Scuba divers

[MaineSkiLady]

Hmmmm, interesting.....this kind of sounds like the drive to Folgefonna glacier in Norway from base town Jondal that my son did several years ago. Drive was terrifying enough that he shot a video of the road and drive for posterity (NOT WHILE DRIVING - passenger ) .... they only went to town when absolutely necessary. The road was one lane.

 

[SueNJ]

Hope I'm not dating myself here, but I've been PADI Open Water certified since 1986!

I've got about 9 years on you--I was PADI Open Water certified in 1977.

 

[geargrrl]

I"m a novice: Cozumel twice, Bonaire once. My hubby LOVES it, but I'm pretty lukewarm. Underwater is pretty far out of my comfort zone. Maybe I read too many " what went wrong" articles in SCUBA magazine.

 

[vmec]

I'm registered to start my class in 2 weeks!

My bf and I are big fans of fish, sharks, turtles and the underwater world. We're planning a trip to Belize to stay on a private island a half a mile from the barrier reef... ahhh serenity.

We're super excited to start diving and the first few dives will be local- meaning it's a COLD water dive... brrr.

 

[cyn]

I'm PADI Open Water, too, and got my certification waaaay back in 1983!

Here's a tip if you don't want to brave the cold water: do what I did and complete the course right up to the open water certification. Bring the necessary papers with you, then just complete the certification in nice warm tropical water. I did my course in Montreal, but finished the cert. in St. Vincent. As far as I'm concerned, it's the only way to go.

Have fun on your trip, but be forewarned, scuba can be more expensive than skiing!

 

[itri]

Scuba is one thing I've wanted to try, but haven't gotten to yet. We went to Sandals in St Lucia for our honeymoon and scuba diving was included, so we were all set to do it, but H has asthma and so they wouldn't let him. Being the good newlywed wife that I was, I said I didn't want to do it if he couldn't, so we just snorkeled instead. Oh well, one of these days...

 

[CAdreaming]

Better, do both! I have friends who did the whole ski/dive NZ trip and LOVED it! It's the ultimate compromise!

Well, hello to the ski divas who also scuba dive.

I don't know about skiing in NZ but they have 'Poor Knights Islands' where the diving is rated as one of the 10 best dive sights by Jacques Cousteau. I dove there few years ago when I was traveling across NZ. It was good diving. But one of the 10 bests??
I can easily think of other places around the world that are better than 'Poor Knights'. After 2nd dives, I though that our beloved Jacques had too many of his favorite French wines when he rates this dive site. :p

But NZ is nearby THE Barrier Reef and yes, the big reef is definitely the diver heaven and must dive site for all divers.
I am going to take my DH there since he is new to the diving and has never been there for diving. Years ago, I stayed at Heron Island, right on the reef and it was an incredible place to dive.

Mostly, my DH and I dive off CA coast at Monterey and Carmel bays.
We consider these CA divings as the practice divings for the tropical diving trips to Carribean islands or to central America.
By thinking this way, we can endure the cold water temp.

There are great diving sites right here in CA but we wish the water is warmer.

 

[CMCM]

I just noticed this thread. DH and I got PADI open water certified back in....um....around 1980. We're definitely warm water divers, though! Coldest place we've dived is Hawaii. Beyond that, we went to Key West, the Seychelles, the Red Sea, off the coast of Kenya at Turtle Bay, Sri Lanka, and our top favorite place on earth, the Maldives. Diving is a lot of fun, no doubt about it. But warm water only, please! In the Maldives we were down at 100 feet in just our swimsuits and it was wonderfully warm even at that depth! We have acquaintances who went diving up in Alaska....NO THANKS to that one. I prefer lots of visibility, tons of beautiful fish and coral, and warm water!

 

[Delawhere]

Originally Posted by cyn View Post
Hope I'm not dating myself here, but I've been PADI Open Water certified since 1986!

I've got about 9 years on you--I was PADI Open Water certified in 1977.

PADI certified back in 1976. Dove for a few years then ruptured an eardrum diving. Very unpleasant. I continued to have ear problems, I would rupture an eardrum about 20% of the times I flew in a commercial airliner. However, since the advent of nasal steroids, I haven't had ear problems in years. Now that my kids are old enough for a junior certification, I am thinking about signing us up for lessons. Since we don't have any trips planned to diveable areas, I think this summer I'm gonna focus on waterskiing and consider lessons during the next school year with a tropical trip summer 2010.

 

[astridhj]

Hmmmm, interesting.....this kind of sounds like the drive to Folgefonna glacier in Norway from base town Jondal that my son did several years ago. Drive was terrifying enough that he shot a video of the road and drive for posterity (NOT WHILE DRIVING - passenger ) .... they only went to town when absolutely necessary. The road was one lane.

Are you complaining about the Norwegian roads? Have to say it is not only up to Folgefonna that is bad. But if you are living on the west coast of Norway you are getting used to it pretty quickly. On the plus thing there is loads of snow there this year :D

I did get my Open Water PADI license last year. I have not done much diving afterwards due to skiing taking up all my time, but I needed a "summer" sport.