Any PADI members?

[NEW PA MT MN]

Our time frame isn't the greatest... Mid January (we are in countdown mode...) However, we've been told it's the main time frame for the whales. Just dive opportunities vs wind vs vacation days and cooler temps, for the area. Hoping it keeps fair visibility.

So from what I've gathered; Seems worthwhile to price both dive packages and add on dives to a normal vacation package. Looks like we're routing as many here have - hopefully annual/bi-annual trip though possibly going to fade off as years pass (judging on the majority of posts) - who knows. With that, I think we will hold off the big purchase items and stick with the base, wetsuit, full and short - light/whistle/knife - fins/mask/snorkel - gloves/booties/dive computer.

Any other items worth purchase that's easy to fly with?

We went in November and January. All wore wetsuits but me. Caribbean is a lot warmer. I always go on my own. Most times it's just me and my family.
If you go to cabo Pulmo go to Lapax and snorkel with whale sharks. Pic from 2018.

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

Was certified in high school and did probably 10 dives a year for 5 years or so... went 8ish year without diving and then went with my wife on her first dive a couple years ago in the Maldives.

I’d be interested in doing some spear fishing in fresh water. With some exceptions though I think snorkeling is enough for me in salt water, at this point.

 

[Islander]

Navy scuba diver for my submarine duty, so PADI was essentially given to us by a local instructor. I've only used tanks in the last 20 years to repair the bottom of my pool.

 

[Western Traveler1]

PADI and NAUI certified in 1980. Southern California beach dives around La Jolla Cove and local areas. Dove Cabo from a private yacht I worked on. The owners insisted all crew to be certified. Lots of multi day boat dive trips around the Channel Islands in the 1980’s, San Nicholas, Santa Barbara island, Santa Rosa and San Miguel Island mostly. Many trips on the Conception out of Santa Barbara. (One of the most heartbreaking stories in memory for all involved).
In the 90’s my diving was almost exclusively to repair underwater leaks of boats and barges or changing out props on commercial vessels. After one very scary moment under a barge I was making hull repairs to, it lost its attraction....
I was always a Huffer” most of my dive buddies got another 15 minutes or more out of a tank than me so I always felt like they were babysitting me.

 

[Happy Myles]

Brings back memories. My interest in SCUBA diving began in 1956 with seeing the French documentary movie, Silent World produced by Jacques Cousteau. I started diving in earnest in 1957 several years before PADI was inaugurated. Like Western Traveler my early haunts were also the California Channel Islands as well as the then kelp beds off the Southern California coast which sadly have disappeared. Saint Nick and San Miguel among my favorite spots. Lots of abalone in the old days as well as fish. From there dove all over the world. My doctors suggested I stop a couple decades ago. Many great adventures. Western Traveler i too used to go on the boats Conception and Peace for July 4th 3 day outings.

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

Wife and I completed the e-learning for "Open Water" and finishing the pool / ocean in the next couple weeks. Curious for land locked Hunt Talkers, are you involved in spear fishing in lakes to keep up with the dive activity?
For any PADI members:
Do you make a point of frequent dive trips? How often does one need to dive to maintain proficiency?

Is there value in $ savings routing through dive groups to travel different areas of the world or better using Kayak.com , etc type searches?

Thanks. I've come across spear fishing pike guru's while putting around a few lakes in NW MT. What other land locked dive activities are available for the open water cert depth dives?

In terms of dive proficiency you mean "maintain your cert" or like maintain skills? The cert is like everything they want your monies... mine has almost certainly lapsed, as far as skills. I didn't do any advanced certs but I didn't feel like I lost any skills with a long hiatus. In my novice experience a lot of scuba is knowledge rather than skills based, compared with something like free diving, I'm sure if you don't practice a fair bit you go from being able to hit 80ft and stay down for a long while to feeling like you're gonna die just getting to 15ft.

I think pike would be a kick in the pants, there are some interesting places Lake Macdonald, the firehole in Yellowstone...

A number of places to all inclusive flight/hotel/dive packages saves you some hassle. My family met a dive master a hotel doing our first diving, she left that hotel and hung her own shingle and we did a ton of diving with her, my mom liked having someone that was hand holdy and she coordinated the equipment in various places which was really nice.

Like anything lots of different was to go about it.

 

[rwc101]

Jealous of all you. Both of my parents are PADI certified and were even instructors for a while. Really bummed as a kid when I got to my open water dive and realized I couldn't equalize.

 

[squirrel]

It does not matter what emblem is on your cert card. Nobody even looks at it. Of course nobody is down there with you when you F up either so what is in your head does very much matter. People who are comfortable in the water are always going to do well, they do not panic. I go 16 hrs one way to spearfish and dive more tanks per year than all the people who live on the shore or within minutes of the shore... all except one. As you may guess he is a great dive buddy. Never cancels always on time to the launch.

Spearfishing is great, incredible even but you need to be a diver first. Never dive with idiots, their stupidity will more likely kill you than them, even more true when that idiot has a speargun. Best way to get rid of most of them is suggest diving tomorrow, you won't see them the rest of the week.

YOu should dive as often as you can, no matter the conditions. If you find you are making excuses to not dive like its windy or vis might suck or surface temp is chilly you will be one of those who just never get around to going after those first few times. There are many many divers just like that, hell half my class washed out on the cert dive as it was 50 degrees and 6" vis down at 60'.

 

[Western Traveler1]

Brings back memories. My interest in SCUBA diving began in 1956 with seeing the French documentary movie, Silent World produced by Jacques Cousteau. I started diving in earnest in 1957 several years before PADI was inaugurated. Like Western Traveler my early haunts were also the California Channel Islands as well as the then kelp beds off the Southern California coast which sadly have disappeared. Saint Nick and San Miguel among my favorite spots. Lots of abalone in the old days as well as fish. From there dove all over the world. My doctors suggested I stop a couple decades ago. Many great adventures. Western Traveler i too used to go on the boats Conception and Peace for July 4th 3 day outings.

Miles, I’m sure we know many of the same people. Glen and Roy were close personal friends along with all their crews back then. I lived in Santa Barbara and ran several of the sport boats at the landing before moving on to the oil patch and Oceans. I guess you know their definition of an animal then. Those guys were usually my dive partner.

Sorry for the high jack....

 

[refuseresist]

PADI = Put another dollar in. NAUI = Not another underwater incident. LOL!

While stationed in Turkey I got into diving BIG! Went from never having touched SCUBA gear to being a PADI Dive Master between May and October. Weekends consisted of heading to the ocean Friday after work for a night dive and sometimes 3 dives on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. Basically lived by dive tables and was in the water as soon as we were safe to go. Haven't been diving since 1996 though.

Better to Put Another Dollar In than Break Out Another Thousand !

 

[Howie]

Been PADI since 1982. As far as proficiency, if your competent and have the skills. You'll dive enough to stay comfortable without losing proficiency. Just dont shortcut any safety measure.
My favorite freshwater activity was to cruise weedbeds looking for fish. Sit on the bottom off the deep edge, nightcrawlers in a ziplock bag, 1 in your glove will bring fish right to your faceplate. Pike are skittish, largemouth are wary, smallies are bold. Panfish are curious.
On a hot summer day sitting out there below the thermocline is wonderful.
I was a professional recovery driver for our city fire dept. for 15 yrs. Ice, Rivers Quarries, thru the ice, Blackwater. You name it.
We cant spearfish in Pa. I did on our FL. trips. It's fun if ya can get to wrecks.
Try it all but STAY SAFE. Follow the procedures.
Warm, clear salt water can spoil your thirst for the cold chocolate milk of a northern lake....but do it all as often as you can, its great.

 

[1100RemingtonMan]

Yes but I have not dived in 25 years.

 

[Cheesehead]

Not certified but did a number of dives in GBR in Australia 6 years ago and off Maui a couple years ago. I wonder if I went back to GBR whether it would be a depressing experience due to bleaching.

I live on Lake Michigan (Kenosha)...would be curious if anyone dives near there (feel free to pm to avoid convolution)

 

[/sw]

Wife and I completed the e-learning for "Open Water" and finishing the pool / ocean in the next couple weeks. Curious for land locked Hunt Talkers, are you involved in spear fishing in lakes to keep up with the dive activity?
For any PADI members:
Do you make a point of frequent dive trips? How often does one need to dive to maintain proficiency?

Is there value in $ savings routing through dive groups to travel different areas of the world or better using Kayak.com , etc type searches?

Thanks. I've come across spear fishing pike guru's while putting around a few lakes in NW MT. What other land locked dive activities are available for the open water cert depth dives?

I've been certified since the early 90's and keep it active even though I live in AZ now. I'd say at least a dive a year to keep the rust loose. As for trips, the local shop here in Flagstaff does put together some trips but I generally just go somewhere warm that I wanna dive and hop on a boat with a two dive day, morning shallow and a night dive.

It's a blast, and adding a spear or lobster bag adds a whole new stick of dynamite.

Enjoy, and get a nitrox add-on if at all possible.

 

[Phaseolus]

I’m PADI certified and dove in some good spots. Beqa, Fiji was superb. I actually like snorkling better in many ways. I has a 32’ sloop in the Bahamas a while back and we speared almost daily, non Bahamians can’t spear with tanks. We were pretty poor so we traded lobster and fish for cold beer and other foodstuffs.

 

[Sytes]

Montana weather or...

Tough to beat! R&R w/o the tourism vibe. Complete R&R.

 

[Desk Pop]

I got PADI open water certified in 2008 in Honduras. If I remember it is the plain Jane basic certification. I think it is good for life, but honestly I don't know. I have only been twice since then (Honduras again and later in Grenada.) I had to pay attention pretty close to everyone gearing up both times so I didn't do anything wrong. You forget a lot, but I remembered the important things like don't panick down there and don't come up too soon and get the bends.

 

[VikingsGuy]

Went PADI and ended up with advanced diving and technical diving certs. Have a few hundred dives or so but haven't since the youngest kids came into the picture. The problem with lake diving is lack of visibility even in "clear" lakes. Have done local lakes, flooded mine pits, Superior wrecks, but warm ocean is where all the fun is for me - endless visibility, warm water, interesting destinations, drift diving, still diving, WWII wrecks, underwater caverns, night diving, the options are endless. The Caribean is great because it is easy to get to from lower 48 and is resonably priced. I prefer Cozumel/Belize for the drift diving over Caymans or Bonaire but all are nice. But the south Pacific is a game changer. In the carribean you see the same 30 fish and 20 corals over and over. In the south pacific each dive has a whole ecosystem all its own. You can go one island over and see 50 new fish and 20 new corals - it is amazing.

As for group dives - they are kind of the cruise ship of diving. If you like chumming around with a random cluster of divers 24/7 then they are an opportunity to see new places, but I preferred to make my own itenerary with my oldest daught, wife and a good buddy.

Like firearms, dive gear is life or death. Buy good equipment, know how to keep it maintained, don't let others handle it. I've seen a number of near misses by folks who broke one or more of these rules. Also, I strongly recommend nitrox certification and NO alcohol on the trip - it makes a real difference if you are doing 4 or 5 dives a day.

 

[Pighunter]

Brings back memories. My interest in SCUBA diving began in 1956 with seeing the French documentary movie, Silent World produced by Jacques Cousteau. I started diving in earnest in 1957 several years before PADI was inaugurated. Like Western Traveler my early haunts were also the California Channel Islands as well as the then kelp beds off the Southern California coast which sadly have disappeared. Saint Nick and San Miguel among my favorite spots. Lots of abalone in the old days as well as fish. From there dove all over the world. My doctors suggested I stop a couple decades ago. Many great adventures. Western Traveler i too used to go on the boats Conception and Peace for July 4th 3 day outings.

My NAUI certification was in 1980 and most of my dives have been in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. However, I did a couple of dives in the Gulf of California. Have always wanted to dive the Southern California coast but perhaps I'm getting a little old for that pursuit...

 

[brokfut]

PADI open water certified in Japan in 1984 while in the navy. Stayed in the pacific and did a lot of diving in Okinawa, several of the Marianna Islands but mostly Guam. Have been diving in the gulf near Destin, FL since I live here. Still own most of my gear except I'm getting old and bulging so no wet suit now. Lots of wreck diving here along the norther gulf coast but most every thing I am seeing requires NOX cert.