beginner

Hi! I am an Advanced Open Water Diver. I've been thinking about pursuing scuba diving as a profession, but as interesting as it is, it is confusing as well. I'm not sure what kind of prospects divers have and what levels do they get them. Do many people aspire to have the highest certification...

I’m a newbie - just certified OW in March - and looking to meet buddies in the Milwaukee area. I only have a half dozen OW dives in my belt, almost all of them warm water (Caribbean), with the exception of one in Door County last weekend; and another half dozen confined dives, as I have a good...

Hi all, New to diving - completed my OW a few weeks ago, going into completing my AOW this weekend (as I felt the extra few dives with a trained instructor would help build my confidence massively). I am going to dive on holiday a couple of times this year, but will hopefully dive in the UK...

Hi all, I'm fairly new to diving (only been on 2 diving trips since getting my OW) so forgive me for asking a question that may be obvious. I am planning a trip that will have me do a high number of dives over a short period of time (around 4 dives per day over 4 days). I have been considering...

Hello, I am new to diving and really enjoy it! I’ve only dived in Indonesia when I got my open water..so only 5 times I’ve been. I am considering taking a trip to Egypt and Jordan in May/June. I would love to dive in the Red Sea and would really like to try a liveaboard, are there any that offer...

Hello everyone, My name is Keri, I'm 49, and just received my PADI open water certification last weekend in Miami Beach, Fl., through Tarpoon Lagoon. I'm a San Diego local, but decided to get my certification where it is warm and the visibility is better. My oldest daughter Tiffany died of a...

Hi all, new Dallas area diver here. I’ve been lurking the forums for a few months now while working on my OW cert. I finally wrapped that up last weekend and absolutely fell in love. I’m signed up for my AOW class next month down in Austin at Windy Point; however I’m dying to get my first ocean...

Hey there, I'm looking for a 5mm wetsuit suitable for 25 degrees celsius warm water. After searching a while I found that the best option would be the Scubapro Everflex. But as this wetsuit is fairly expensive and I'm only a beginner, I've also come across the Cressi Castoro 5, wich has also...

Hey all, First time posting here and freshly certified, but I've been using the site for a while for quick answers to my nooby questions. One question I've had no luck finding a concrete answer on is how the official SSI divelogs are handled. SSI has a number of dives requirement for many of...

I was offered a great deal on this dive computer so I purchased it from my LDS. They had to order it for me so I haven’t received, so I wanted to know about your guys’ experience with it: would you recommend it for a beginner OW diver? How user-friendly is it? Any tips/tricks/recommendations...

Hi everyone- Just returned home from a beautiful 2 weeks in Mexico, and a wonderful first experience on Cozumel. I wanted to share a little bit about our experience with Blue XT Sea and the diving we enjoyed. Some of you may remember that I was asking for information on diving companies before...

My partner and I are off to Costa Rica in January for 3 weeks and are looking forward to some diving. We are of course happy to see what we can, but one of the big draws is to try to see Manta Rays. We have both been diving for around 15 years, but only on vacation - although this has been...

Returning to diving after stopping for twenty years. Certified OW NASDS and Advanced ACUC in the Nineties. Only did about thirty dives at the time and just started again a few weeks ago. What would be the Top Five or Top Ten Dive Websites (besides ScubaBoard) that you would recommend that are...

Hi guys! I need some advice on how to start with underwater photography in terms of kit. I already have a Fuji X-T10 for regular photography I would like to keep but I could not find any reviews on how it performs underwater, also I only found one housing for this camera made by Meikon (cheap...

Hi everyone, my boyfriend and I are planning a trip possibly to Fiji. We plan to get certified , then go, so we'll be complete beginners. We want to see the soft corals Fiji is famous for, as well as angelfish and anemonefish. Pelagics are less important. We also like to snorkel. Which area...

My girlfriend and I are planning to stay for about 2 weeks in the area of Playa del Carmen, Tulum or Cozumel end of September / early October. We know its hurricane season but were lucky all 3 years before while staying in Dominican Republic. Anybody been there during that time? What weather...

As the title states, I'm new to SCUBA (just got my OW last month and will be going to get my Advanced Adventure dives done next month). I've done some reading and decided on the TG-4 camera as I liked the features I saw but now I'm at the split in the road between housings and strobes/lights...

Hi- I'm going to Belize in a little over a month. I don't think I'll have time to do any type of pre-training but I do want to learn how to Scuba dive. I'll be in Belize for 10 days so I'm fine with spending a couple days doing the training. I know how to swim and am very comfortable in/around...

Hello, All! As a retiring student from UC Santa Cruz, I will soon be receiving a B.S. in Cognitive Science and a minor in Electrical Engineering. I am a San Diego native, and therefore have a natural affinity for the water, growing up boogie-boarding at the Shores, snorkeling around the Cove...

Hi all, thanks in advance for your help! My wife and I are traveling to Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam (in that order) in January, February and March. We'd like to get certified at the start of our trip, which will be in mid-January in Thailand, and from what I've read, the Andaman Coast is...