Divers?

[sparklingsights]

I've always wanted to learn to scuba dive, and snorkeling around in the gorgeous waters around Zanzibar Island this past February did nothing but reinforce that dream. I just signed up & paid for the PADI online course and plan to do the practical course this winter.

Any certified divers out there? Tips, suggestions, thoughts, favorite experiences, anything! Share :)

[MrGreen]

Certified PADI diver here.

Did a week course in Greece, Zakynthos island with the nicest group of instructors ever.
just seems like a fun job, still considering taking it up as a proffesion..life is long imo, and i would like to do it at some point...they said the pay is crap, but they are doing a job they love.
We went for a week, did our Advanced Open Water license so that we can go out on our own (We being my mate, his family of 4 and I.)

Some bits i remember...
I remember enjoying playing with the sand...because it flows really weird on the bottom....i remember digging my hands in and grabbing a small squid and it wriggled free, blah, scared the bejeebus outta me!

We managed to catch sight of a Moray Eel on our dive, scary little one too. They day before the same one had caught my instructors flipper by the foot on another dive, nearly ripped his right off.
The best experience easily was our diver knew where an octopus lived. (they are habitual)...now i love the environment and i didn't feel happy about ripping it from its "Home" which our instructor probz did daily! But it was absolutely beautiful, the ink is stringy by the way. Oh and the legs kinda feel like those plastic bathmats with the suckers on em :D.

If you were doing it i would reccomend doing and open sea course (just because more experience in the sea is better than doing the training in a pool.)
I would also say it is a VERY expensive hobby if you want your own gear. will cost you about £1500 (dunno in Canadian dollars) for a complete set of your own gear. and a tank refill is dear aswell.
But you can hire gear out at any centre. If you are ever in England email me and we can go on a quarry dive....there are like sunken JCB's just left in these flooded mining quarry's....my friend said it was awesome

I highly reccomend it, sometimes i feel the underwater world can be prettier than up here....though by 20m you lose a lot of the colour :P

Any other questions at all just post em.

[sparklingsights]

Great! Thanks for the input & experiences!

My Dad was a diver in the Canadian Navy and ever since I was a child I wanted to try it out as well. Always been much more happy in the water than on land, I figure it's worth a shot.

I do have some concerns as far as my ears go, though, so I will have to talk to my doctor. I've always had problems with my ears (many infections, tubes in my ears when I was younger, general issues) and I understand that can be a major concern while diving, what with pressure changes and all. I'm just hoping that that won't be the one thing to stop this dream!

As far as it being an expensive hobby... I definitely expected that. I have a pretty well-paying job and I don't mind to put a lot of money into something that I really love. I think I would definitely rent much of the equipment at first though just to make sure everything goes swimmingly (pardon the pun), and invest in my own gear if I decide that I want to go a lot of diving.

Very cool about the octopus. Kind of made me giggle to read "where an octopus lived" though! So neat that they actually pick a place and stay there.

[MrGreen]

Ahh your father was in the canadian army.

My Grandfather was a tank driver during WWII.
Which is something my dad shelled out some money to go and try, Driving the same tank his dad did (i went along and sat on top :P) which is a HELL of a lot of fun.

The ear thing should be fine, i have some minor pressure issues as does my dad and we both managed. My friend has um..something ear related as a kid..can't think of it. But he never had problems, it's kinda just about pacing. If your ears start to hurt then wait. and go up a bit and sort it out. simple really, all stuff you are taught to do.
I tell you one thing though if you wanna do it abroad it is a GOOD idea to get scuba insurance, it is only like £50 extra on the cost. And if you don't .... the decompression chamber will cost thousands instead. (not that you will ever need to use it.) Just a nice tip my instructor gave me.

I'm off scuba diving in the seychelles in afew months, and then going to do it in this tank in a Dubai Hotel....where they have a whale shark and a whole bunch of ray's. I can't wait
Things on my list to do are
Cave diving.
Wreck diving
Underwater photography.
Ice diving (tho this is a tad scary...i bet it is jaw dropping)

[Johnstuff]

Hiya, Have you condsidered freediving?

I've never really got into scuba but I'm a qualified AIDA freediver. I prefer just diving using simple kit and my own ability (not that I'm very good at it).

Ears can cause more problems with freediving as you have less air and time to eqaulise them, but most people seem to get past any initial problems they have.

I'm off to our local quarry this evening for 20m of cold dark UK water, can't wait!

[sparklingsights]

MrGreen - Whoa, a tank, that's crazy. I work on a military base doing geophysics work with an environmental company - basically we clean all the old bombs and such out of the ground. During one survey I happened to locate a tank underground... pretty ridiculous, they just dug a hole, threw it in (upside-down!) and covered it up, when they were through using it for target practice!!
Ice diving sounds really scary but I bet it would be so incredible! I'm not sure if I would be comfortable doing that, or cave diving, or wreck diving... anything where I couldn't get to the surface relatively quickly, or could get stuck. My Dad has been trapped in a wreck before, almost died... I can't even imagine the fear! But I guess that's why you take courses and get certified, of course.

Johnstuff - Actually, I have never heard of freediving! I will look into it now. I origianally decided to do scuba and get PADI certified because it's well recognized. As well, when I travel, I would be able to dive in various places with groups and whatnot. Do you take a course?

[fiamma]

Funny you mention it John, I really want to do freediving, have done for ages!!! Have fun!

[MrGreen]

Talking about freediving and just snorkeling.
My scuba instructor took us out snorkeling for a bit and showed us how to dive..he could get to 20m in 1 breath of his...incredible

as a tip he said he and i quote "Tricked his body into thinking the lung reflex was him taking another breath."
That is how he did it...amazing, i find it scarier doign that..getting to 10m on ure breath and thinking "AWESOME"...then you look up and realise you are actually quite far down and air seems so far away!

[Johnstuff]

Mr Green, unless you are relaxed, looking up from depth is not always the best thing to do as you can get that "oh my god it's miles back to air" feeling. That panic can cuse you to use up your oxygen faster than if you are relaxed. I tend to not look up for the surface unless I know I am near.



Funny you mention it John, I really want to do freediving, have done for ages!!! Have fun!

I don't know where you're based, if you pass by the midlands in the UK, I'm more than happy to show anyone the basics.

If you're a bit of a distance away then I'd recomend Deeperblue.net as a place to go to find locals - be warned though there is a fair amount of spearfishing stuff on the site and alot of freedivers are into spearfishing.

If Anyone has any questions about freediving let me know, I'll try and answer :thumbsup:

[fiamma]

I'm in Italy... bit far from you :) Thanks anyway.

I think our local pool does courses, will have to check that out. The spearfishing angle sucks though :down:.

[sparklingsights]

I did some super quick research on freediving (Google.. haha), and wow! Major kudos to those who practice that. Amazing! It would be such a lovely experience I'm sure, definitely very freeing. I have a terrible lung capacity and used to suffer pretty badly for asthma so breathing in general isn't my strong suit, ha. I think I prefer the idea of scuba though, stay under for much longer without having to come up for air.

[Johnstuff]

You'd be suprised. It's more about mind than body.

My buddy is currently training a girl with one lung! I think it can help problems like asthma as it causes you to try and breath properly.

I have heard that we tend to breath quite badly (short fast breaths from the chest) and that really we should breath more slowly from the diaphram.

Also it is sport that is not too connected with age. The first freediver to go beyond 100m was in his fifties at the time and one current national champion is a grandmother.

Having said that I think the top divers today do have massive lungs.

Hope you enjoy diving anyway, I could waffle on about freediving all day :)


Fiamma: You should do fine finding a course, they say Italy is the home of freediving!

[sparklingsights]

I did read that a lot of it is about training so I'm sure you're right. I'm not sure I would have the discipline to be able to train and be so successful in that sense. Good to know, though. Pretty amazing, that if I a girl with one lung could manage, probably anyone can!

[Johnstuff]

Ha ha that's my problem, I don't train properly. I'll have a few weeks out of the water then my diving'll be a bit rusty when I get back in.