New diver in Chicago

[Rich Vogt]

Hi all!

I just completed my second pool training session yesterday for the NAUI 60' Certification. I'm having a blast and looking forward to more time in the water.

I'm considering heading to Florida to do my checkout dives, so suggestions welcome. Not really sure what to expect for these, so I'll look around to see what others are saying. I'm also wondering if my experienced diving friend would want to accompany me for the checkout dive cruise of it that's not appropriate.

See you out there!

 

[jonhall]

Welcome to SB. I would choose FL also over doing dives in Lake Michigan. lol

 

[Marie13]

Welcome to SB. I would choose FL also over doing dives in Lake Michigan. lol

You wouldn’t do check out dives in Lake Michigan. You’d do them at Haigh Quarry in Kankakee or perhaps Pearl Lake in South Beloit.

I’ll take the Great Lakes over FL any day, but we all know I’m crazy like that!

@Rich Vogt I’m in the Chicago area. I’m Great Lakes or nothing with a very long standing GL wreck obsession. I’ve got about 120 dives and haven’t hit salt water yet. I also prefer cold to warm.

See my siggy.

 

[Rich Vogt]

That's really interesting, thanks. I've discovered that I get cold easily, so I'll be looking into some kind of dry suit or something for wreck diving!

 

[Marie13]

That's really interesting, thanks. I've discovered that I get cold easily, so I'll be looking into some kind of dry suit or something for wreck diving!

There’s a number of shallow (60’ or less) wrecks on southern Lake Michigan that can be done in 7mm wetsuit. I have a drysuit but lost enough weight that it’s huge. So I dive wet down into the 40s. Coldest so far has been 43. We’ll see how cold it gets on northern Lake Huron when I dive there in a month. I’m something of a polar bear. Having some “bioprene” (aka body fat) does help.

 

[kmarks]

I'm in Iowa City and do all my training dives locally (Turkey Ridge, Pearl Lake, Haigh). Even though the water will be cold, most shops will include a 7mm suit as part of your training and will try to keep you above the thermocline for as much of it as they can. OW training checkout dives will only be about 20-30 minutes. After our four training dives, we were turned loose for dive #5 and my buddy and I tried to see how deep we could go. We turned around at a whopping 33 feet because of the cold (56 degrees).

I save my vacation time for vacation dives.

Don't listen to Marie. She's crazy. 43 degrees in a wet suit... You look like you have about as much "bioprene" as I do.
(Marie, I'm just joking)

 

[jonhall]

You wouldn’t do check out dives in Lake Michigan. You’d do them at Haigh Quarry in Kankakee or perhaps Pearl Lake in South Beloit.

I'm in Indianapolis. I would also have done my check out dives in a quarry. The only reason my wife and I went through the OW course was because we were taking our first trip out of the country to Grand Cayman which is where we did our check out dives. To this day, I still haven't done any diving in the continental U.S. We became warm water divers at that point, although I wouldn't rule out diving other places.

 

[Marie13]

I'm in Iowa City and do all my training dives locally (Turkey Ridge, Pearl Lake, Haigh). Even though the water will be cold, most shops will include a 7mm suit as part of your training and will try to keep you above the thermocline for as much of it as they can. OW training checkout dives will only be about 20-30 minutes. After our four training dives, we were turned loose for dive #5 and my buddy and I tried to see how deep we could go. We turned around at a whopping 33 feet because of the cold (56 degrees).

I save my vacation time for vacation dives.

Don't listen to Marie. She's crazy. 43 degrees in a wet suit... You look like you have about as much "bioprene" as I do.
(Marie, I'm just joking)

There was a group from Iowa out at Haigh Sunday. Said they needed something a bit more challenging and unfamiliar for a DM course.

I'm bat sh*t crazy.

 

[Rich Vogt]

I think Haigh Quarry looks like good, cold fun. I'm gonna have to find some cold weather gear for sure. I'll certainly get a ton of use out of it. I called my dive shop (Learn Scuba Chicago - they've been fantastic) and they got me into an already-full class so I can complete the rest of my pool dives and do the checkout dives late July. I'm motivated to get this done so I can go ocean diving with a friend who's been pushing me to get certified. I was thinking "That sounds like fun," and now here I am! Funny how that happens.

 

[Marie13]

I think Haigh Quarry looks like good, cold fun. I'm gonna have to find some cold weather gear for sure. I'll certainly get a ton of use out of it. I called my dive shop (Learn Scuba Chicago - they've been fantastic) and they got me into an already-full class so I can complete the rest of my pool dives and do the checkout dives late July. I'm motivated to get this done so I can go ocean diving with a friend who's been pushing me to get certified. I was thinking "That sounds like fun," and now here I am! Funny how that happens.

Ah, the people with the huge RV. Last fall they had so many people out (trying to fit extra people in on the last quarry day of the year) that they told the OW people they’d have to wait until the AOW students were done to make sure there was enough gear. My dive buddies and I had a good laugh speculating about the sharing of peed in wetsuits.

Their classes are huge. I’m sure they get a lot from their Groupon offers. Probably mostly people wanting to dive on vacation. I was spoiled by my shop. 7 in my class. But my shop is a better fit, too - they actively promote Great Lakes diving. That’s very rare in the Chicago area. P