Any SCUBA divers out there...especially in lower CT? (1 Viewer)

[Andrew Pezzo]

I recently made the plunge to get my SCUBA diving certififcation. This coming weekend are my open water dives and then I will be certified to 60 ft. Soon after I plan to do my advanced open water certification.

When I was growing up I had a nice big in-ground pool and have always wanted to scuba dive. I have 3 brothers in Florida that are certified and will be diving with them whenever I go to visit (maybe twice a year). However up in CT where I live none of my friends are into it and the cost is a major factor for them. So I was wondering if any HT memebers that live in the sothwestern part of CT dive and if they ever have room for another? I just bought my equipment last week (see below) and really want to use it and dont know when I will be able to go to FLorida next.

I do plan on joining my local dive club but would like to see if I can find others to dive with. The equipment was exepnsive so I want to get a lot of use from it. I cant tell you how excited I am to do my first open water dive.

This is the equipment I just bought:
BCD - Sherwood Avid
Regulator - Sherwood Oasis with standard octo
Dive Computer - Sherwood Wisdom
Various accessories (knife, light, etc)

 

[Denward]

I assume you already bought your mask, fins, and snorkel to go through your certification. I've been certified for about 15 years, but I don't get to scuba very much since I live in Kentucky. If you hadn't already bought all the expensive stuff, I would have advised against it. Unless you live somewhere where you can drive somewhere and dive, it's hard get good use out of that equipment. Wetsuit diving in Long Island Sound wouldn't be my idea of fun, but I think lots of people do it. When I travel, I don't want to lug around that cumbersome stuff. I just ask around about reputable dive shops and I depend on them to keep their rental equipment up to date and in good shape.

But, on a more upbeat note, I still vividly remember my first moments of diving. We were on a boat in the Bahamas and the instructions were to jump off the back and swim around to the front, wait for everyone else, and descend on the anchor line together. I was one of the first to jump off so when I swam around to the front, I had to wait a few minutes. Since my mask was already on, I stuck my face into the water. We were in 50 feet of water and it was crystal clear. There was a sting ray swimming along the white sand bottom.

Scuba is great. When you get your buoyancy adjusted correctly, it feels like flying.

 

[Jay H]

Seeing that you are in Danbury, CT, you're not far from NY State, have you ever been to Minnewaska State Park? It's in the 'Gunks and has alot of good hiking, climbing, and mtn biking ($$) but they also scuba dive in Lake Minnewaska. However, I do believe you have to be part of a club to get a permit but it looks like a cool place. I don't think they have fish there because the lakes are supposedly very acidic from the rocks but the water is always a great shade of blue.

I don't SCUBA dive myself but have friends who do.

Jay

 

[Andrew Pezzo]

If you hadn't already bought all the expensive stuff, I would have advised against it.

The cost of scuba diving certianly is prohibitive. It took me awhile to make the investment but I am glad I did. I know I wont use it as much as I would like but hopefully by owning my own gear it will make me dive more often. Like I said, as long as I can make it down to FL I can go all the time with my brothers. I just wish I could find some poeple in my area to dive with. And it would be even better if after a dive we could enjoy our other hobby by watching a movie on a kick ass system (mine is but my living room is small ).

 

[Tom Fynan]

Andrew,

My partner Bill and I just got our scuba certifications through New England Dive Shop in Wallingford. They are a great group of people, and we had a lot of fun with the classes. We had a vacation planned, and so ended-up doing our open water certification in Maui. It was amazing, but I think I've been spoiled for diving in New England! The dive shop has dives almost every weekend, and we're hoping to do one at the end of this month or early next month.

Good luck with your certification. Where are you doing it?

Tom Fynan

 

[Andrew Pezzo]

I am doing it through a dive shop (called The Dive Shop)in Brookfield, CT. This weekend is the open water portion of the class which will be at Dutch Springs in PA. They also are a great group of poeple and so were the other students in my class (all 5 of us). I might do my advanced certification next time I am in FL but who knows when that will be.

 

[Denward]

What is "Advanced Certification"? When I was taught, we were certified for "recreational diving" which in theory says you're okay down to 100 feet. Anything beyond that does start getting more dangerous, and there's less to see because the light is more filtered and all you get are blues and greens.

Unless this is something new, I don't think dive operators are ever going to say, "sorry, you're only certified to 60 feet". On that first trip to the Bahamas, I actually got down to 110 feet, so I was real careful with my bottom time, ascent, and RNT that day. There's the whole macho thing about going deep, but I would rather stay relatively shallow (50ish) and have a nice long bottom time.

I go diving so infrequently now that whenever we plan to dive on vacation, my wife and I take a scuba refresher course before we leave.

 

[Greg_R]

What is "Advanced Certification"? When I was taught, we were certified for "recreational diving" which in theory says you're okay down to 100 feet... Unless this is something new, I don't think dive operators are ever going to say, "sorry, you're only certified to 60 feet".

Advanced Certification (depending on the cert agency) usually covers navigation, use of a wreck reel, dealing with currents / tides, advanced boyancy concepts, & a further study of the basics. There are many dive operators that will look at your dive log and see what dives you have done. If you are a new (or rusty) diver then forget about going on an 'advanced' dive. You can thank greedy cert agencies and lawyers for this new development. Back in the day it was assumed that each diver was intelligent enough to recognize his/her limits and stay within them. No longer...

 

[Andrew Pezzo]

Adding to what Greg said above, the open water cert that I will have lets me go to 60 feet and advanced to 100 (or 130) feet. The advanced includes a night dive among other things.

I am going through the PADI cert, others may be different in how they label the levels that you can obtain.

There's the whole macho thing about going deep, but I would rather stay relatively shallow (50ish) and have a nice long bottom time.

I definately agree with this. Yes, it would be cool to go very deep but I want to be able to spend some time underwater and not have to come back up as soon as I reach my max depth. My brothers on the other hand go as deep as they can just because they can. They are certified alright, certified nuts .

 

[Denward]

I got certified because my wife was already certified (but a novice) and she wanted us to scuba together. A few months after I got my cert, we went on that 1 week diving vacation in the Bahamas. It was 2 dives every day for 5 days. That included the aforementioned 110 foot dive, a drift dive, and a night dive.

Yes, it would be cool to go very deep

It's just a number in your dive log. Like I said, the experience itself was not worthwhile for me.