Where is the cheapest and fast place to get Certified

[mania]

You should PM Otter. He is great.

But there was also this post which you should read carefully:
http://www.scubaboard.com/showpost.php?p=2275961&postcount=15

A very good guide for those considering diving and looking for an instructor

Mania

 

[Walter]

I resent the idea that a fast paced training course is by nature unsafe. I feel that this is 100% not true. Sure, they can be unsafe but are not inherently unsafe. As a flight instructor I specialize in condensed courses where my students get their private pilots licenses in 4 weeks as opposed to the normal 4-8 months. I honestly feel that they are more prepared than the guys that drag out their training.

The difference is you are comparing a 4 week course to a 2 or 3 day course and a 4 week course to a 4 - 8 month course. A good course will take about 16 hours in the classroom and about 16 hours in the pool. Private lessons will go faster. Those 32 hours could be done in four 8 hour days, but people get tired and don't learn as well. They also get cold with long periods of time in water cooler than 93° F. The other problem is transfering information from short term memory to long term memory. That's a process that takes both repetition and time. A fast course will have virtually no classroom time and a maximum of 8 hours in the pool. Such a class does, by nature, produce unsafe divers. The worst part is they often have no idea they are not adequately prepared to dive.

 

[shoupart]

Sport CHalet offers private courses for something like $300 more than the base cost. I'm not sure on that exact figure- you might want to call. But the private option will let you find and use an instructor who can fit your schedule, so you could do it as quickly as you need.

 

[shellim123]

I did my classwork on line. I think it was like 90.00. Then scheduled my pool dives and OW dives. It took me like 3 weeks, due to scheduling. The pool and OW dives were a seperate fee of course. But I did my book work at my own pace. Maybe you can do something like that

 

[MntbikerBamBam]

where did u do that at?

 

[shellim123]

It should be on the SSI website. It took me like 6 hours at home

 

[LAJim]

The basic open water course is a little bit James Bond - when you finish you get a license to kill, but its only valid when used on yourself and/or your buddy.

I kid, but I have a point to make. The 2006 DAN Diving Report has the usual harsh lessons about training, experience, and currency: 45% of diver fatalities in 2005 had fewer than 20 dives in the previous year, 44% had been diving for less than two years, and 40% had minimal or no certification. Fatalities are very rare, but what is more common is for an inexperienced diver to have a panic situation or some other issue due to insifficient experience and then stop diving as a result. Training helps you minimize the bad experiences and handle them more successfully when they arise.

The point I want to make is that being certified will not by itself make you ready to dive. You also need to get yourself into a network (or set of networks) that will help you through your first couple hundred dives. ScubaBoard is one network, and I particularly recommend the Wrinkles beach dives and Mo2vation boat dives. Some of the dive shops also have regular dives. Plan to get much more training after certification and then dive regularly or not at all.

Hope to see you in the water.

Jim

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

It should be on the SSI website. It took me like 6 hours at home

SSI doesn't offer an online course. It offers a home study course which you take through a dive shop.

 

[under water]

Where is the cheapest and fastest place to get your cert in socal? so far i was looking at sports chatlet if anyone else has a better place, let me know

I know you did say SoCal, but if it was within your budget, going to the Caribbean to get your cert would allow you to have a vacation and get certified from scratch within a week easily. In my case my wife and I lucked out and we ended up with a dedicated instructor who did all the training and accompanied us on all our dives.
We went to Roatan in Honduras and were NAUI certified without using a pool. Having 88 degree shallow water with reefs just outside your door came in handy. We did have to study a few nights instead of partying, but that was OK too.

 

[shellim123]

SSI doesn't offer an online course. It offers a home study course which you take through a dive shop.

This is where I did mine

http://www.sdi-onlinetraining.net/index_bak.cfm?CFID=861489&CFTOKEN=30302626