Novice diver with three questions... can you please help?

[highdesert]

Two dives since open water. They were at Myrtle beach, on a wreck called the Henley...I think. Open ocean - small boat... 50 feet of water. It was fun, but tiring!

Galapagos?? Really????

First off, I applaud your enthusiasm, and the fact that you are looking forward to doing something like this with your son. Having said that ...

I only have my own experience as a reference. Going to Cozumel right after certifying, and going to 80' in clear, warm water, and doing a slow drift with the fishies, was about all the task loading and excitement I needed with my experience. I don't consider myself a wimp, weenie, or the anxious type, but it was enough of a challenge to make a memorable, exciting trip. Looking back, I would have thought of myself as being about 27 cents on the dollar if I had gone to the Galapagos after two dives.

Not saying you can't handle it, or that you'll meet with problems. But pardon me if I'm out of place, and not implying that I know it all ... I just think you're still in the "You don't know what you don't know" phase, and $h1t happens. As others have said, the Galapagos isn't (arent?) going anywhere. Get your gear (online is fine), get in some dives (like maybe 70-80 minimum in varied conditions) with it, and then go for the Galapagos.

 

[Damselfish]

I don't think you should remotely be considering a Galapagos liveaboard just yet. Possibly neither should your son. Get some more experience in easier conditions, and get some experience in lighter currents and easier drift diving first. You don't want to go on a distant expensive dive trip and find you can't do many of the dives, or feel like you should do them because you're on this expensive trip, or worst of all do them anyway and wish you weren't in the water.

Shorter surface intervals are not the biggest gain with Nitrox, in fact at least PADI recommends minimum 1 hour surface intervals when diving Nitrox. Practically speaking, unless you're shore diving on your own someplace (or maybe on a liveaboard with an open dive deck,) you don't really control your surface intervals. They'll generally be less than an hour on a day boat, and longer with dives more evenly spread out through the day on a liveaboard - no matter whether you're diving air or Nitrox. Increased bottom time is the main advantage. You may suck down too much air for it to make a difference now, but you'll start to improve and it will. Even if you're not great on air yet, it may still be an advantage if you're doing 4-5 dives a day. And if you don't take advantage of all the extra bottom time available, then you'll be diving more conservatively, which is not a bad thing either. Do the class, you'll learn all this stuff and be ready to use it when it's available/makes sense. It's even a good review/expansion of some concepts from your OW class.

 

[kevinl4270]

Galapagos isn't (arent?) going anywhere

Actually they are drifting about two inches per year towards South America. Sorry I could not resist. The only reason I know that is because I have been studying the Galapagos recently. I really want to do some diving there, but I have lots of skills to work on first. I will get there eventually.
There is a documentary out by the BBC called Galapagos that shows some pretty stunning underwater shots. It looks so serene until you start focusins on things like the soft coral. You will notice it is bent almost 90 degrees. The currents there are unreal. It's part of what makes the Islands so diverse. It is a very harsh place. Even the animals that have had millions of years to adapt to the conditions, perish there due to the extreme conditions.

 

[knowone]

Wilsuuuuuuuuuuuuuun. Wilson! Wilson! Wilson!

Beware becoming the purveyor of ex-bulls from Bullamakanka.

 

[Quero]

Hey Wesley, welcome to ScubaBoard!

Reply to question 1:
I've done lots of liveaboards (I live in "Liveaboard Land"), and I've done a twelve-day one at Galapagos (before they tightened up on the rules for trip operators and tours).

There are Galapagos dive sites that aren't too challenging for a less experienced diver--after all, the dive operators there are doing Open Water courses somewhere and then taking their inexperienced divers out on trips. But then many of the signature dive sites of the Galapagos are very challenging. The trip I was on had a 100-dive-minimum requirement for all guests, mainly because we did several days up at Darwin and Wolf islands, which is where the most challenging conditions exist. The question I would ask is exactly what is the itinerary? Would it include these challenging dives or would it go only to the more benign dive sites (many of which are also very interesting, but they're not the ones people rave about).

I have to agree with the majority that both you and your son would be best advised to get more experience before attempting dives like Darwin Arch or Gordon Rocks. It would be a shame to go all the way to Galapagos and not take full advantage of all the dive opportunities there. If this Galapagos opportunity is a trip that you can put off as a celebration of some future milestone (to celebrate 100 dives?) go someplace more gentle for this trip--in fact, you may find that you have more than one "trip of a lifetime" in your lifetime! Come to Asia, for example, for a trip of a lifetime where there's lots of newby-accessible diving that will blow you away. Or just bide your time and do some more ordinary diving in the Caribbean to gain experience for more ambitious dives in faraway places.

Reply to question 2:
Online stores are fine if you know exactly what you want. We all have our favorite manufacturers, and in my case, buying online costs more than buying locally at an authorized dealer because of shipping charges.

The problem, as a new diver, is that you are unlikely to know what you want, and you'll need some personalized assistance to figure it out. Usually that assistance is provided by local dive shops. If you get this help from your LDS and then go online to buy the product they sold you on, it's rather unfair to them as they did all the work and got no pay for it. For this reason, they may be willing to try to meet a price that you can find online so that they don't lose the sale they worked hard to get.

Reply to question 3:
I dive Nitrox whenever it's practical. It helps with bottom times; it's advisable when diving intensively (such as on a dedicated dive trip); it's advisable for those of us who are no longer as young as we would like to be. I encourage Nitrox certs for all of my liveaboard customers.

 

[40Fathoms]

Answer to #1: have not gone to Galapagos myself, so please take that in to account. However, I do understand that there are both relatively easy and quite demanding dive sites, so it might be an option to go and just be selective about which dives you want to do. Take into account that it is an expensive dive, like had been said by TSandM, so that may not be what you want to do, and it may be a frustrating experience for your son, to go but have to sit over dives. But bottom line is that only you and your buddy can tell if you're ready, have gone diving with 50+ divers whom I wouldn't want to go on a demanding dive with, and with divers with <10 dives whom I would have much fewer reservation about.

Answer #2: Warranties should be the same regardless of online or physical store, as most warranties are manufacturer's warranties. That being said, there's a lot of good to be had from finding a good SCUBA store and becoming a regular customer. Discounts, advice, special deals and so on go a long way. As for the gear you ask about, I've used both Aqualung, Mares and Tusa, and they're all good. Note that especially Mares regs can be more expensive to service than Aqualung.

Answer #3: Nitrox is a good certificate to have, and easy to take. I'd go for it, though wouldn't necessarily rush it. It extends your bottom time, especially on repeated dives (such as on a liveaboard), but it does limit your maximum depth, depending on the blend. So there's a trade off.

 

[Airleron]

I have a couple hundred dives and don't feel like I'm even close to doing a Galapogos dive. And as TSandM and 40Fathoms said, why go and have to sit out dives that are too advanced? I want my moneys worth from every dive trip I go on, so I plan according to my skill level. Galapagos is over my head.

I have purchased alot online and alot from my LDS. No warranty issues.

Absolutely take Nitrox, you won't regret it.

 

[TSandM]

Nitrox is a great class, and one you can take at any time in your career -- if you're still experiencing the high gas consumption typical of new divers, it may not be worth the extra money to buy it, but you'll have the knowledge, when you get to where NDL time is limiting your dives instead of gas supply.

As far as buying on line versus the LDS . . . I agree that it's poor ethics to make use of the LDS to try things on, or to get advice on brands or models, and then buy on line. But I will hotly disagree that the LDS is going to give you the best advice on the most useful gear for you and your diving conditions. I have seen many people sold the items that give the shop the highest markup (and the most expensive items) by touting them as the "newest and best", when in fact they are poorly designed things that turn out to be cumbersome and annoying in the long run. If you don't believe me, go read Mike Guerrero's original thread on the Pearl i3, and then see what he is diving today. The same ideas go for fancy, expensive fins, or snorkels with tons of bells and whistles.

If I were a new diver, knowing what I know now, I would come here to ScubaBoard, and find the forum that matches my geographical location (or the locations where I intend to dive) and I would read about what people there are using for gear, paying special attention to the people who have been diving longest or who dive a lot. I might ask some questions, after I did my research, if things weren't clear. And I'd use that advice to select equipment that I'd be happy with today, and ten years from now.

I wish I had known about SB before I bought a bunch of gear (from my LDS) that I discarded and replaced less than six months later, because there was much better gear for our cold Northwest waters.

 

[diver 85]

I'd wait--they gunna be there in years to come(hopefully---lol)....There are plenty of other places to go you'd REALLY enjoy--@ both of your's exp. level--& I'm talking of @ WOW level too.....I'd personally think of the S Pacific......

 

[James R]

Don't forget the total cost of ownership over the life of that gear.

With regards to buying regs etc online vs in the shop, keep in mind that regs & bc are not simple devices that you buy and use forever without maintaining. They require servicing. Find out how much the parts & labor will be each year to get the gear serviced from the online shop vs your local shop. It may be cheaper to buy online for year one, but going forward you may find that the cost of maintaining the equipment could make the online deal less of a deal.

Will that online shop service the stuff at all? If so, you will have to ship it back etc. Not that big of a deal, but costs/time/etc add up.

Will you have to get your service done locally? Do any local shops service those brands with manufacturer-authorized parts & maintenance kits?