the scuba shop http://www.the-scuba-shop.com/ its not far and have graet service, they also do dives on the weekends that you could join in on.

 

[ScubaDadMiami]

All of the shops mentioned are in Miami and are good shops. The closest one to Doral is Florida Frogman. 305-599-9900. Rick Barocas is the owner.