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I didn't read the original question as "should I ever take AOW" but "do I need it to dive Palau"........I think there's a lot of reasons to pursue advanced certs and much benefit to be gained (from good instruction), which is why I'm Rescue Cert - but the OP will likely not find any particular...

yay! it's KEVIN!! it was really great diving with you!

AOW isn't "required" for any of the dives with Sam's Tours. We dove with Sam's Tours, we had a DM for every dive - none of the regular sites were below 60' - they did allow certain people to dive below us at 100' if they were AOW and requested it, but I really couldn't figure out why they...

x2! I had to keep my eyes closed during all the mask drills because I wear contacts, not sure whether that makes it easier or harder? But take your time and a few deep breaths before flooding or removing the mask and it will really help! Another thing about clearing - I had a tendency to...

I'm still a fan of paper as well! I do have one of those zippered dive log binders to keep everything in one place, but any three ring binder of that size would work just fine! Once I filled up my Padi log, I used the same printed pages as the poster above for a while - but after Dive 100 or...

Just say no! Though there's nothing wrong with "getting situated" underwater if that's what YOU choose to do (ex. I often stride in holding my fins in my hand, because I don't like walking on the boat wearing them or putting them on at the back - they are just so easily donned in the water...

I've thrown up underwater several times and it always seems to sneak up on me....like, I think I have it under control - but no - out it comes. As the other posters suggested, just hold your reg in your mouth and try to look cool so no one notices...... Throwing up at surface is much worse...

For our shore diving group here, we are asked to buddy up before heading in - though some define buddy more loosely than others. We do stay mostly together as a group, but the guide is clear that he can't be responsible for everyone (sometimes there are 15 or 20 of us) When we were in...

yikes - didn't notice I'd wandered into the Norcal forum via the new posts filter........I probably would freeze to death after just one dive!

x2 Check in with the local shops once you get to your new city! (or maybe there's a scubaboard forum for that area?) They may be able to point out the easy sites and/or hook you up with some other divers from the area. We have a fantastic shore diving "club" here that goes out every...

We do it all the time here in Guam. It's a long day, certainly, but we don't have to worry about driving far! Works best with shore diving, IMO - for some reason, boat diving wears me out - even though we're done with our 2 dives before noon, I just wanna go nap! Take a nice lunch break...

They had cameras AND wrist computers for rent at Sam's Tours - I imagine all the shops in Palau would have them....

I agree with daz, Guam is great for those of us living here - but wouldn't be a good destination, especially after Palau. It's also not really set up well for tourists, unless you're with a Japanese group, it's certainly not like Palau. The boats are very nice and very cheap, but you would...

The Plan: This was our trip to celebrate DH returning from his latest deployment to Afghanistan! We are both Rescue cert with about 150 dives, all in Micronesia. We booked everything thru our local dive shop travel guru, Dianne @ MDA. Just like pushing the “easy” button….she arranged...

ps - the previously suggested jacket is a must!!

We also dove with Sam's in April - Barrington was our guide for our first three days and he was completely awesome! Our boat had 10-12 divers each day and we were split into 2 groups, on the first day, between nitrox and air divers......later when we were ALL diving nitrox, we were divided...

Guam also is a teeny tiny airport - one terminal - super easy to navigate, you should have no issues!

GTDS requires a dive buddy to book a dive.....the DMs for MDA are pretty darn cheap, compared to anywhere else - and for a weekday dive, that's really going to be your best bet! (since most of us unfortunately work...) I have a couple I can recommend if you're interested - for the boat or...

According to my Palauan coworker, Palau imports most of their food from the US. Also Korea, Singapore and Japan. But I wouldn't worry so much about Japan - according to even American sources, only a small amount of food is affected and the government has cut off any exporting from the...