anyone else scuba dive?

[tylerm]

Who else dives? I know a couple people do, just curious!

I just did a couple dives toward my PADI Advanced Open Water license today (should have my advanced license in about 2 weeks), and am taking a NITROX course in mid-October.

[Rochellita]

good luck with the advanced PADI, I did the the basic PADI about 3 years ago and hope to get to dive again when we go to South Africa in December. Will no doubt need a refresher course!

Where have you dived and are you planning to teach or just doing the advanced stuff for fun?

[Malcolms Billy]

I got my Open Water and Advanced open water many years back, and absolutely loved diving! So much that I was going to be a marine biologist. Bought the kit and all that, but then I had to go back home, and reality kicked in, and I've never dived since Would love to go diving again, but not in these murky, cold waters we have over here. And since I don't travel anymore, I guess the only diving I'll be doing is into good memories!

[seasiren]

Malcolms Billy there is plenty of Scuba Diving in your area. Contact your local dive store and hook up with some divers. If it's been over a year a refresher course is recommended. It's not the caribbean mind you, but there is so much to explore.

I run a Scuba Dive Center here and think it's wonderful to see people getting certified. So many things to see and you can also (depending on where you're located), wreck dive, reef dive, night dive, and also get into underwater photography.

Good Luck on all you diving adventures!

[Malcolms Billy]

Seasiren, please check my location: Manchester, UK! The diving here takes places either in over chlorinated swimming pools, or in such dark, murky waters, that you'd probably swim into a wreck head first before realising that there is one! Night diving can be done here at noon!
And it is many moons ago - dare I say 9 years?

I'm a spoilt brat: my diving/snorkelling has taken place in Hawaii, Gulf of Aqaba (the Red Sea is on the other side of the Sinai) and I got my licenses in Australia, the advanced on on the GBR! Really I don't find the idea of diving in British waters not appealing at all!

[seasiren]

Yes you are spoiled!

I knew where you were from, we have dove with some UK divers out here and know the conditions are similar to New England diving. We are a little warmer here.

You would have to drive a little, but if you don't like the cold water then you probably wouldn't be comfortable in your local diving conditions.

From a UK dive center site:
Water temperature:
4°C (39°F) in April to 14°C (57°F) in September

Visibility:
10 - 30 metres (30 - 100 feet)

Your visibility is similar to ours.

That's OK, certification is for life, just refresh or retake the course before your next trip. Some destinations have great refreshers. I hope you can dive again soon.

[Malcolms Billy]

Seasiren, I think I've made my case!

Those temperatures are fine for camping, but not diving
And I like to look at beautiful fish and coral reefs while I'm at it, not get excited that I've been able to see a fish full stop, because you're floating round in mud!

I doubt it that I'll ever dive again, as I've stopped travelling, but they sure are good memories!

[Rochellita]

I'm with Billy on this. Diving in the UK would be a totally grim experience, probably much like my quarry diving experience (can't believe people go out of their way to dive in such things), so I'd prefer to dive in places that really make me happy to be underwater- like South Africa

[tylerm]

Don't worry about cold water, just get a dry suit you can wear your thermals in and you will be nice and toasty! The UK has quite a few caverns you can dive in, pretty cool stuff, I dove Chac Mool in the Riviera Maya (just south of Playa del Carmen) last month, and it was an amazing dive! It is what kicked me in the ass to continue my training.

Where I live there isn't anything great to dive, though the quarry I just dove yesterday was actually pretty fun, only about 10 m of visibility and a depth of about 17 m, but it was a good time. I live right on Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes, but the visibility sucks. However, there are literally hundreds of shipwrecks in the great lakes so I look forward to starting some wreck diving, but probably not till spring now as it is getting late in the year (cold!), and I don't have a dry suit

I got my open water cert on the Great Barrier Reef when I went to Australia for a month backpacking solo about 2 years ago. I have dove off of Negril, Jamaica, and several times off of the coast of Cancun and the Riviera Maya, as well as the 2 cave dives in the same area. Also some local quarry diving.

My plan is to get my advanced and nitrox certs this next month, get my first aid and CPR certs this winter, then get my Rescue Diver cert in the spring. From there I will go for Master Diver and then the first PADI professional certification, Dive Master. I hope to work at the local dive shop on weekends as a dive master as part of my training. That is my current goal, though I may extend it then to an assistant instructor / instructor.

Not only do I want to be a better diver, I would like the possibility to have the experience to get a job as a divemaster or instructor somewhere else in the world, possibly Mexico, and eventually move down there and work. Or perhaps Thailand or the Phillipines. Somewhere where I can make enough money to support my long time girlfriend so she won't have to work and we can live the pure life.

[Malcolms Billy]

As focused as ever, ain't you Tyler! If things are still the same as when I was travelling and diving (yep, many many many mooons ago!), you won't have much trouble finding work as a diving instructor. Both instructors I had at 2 different diving places were British travellers and I've met a good few other ones as well. The nitrox thing sounds exciting, let us know how it goes when you're doing it.
Dry-suit wise, yeah I know, I guess I'm not that into diving that I want to go that far equipment wise and all that. I enjoy going into nice, not too cold water, having the sun filter through it and just slowly propel myself through this spectacle of colour and beauty that can be seen in some places. I'm just not interested in diving with a flash light for viz and having my face freezing up

[tylerm]

I'm just not interested in diving with a flash light for viz and having my face freezing up

wuss

[Malcolms Billy]

wuss

Yep!

[tylerm]

Finished my Nitrox class training today, just need to get in my 2 nitrox dives and my last advanced open water dive to finish it up! Weather was crap the last two weekends, hopefully doing some (cold) quarry diving this weekend...

[Julle]

Finished my Nitrox class training today, just need to get in my 2 nitrox dives and my last advanced open water dive to finish it up! Weather was crap the last two weekends, hopefully doing some (cold) quarry diving this weekend...

Greetings!!!
I'm a diver too, A.I. both in PADI and CMAS
And my brother (that is vegan) has a diving school in Sardinia, is PADI and TDI instructor nitrox/trimix diving is soo relaxing (when is possible to avoid stress, for exemple diving in small grups, with friends )
about TDI
http://www.tdisdi.com/tdi/courses/courses.html

[seasiren]

TDI has excellent training! We teach PADI, SDI, TDI and Inspiration Rebreather.

Tylerm congrats on all your certs!