to those of you who have an open water PADI scuba certification...

[purbeast0]

The free flow skill is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen or done. Watching videos i had no clue WTF was going on and even when my instructor explained it to me I didn't get it. But then once I tried it I was like WTF HOW DOES THIS WORK?

 

[purbeast0]

So I picked up a wetsuit locally. I think it fits pretty well. It feels snug and the neck feels a tad tight, almost like when you have a tie on and it just isn't that comfortable. But I'm assuming once in the water it will be okay. I tried on the XL and it had too many 'wrinkles' in it in various spots I felt, and the person who was there thought the large fit better. Which is weird because I tried on another model by the same company and the L was way too tight and the XL fit better. So I guess trying on is best for sure. I also have an athletic build so the sizes and measurements aren't really meant for me.

I also ordered 2 dive computers and am going to keep only one of them. I was torn between the Mares Puck Pro and the Suunto Zoop Novo after my extensive research so I ordered both to see which I like better. One is like almost 1/2 the price of the other, but it only has 1 button so I'm not sure how much I will like it. I also like the other one better asthetically and it has this cool 'live log' feature on it where you can playback your dives and it has a neat little graphic.

After that is settled, I'll be ready for my checkout dives next month. I'm both nervous and excited about it.

 

[purbeast0]

I thought I updated this thread but I guess not.

To make a long story short, my trip in December I did not pass the OW dives because I got extremely sick. I did 3/4 dives and couldn't do the 4th on the following day. In hindsight I shouldn't have done the first 3 but I did. It sucked being sick in Grand Cayman and in bed for 24 hours straight. It also sucked when I went to the final group dinner after everyone else completed their OW and AOW and seeing them get their certs, but I didn't get one.

I did go back in March though and got both my OW and AOW. I'm glad I did both back to back as well. I learned a ton and the instructors helped me get PERFECTLY weighted on my final AOW dive. I also met some really cool people on the boats and had 3 days of 3 dives, and wanted to do even more. One was canceled because of weather so it should have been 10.

I went to the Keys 2 weeks ago and did my first dives after being certified where it was just 2 dives for fun, and being perfectly weighted made it awesome. I hardly used my BCD at all and am at the point already where I can control my buoyancy with my lungs and go up/down via breathing. I do still have to work on stuff obviously but I love it.

I'm now going to buy my own BCD and reg because I figure if I do 10-15 dives a year, after like 5-6 years it will pay for itself with rental costs, plus I will know my gear very well. I've been researching the hell out of gear the past few days and am going to test out some stuff next weekend with a local shop at a pool. I'm going to try some back inflated BCD's for the first time, which everyone I've talked to pretty much recommends over the jacket style ones. I'm also trying out various regs to feel the differences between them.

I have SCUBA fever now and it's all I want to do lol.

 

[Paladin3]

It's an awesome sport. Sorry to hear about you getting sick. I injured my ear once on a boat dive and slept through the rest of it, and it sucks.

Developing the skills necessary to be calm and comfortable in the water is a fantastic feeling. I grew up in the Southern California ocean along the Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange and San Diego County coasts. I did a lot of free diving with my wife before I got my NAUI OW1 cert way back when. She took the class too but sprained an ankle and never went back to finish, so most of my diving was solo beach diving for years unless I spent money to get on a party boat out to Catalina Island or someplace. I've never been anywhere exotic or even in warm water. La Jolla would get an El Niño season and the water would hit 74F and we thought we'd died and gone to heaven. But in the cold Pacific you sure do see your fair share of sea mammals.

Having moved to North Idaho the fishing is much better but the diving here sucks, lol. Some die hard folks dive in nearby Lake Pend Oreille where you can find sunken train cars at around 80ft, but I can't see buying a dry suit to chase trout around in a lake better suited to ice fishing on in the Winter. I'll take my mask and fins down to the lake in the summer, but then I'm underwater looking at rocks and sand, lol. Or the stuff folks drop off the jetty. Rescued a cute lady's sunglasses one day

I miss the ocean. Splash around in her once for me.

 

[Newfangle9]

And it does take a little while to get used to breathing underwater. I am still a noob and go through my air took quickly, but I am trying to get better.

Just keep diving. With more time under water you will get more relaxed and that will improve your bottom time. Also, if you could use some improvement in your cardio conditioning that will help too. At one time I did a lot of charter boat diving and I was running five miles a day and cycling. I liked to be one of the first divers off the boat and and my bottom time was so good that the dive masters would sometimes use the underwater signal to recall divers because I was the last diver still out. I would pop to the surface with 1000 lbs of air still left wondering what was going on. I got my NAUI cert in about 1988 through a small local shop. I had been to three or four other shops before I went to this one, and I asked him where he did his pool training. He told me he didn't use a pool because he didn't think it prepared people for the ocean enough. I signed up for his class on the spot. He had his own method for determining if people were fit enough to take his class. The beach he used for the first class was at Shaw's cove in Laguna Beach Ca. because it's usually pretty calm. We were told to put our wetsuits on and told to swim out to a point along the reef with no fins on. It was tougher than I thought. You are very buoyant with no weight belt and it's tough to swim. People that couldn't make it or were too tired when they got done were told to get into better shape before continuing. Also because I did more ocean dives in his class my first certification was open water II.

 

[Paladin3]

Just keep diving. With more time under water you will get more relaxed and that will improve your bottom time. Also, if you could use some improvement in your cardio conditioning that will help too. At one time I did a lot of charter boat diving and I was running five miles a day and cycling. I liked to be one of the first divers off the boat and and my bottom time was so good that the dive masters would sometimes use the underwater signal to recall divers because I was the last diver still out. I would pop to the surface with 1000 lbs of air still left wondering what was going on. I got my NAUI cert in about 1988 through a small local shop. I had been to three or four other shops before I went to this one, and I asked him where he did his pool training. He told me he didn't use a pool because he didn't think it prepared people for the ocean enough. I signed up for his class on the spot. He had his own method for determining if people were fit enough to take his class. The beach he used for the first class was at Shaw's cove in Laguna Beach Ca. because it's usually pretty calm. We were told to put our wetsuits on and told to swim out to a point along the reef with no fins on. It was tougher than I thought. You are very buoyant with no weight belt and it's tough to swim. People that couldn't make it or were too tired when they got done were told to get into better shape before continuing. Also because I did more ocean dives in his class my first certification was open water II.

My NAUI OW1 class did it's first ocean dive just up the coast nearer to the Huntington Pier. It was a rough day and everyone except me and a guy who surfed got rolled in the waves trying to get out past the breakers. The instructor had to cancel the rest of the dives and because I wasn't certified all I could do was snorkeling and go home with a full tank. Several other classes up the beach from us had a hard time, too, and one guy had to have an ambulance called for him.

Yeah, maybe folks should get used to the ocean and the surf before they go looking to get scuba certified. A beach entry is way more fun, but can be difficult compared to stepping off a boat. I could still probably do it even in my crappy shape, but I'd probably have to crawl out a ways before I stood up, lol. No more jogging through the waist high surf in scuba gear for this guy.

 

[purbeast0]

The first time I ever wore a wetsuit was when I did a kayak/snorkel tour at La Jolla years ago. I think we had 7mm on and holy shit when we went in the water I felt like I was hyperventilating I was breathing so fast. I got out very quick, even with the wetsuit on. It was so cold and the water wasn't that clear, and all we saw was kelp and those orange state fish.

I do own a 3mm wetsuit that I have worn on all dives and plan to wear on all dives. Even when I was in GC and water was like 80+ degrees I still wore it on all dives. It's just more comfortable and when you are in the water for like 3 hours, it helps keep your body temp up.

 

[Paladin3]

I used to layer a 3mm full suit with a 3mm shortie and hood over it which was a bit chilly unless the water was close to 70f. Most of my diving wasn't very deep, maybe to 60' max with a lot of time above the thermocline. And I only own one tank, so when it was empty I would spend the rest of the day free diving, spending plenty of time on the surface in the warm sun.

I've heard really good things about drysuits and wearing base layers and sweats underneath to stay uber warm. A friend dives mostly on vacations, and he bought one because the energy he saves not having to keep his body warm let's him go out dancing after a day of diving rather than being beat tired.

 

[purbeast0]

I used to layer a 3mm full suit with a 3mm shortie and hood over it which was a bit chilly unless the water was close to 70f. Most of my diving wasn't very deep, maybe to 60' max with a lot of time above the thermocline. And I only own one tank, so when it was empty I would spend the rest of the day free diving, spending plenty of time on the surface in the warm sun.

I've heard really good things about drysuits and wearing base layers and sweats underneath to stay uber warm. A friend dives mostly on vacations, and he bought one because the energy he saves not having to keep his body warm let's him go out dancing after a day of diving rather than being beat tired.

Yeah I have no plans on diving outside of warm tropical waters lol. I don't like being cold at all so I don't plan on doing anything in cold water.

 

[Newfangle9]

My NAUI OW1 class did it's first ocean dive just up the coast nearer to the Huntington Pier. It was a rough day and everyone except me and a guy who surfed got rolled in the waves trying to get out past the breakers. The instructor had to cancel the rest of the dives and because I wasn't certified all I could do was snorkeling and go home with a full tank. Several other classes up the beach from us had a hard time, too, and one guy had to have an ambulance called for him.

Yeah, maybe folks should get used to the ocean and the surf before they go looking to get scuba certified. A beach entry is way more fun, but can be difficult compared to stepping off a boat. I could still probably do it even in my crappy shape, but I'd probably have to crawl out a ways before I stood up, lol. No more jogging through the waist high surf in scuba gear for this guy.

That's why Shaw's cove was a good spot. It is pretty sheltered and not as rough usually as most dive spots in Laguna. When doing beach dives anywhere with surf it pays to learn how to time the sets of waves coming in. It can save a lot of tumbling around and losing gear. I found quite a few masks and other items just beyond the surf line. I did a crap ton of beach dives until I went on my first dive charter boat. After that I was pretty much done with beach dives. I went at least twice a month for a long time. I really loved the two or three day trips out to San Nicholas Island because it's almost 100 miles out. I saw my first Blue Shark out there up close. It was very exciting. Night dives are really beautiful there too with lots of bioluminescent plankton in the water.

 

[purbeast0]

I've decided to buy all of my own gear.

Last weekend one of my local shops let me try out a bunch of regulator setups and 2 BCD's and I tried out a BP/W setup for the first time and within like 30 seconds I knew that is what I wanted to buy. This past week it's been nothing but research and I've almost narrowed my choices. I may be purchasing my regulator set tomorrow as well. The BP/W setup I'm not getting from them though because I can get one online for way cheaper that is probably of better quality, and I'm building my own harness so I am customizing it to my colors and stuff too.

 

[purbeast0]

Got some of my gear in yesterday but have yet to put it together still...

I still need to decide on my regs but I'm leaning towards Atomic Z2 for both performance and price, and I'm probably ordering my wing tomorrow once it's back in stock.

 

[purbeast0]

Went diving with all my own gear for the first time 2 weeks ago in the Keys and it was awesome. Visibility wasn't the best because of some windy days prior to us diving, but it wasn't bad by any means. Here's a cool video of a nurse shark we ran across.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Went diving with all my own gear for the first time 2 weeks ago in the Keys and it was awesome. Visibility wasn't the best because of some windy days prior to us diving, but it wasn't bad by any means. Here's a cool video of a nurse shark we ran across.

You were lucky. They call them nurse sharks because they latch onto bare nipples of unsuspecting divers.

 

[purbeast0]

You were lucky. They call them nurse sharks because they latch onto bare nipples of unsuspecting divers.

Good thing I had a wetsuit on then!

This one was bigger that I saw 2 years ago when snorkeling. I just can't hold my breath that long, which SCUBA has helped with lol.