Timing of OW class - end or beginning of dive season?

[olphart]

You're in Chicago and there is no off season for diving even there. Of course that means dry suits and cold water, but with the right training and experience, (never underestimate the value of pool time. You'd be surprised at how useful pool practice sessions are.), diving year round is quite doable.

 

[Jayfarmlaw]

Water is water...bubbles are bubbles.... Especially for a new diver, pool time can me more valuable and less intimidating than local lake dives. After I was certified, the local community college in OKC had a platform diving pool that was 21 feet deep. For $5 they would open it one night a week for people to try out new gear, practice skills, or just blow some bubbles. I dove every week for several months. That opportunity not only made me a much better diver in the Caribbean or local lake, it got me past the relatively steep learning curve for new divers.

If there is a pool nearby that is open all winter long and will allow divers to practice, your problem is solved. Buoyance control is one of the hardest skills to master as a new diver.... and the best teacher is time under water. a pool is a great place to experiment with weights, work on buoyance skills, brush up on OW basic skills you may have had trouble with, etc.

You don't see sharks, lobsters, or octopus, or get your toes in sand...but hopefully you will find something close to home, and I promise if there is a dive pool somewhere, you WILL meet other divers. We're kind of a friendly bunch that love to talk diving. 99% are happy to help new divers and even though I showed up solo, I never had any problems finding a temporary buddy to dive with.

Welcome to the addiction, it will change your life for the better. There are also ways to dive cheaper than tropical vacations...and there are lots of ways to save on those as well. Southwest air will run specials to Florida (from DFW) for 130 round trip for cheap shore diving, Spirit has cheap flights to Cancun, and eating and sleeping in Cozumel can be cheaper than anywhere else....especially if you are single and don't require resort level accommodations.. I cant help with the getting time to go dive part, but it does not have to cost several thousand dollars to go diving. Taking a wife and kids with you....not so much!!

Good Luck,
Jay

 

[KevinNM]

A lot of time shops will allow you to tag along on their pool training if you stay out of their way and get in and out on the schedule they have. Might cost something over the tank rental price, but it usually isn't too much.

 

[diversteve]

Here's another option:

If your friend is an Instructor he can do your checkout dives in warm(er) Florida water on your trip (probably have to make it a longer weekend since there's 4-5 dives needed and if it's all boat diving near where he lives (usually the gulf coast is) all you need to do between now and then is take the rest of the class and work on pool skills in a (likely) heated pool somewhere local. Your local shop (it works better if they're the same dive organization as your friend so use that as a guide) can provide a referral form you get signed by your friend on completion of the dives. Some schools he will become your certifying instructor, others your local shop will.

Although on the flipside if you're mostly going to dive quarries/Lake Michigan it may make sense to get certified locally as cold water diving is phyically more challenging since you're wearing layers of neoprene and weighted to compensate for it. Otherwise your body core cools too fast to dive safely - in the Lake likely even in the summer months. I'm from there - although haven't dove there - and I remember being pretty cold in Lake Michigan - in summer...

As far as finding others to dive with - most shops offer regular dive trips locally and internationally. My shop does one almost every month - usually led by one of their instructors - to some regional or Caribbean destination - we don't have much diveable water locally.

My shop also does annual liveaboard trips - they charter the whole boat for a week and fill it with divers from the shop/friends. There's at least one meet/greet before you all go plus they often handle all the details like flights/rooms etc. Some friends of mine - private instructors do the same yearly at a dive resort on Utila.

If you look at our ScubaBoard forum, we're running at least two trips per year now - members and friends of members and since it's all arranged thru a travel agency one fee covers almost everything. Plus our resident trip coordinators - Cardzard and Roxanne - handle all the little details as well as all the coordination. This winter we're taking over most of (all?) Cayman Brac Beach Resort in a Surge - which is usually a smaller group trip. The Invasion next summer will be to Anthony's Key Resort on Roatan and should be up to 100 members/guests or so. Both can assist with room-mates etc. - the T/A can also assist with flights as well as handle the complete resort booking and any local transport needed. Plus other non-dive events are usually offered.

Both might be sold out already so check with Cardzard - it's become a bi-annual event over the last several years so likely to continue indefinitely.

Plus there are organizations like singledivers.com - you don't even have to be single, just someone with a non-diving SO or alone. They take advantage of their group sizes to get better rates than you or I can.

 

[TMHeimer]

I did this: Certified Nov.6, 2005 in Nova Scotia. First post OW dive was Feb.4, 2006 in Vortex Spring, FL. My tank slipped, otherwise no problems at all. Now, I can't really recall if I re-read and studied the manual in the 3 months in between--or mimicked doing the 20 pool skills on land (something I seem to always recommend on SB). Pool access in between was not practical, and I waited to buy some equipment in FL. Worked for me. Everybody's different.

 

[Marie13]

Another forum I frequent has a scuba section. I'm amazed how many people are trying to talk me out of dry suit combined with OW cert together. I'm signing up for my OW class tomorrow since the Discover Scuba class last night was such fun.

In my mind, if I do the dry suit cert with OW, I won't know any other way of doing thing (people are concerned about task loading and it being too much for me at once). However, these folks seem to be wet suit only (in warmer climates) or only recently got dry suit certified after many years of diving wet only.

I'm doing both at the same time. If it was such an issue, DRIS wouldn't offer it.

 

[CptTightPants21]

Another forum I frequent has a scuba section. I'm amazed how many people are trying to talk me out of dry suit combined with OW cert together. I'm signing up for my OW class tomorrow since the Discover Scuba class last night was such fun.

In my mind, if I do the dry suit cert with OW, I won't know any other way of doing thing (people are concerned about task loading and it being too much for me at once). However, these folks seem to be wet suit only (in warmer climates) or only recently got dry suit certified after many years of diving wet only.

I'm doing both at the same time. If it was such an issue, DRIS wouldn't offer it.

There is nothing wrong with learning a drysuit in combination with OW. GUE does it and in some parts of the world (like Norway, northern Europe) it is a necessity.