Where did you get OW certified?

[Scubadam]

Red Sail Sports in Aruba. I spent most of my vacation there getting certified.

 

[Blueringocto_73]

Certified NAUI either 1973 or 72. Location was Nanakuli, Oahu with the Oceanaughts dive club Hickam AFB. 2 unlogged dives. I'm a PADI diver in training currently at my LDS. Almost finished with the course work.

OW dives will be Monterey, California. Used to boogie board at Santa Cruz, California with a 3mm O'Neill wet suit. And some snorkeling. I did a lot of skin diving at Nanakuli back in the day.

 

[Belzelbub]

I voted for the Local Dive shop in my area. Of course, I live in FL, so that's easy to do.

In reality, though, that local dive shop class sucked. The classroom sessions were fine, but I only did one "open water" dive. Open water is in quotes because while it was technically open water, it was more like a pool dive in many respects. Max depth was about 8 fsw, visibility was about 2-3 feet. Needless to say, I was ill prepared after that course. Didn't dive again until I took another OW course.

Second course was through a University, and was much more intense. Lots of pool dives, and 6 open water dives in the keys.

My daughter was certified last year through a local dive shop. Different one than I first used. This shop actually put some work in.

 

[Chavodel8en]

OW (and AOW a few years later)- certified locally (shop about 1 hr away), with checkout dives about 2 hrs away in Monterey/Carmel, where I do most of my diving.

 

[urbaneve71]

i got certified through SSI back in 2002

 

[kombiguy]

Little Creek VA., 1976. Taught by Uncle Sam.

 

[FinnMom]

CMAS* with local club. Open water dives in quarries, then an extra day where they took us out to do our first dives in the sea, from a boat. Good idea to get that experience out of the way 1st thing so we wouldn't be intimidated by boat or "big water" diving. Thanks to the club environment I had dove maybe 2 yrs (80 dives) before I ever dove with anyone anywhere near as "green" as me.

Just a couple years after my class, drysuits had started to get cheap enough that maybe 1/2 of our students started from day 1 in a drysuit. The % just keeps going up; it gives you a 12mo diving season instead of one only 5-6 months long.

 

[WinfieldNC]

Surf City, NC. PADI. Local dive shop that no longer exists.

 

[Doc]

In my high school pool, followed immediately thereafter by my AOW, start to finish, all in that pool. In those days, that was okay with the rules, as it was January in Illinois...as conditions allow.

 

[KentB]

University of British Columbia