Potential new diver

[stricklines]

Thanks again for all of the replies I am doing my research and will begin making calls tomorrow

 

[KeithG]

I really enjoy being underwater. I am debating just continuing to do resort courses vs. the cost of getting certified.

1 Question: Are you getting bored with the "resort" "discover diving" dives?

If not, then continue and abandon your Scubaboard account. Go away and be happy!

Otherwise: Get certified and be happy.

You already know you enjoy being submerged. Feel free to admit that you only want to do it in warm blue water. No harm in that. Low viz sucks. I was certified in the Great White North, in the October snow and have never looked back. I also have never dove anywhere cold since. I am a strictly warm water diver.


The key message you will hopefully receive on this board is:
- make sure you have adequate training
- you are responsible for yourself
- enjoy diving

My opinion would be:
- get certified locally regardless of conditions so that you can spend as long (and as much $$) as required to become competent
- watch this board to learn things not covered (or forgotten about, or talked about) in your course
- go south to dive where it is warm as often as possible
- recognize if you need to start going on a dive vacation as opposed to a vacation where diving is available
- see rule #3 above...

 

[diversteve]

In Charleston your choices - outside of an independent - are pretty much Charleston Scuba or Low Country Scuba. I suggest making arrangements to talk with instructor(s) at each - it's the instructor, not the agency that makes all the difference. There's a thread here on SB that gives some guidelines:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ne...ng/287780-how-find-excellent-scuba-class.html

We liked Charleston Scuba but never dove with them as weather cancelled our plans and we were only in town a couple days.

Off Myrtle Beach the farther out you go the better the visibility. Charleston would be the same. The wrecks attract all the fish life since the only other thing out there are some offshore ledges - much of that area is featureless flat sandy bottom. In the summer, even at depth, the water is in the mid-80's.

Some of the more advanced wreck dives can see 100' of visibility. You won't see much better off Puerto Aventuras - just a much shorter boat ride.

Doing resort courses you're typically taken to shallower sites that area convenient for the dive operator's schedule. At some tropical dive locations - like Bonaire, Curacao, Grand Cayman, Roatan etc. the better part of the reef starts around 40' and drops deeper. So you'll never see it on a resort course. There's nothing quite like hanging over a 6000' wall while diving along it. (Bahamas, Grand Cayman or Turks Caicos).

 

[industrious95]

I really enjoy being underwater.

I am debating just continuing to do resort courses vs. the cost of getting certified.

You're first comment rings true for me. I got hooked on the ocean when I was a kid watching Flipper, and they haven't been able to keep me out since then. When I learned what was in the NE in the ocean, I decided that instead of going diving once a year while on vacation, I was going to dive every chance I could get. I'll take a real shipwreck over a pretty fish any day, and I'm not a techie or a wreck diver.

Getting certified isn't an enormous cost, although it isn't cheap. I'm sure you'd spend the same learning to play golf or tennis, so it's a question of what its worth to you. One thing about getting certified, you will gain a much better level of knowledge about diving and you may find you like it even more. Knowledge is a good thing.

Whatever you do, dive safe and have a great time.