Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How many of you are scuba certified?

If I count how many tanks of air I have gone through it must be in the 100-150 range. However, I have never been scuba certified. I learned as a kid in another country where certification was not needed. Also getting an adult to get my tanks filled was never a problem because I was usually diving more than they were!

My wife has become quite interested in getting her certification. So I have decided to do this with her. I suppose it's mostly because we do so much together and share just about all of our adventures. But I need to have that certification now to get rental equipment when we travel within the USA and to get tanks refilled too.

Furthermore, it just seems like a good idea to actually learn the safe and proper way to do this, even though it has not killed me yet. I want her to be comfortable and safe. If you have done this scuba training what did they have you do to get certified?

I'm PADI certified, advanced open water. That said it's been nearly 30years since I've been on a dive. It was a combination of classroom instruction and diving, but mostly dives. I'm sure it's changed a bit in 30 years, I know certifications are no longer lifetime.

Only under the bed sheets

Online course. Weekend of onhand instruction and 8 dives.

SSI, PADI ...

I think, you are on the right track - starting your wife of the right way and going with her...

Instructor, who taught me, was half human, half fish -

contruction diver, active police diver, organized diveing vacations, taught divers on the weekends, certified this and that...

always pushed safety in class - never go alone, check your buddies gear, etc...

died shortly after teaching us - diving alone, using unfamiliar gear - rebreather.

There is a lesson in there somewhere, and it stuck...

Sorry for the sad turn.

Diving is great fun. Never forget, though, we cant breath water.

PADI here, some class meetings in the evening after work at a pool, then a trip to FL to do the certification dives,,, It was pretty basic and made good sense.

PADI Divemaster, have not been underwater in about five years.

I certified through PADI many years ago. We had classroom instruction, swimming pool instruction, and open water dives in Lake Tahoe.

The instructor was an ex-military type, pretty cool. He sort of mocked the macho types that ran out and bought a dive knife right away. His one liner was that it wasn't much use, but if you ever shared your regulator with a panicked diver, you'd find one use for it.

Sure enough, in the open water dive, he paired me with a teenager. We did the ditch and don, and buddy breathing. When I handed over my regulator, and motioned for him to hand it back, his eyes were big as saucers and he shook his head indicating that I wasn't getting it back. So I found his, took a couple of breaths and traded it to him for mine. Couldn't help but laugh about the dive knife joke, though.

You definitely should get certified. My wife and I did our Open Water together and it was a great way to go. The basic Open Water certification is something like 10 hours of class and 4-5 dives. I have PADI and SSI certifications and they are both good organizations. If you are going to dive on any sort of regular basis I would recommend getting both Advanced Open Water and Nitrox certifications. Just got back from two weeks of diving in Palau which has some of the best diving anywhere. It was great.

NAUI here. Went through the program in 1980 @ Orange Coast College. Diving for lobster in the Channel Islands was a lot of fun. Haven't gone in about 20yrs.

Got NAUI certified when I had to live in Kansas just prior to vacation in Mexico. Got to do my checkout dives in Cabo.

Certified & scuba dived in Palm Beach, Cayman Islands & Bahamas many times day and night. Haven't been in few years & doubt I'll go again, thrill kinda wore off. Night-time is one hell of a rush dropping 60-90' to the ocean floor.

I started out PADI but our local dive shop is SDI wo we switched. I have my Solo, Rescue, Master Diver,Nitrox CERTs along with many other specialties. I have about 150 logged dives and we dive every year. This year we go to Curacao.

As has been said already, do the online work then take your paperwork on vacation and finish up at a local dive shop. Nothing beats learning in the ocean where the water is warm and vis is 100ft.

I've been certified a couple of times...first back in 72 when I was in the Navy...got re-certified in 98.

The main thing is that you're comfortable in the water and aren't prone to panic. First, you'll have classroom instruction where you'll learn about decompression, the bends, nitrogen narcosis, high altitude diving, night diving, diving with Nitrox etc. etc. You have to be able to tread water for a while...I forget how long, maybe 10-15 minutes. You also have to swim a certain distance...again, I forget how far...you also have to be able to clear your mask under water and be able to "buddy breath". After you get that far, the instructor will "FORCE" you to ditch your equipment and surface...they do this by shutting off your air, ripping off your mask, pulling the regulator out of your mouth unbuckling your tank and in general, harassing you...remember to exhale while surfacing, or you'll get a surprise...An "open water" dive with the instructor is required too. While doing this, the instructor may have you do some of the things you were taught in the pool....all in all, it's pretty easy and a lot of fun. Things may have changed a bit in the last twenty years though.

Had credits to burn in college so took the NAUI course over a semester. We dove alot in the pool and then in the spring went to a lake for the 60' training dive. Haven't been since that day in 1993.

One more thing: Learn to pike. Trust me.

PADI for me but it has been over ten years since I have been under.

Certified many many years BUT after several winter deep water night quarry dives in Northern Virginia I gave it up.

All it took was one bad experience and I had it. Never again.

Got YMCA certification spring of 1975. Did all the pool stuff late winter into spring, made our first open water dive mid-May. Then in 1976 I got my YMCA advanced certification. Did lots of diving for about 10 years, Florida Keys once, Bahamas twice, Massachusetts Bay, Coast of Maine a few times, Plus lots of diving in NY state's Finger Lakes, Lake Ontario, and some Canadian Lakes in Ontario. Got married in '82, that's when it started to slow down. Haven't dove since about '85 and just retired last year and now I'm thinking "hell, I'm too old for that stuff now". But it was fun and I always enjoyed it. Grew up around Lake Ontario and started swimming about the time I was getting out of diapers so it was kind of a natural progression.

Why on earth were you night diving in a quarry???

cos I was an idiot with way too much testosterone and watch this mojo. BUT never again.

BTW...The tart cherry juice has made me much smarter!!