Where was your first OW dive?

[itziar]

I did all my OW training (confined water training included) in the ocean too: in Paradise Shallows, Cozumel, to be precise. My husband and I were on business in the island,
and planning to take a week of holiday in the Yucatan afterwards. We hooked up with our instructor to be, Alberto, a native cozumeleño, in a "Discovery Scuba" dive, and were so taken by it that we decided to ditch the visit to the pyramids in order to take the scuba course with him. It was a great private class, in which he would come every morning to our hotel, pick us up in his van and drive us to the rocky beach of Paradise Shallows. There he mounted a camping table and chairs, a big umbrella supported by a big water tank (our shower), and that was our morning classroom, in the middle of nowhere, nobody around, with the sea at the reach of our hands... I would recommend that to anybody wanting a real quality and relaxing learning experience. Alberto was great: he made us complete all the required exercises in the water, but will always take us for a ride in the reef afterwards, until we finished the tank or our allowable bottom time. My husband and I often remember Alberto and the great OW classroom by the sea...

-- Itziar

 

[adshepard]

The site was called Coral Gardens off Harbor Island near Eleuthra.

Depth was 35 feet and I was down for 30 minutes. Killer was I wear glasses and at the time I did not have prescription lenses in the mask. Couldn't see a darn thing other than my instructor and buddy. Actually probably helped me focus on the skills.

DSDO

Alan

 

[wandernsoul]

Sebago Lake, Maine. I did manage to see the bottom, and a soda bottle. Awesome!
First dive after certification was the wreck of the Duane in Key Largo. Now that was fun!!

 

[grumpygrouper]

Hi

My first OW Dive was in Caye Caulker, Belize.

Happy and Safe Diving

Ron

 

[String]

First open water dive:

Rye Rocks (Wales).
Dive time: 40 minutes
Max. Depth: 16.2m
Visiblity 3-4m
Water temp: 9c

Added logbook note Dolphins following the RIB for a while getting out there and seals on the rocks.

 

[bobh]

I did a PADI OW course while on our honeymoon in Aruba 10/03. The first OW dive we did after the pool stuff was on a wreck called the Pedernales @ depth of about 35 feet off, of Palm Beach. The second dive was on another wreck named the Antilla that sat in about 65 feet fo water. Can't wait to do more!

Bob H

 

[jeadiver]

My first OW dives were at lovely Millbrook Quarry in Warrenton, VA. The water was a balmy 54F, the 2-piece beaver tail jacket and farmer john almost fit, and the visibility was a whopping 10ft. After that it was Freeport Bahamas and some warm water stuff. I love it either way.

 

[Cudabait]

My first dive was in 1955 at Silver Island, (Isla Plata) just east of Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela. I was tutored by a former active US Navy diver. An unforgettable person and the best mentor I ever had. We had access to two boats and he had been fishing and spearfishing with me and my dad for the preceeding two years. He came upon a couple sets of Aqualungs and two hose regulators. We had fins and masks (which usually melted after about nine months to a year). We worked with the equipment in was was then the Mene Grande swimming pool. The man taught me right!! It would be years before I realized how well he had taught me, when I finally became involed in the formal certification process. Cetification had not been conceived at that point in time.

Anyway, The first dive I made was uneventful because Mr. Pat Barbandt, my mentor, (I'll never forget him) insisted that we use the beach for the first five or six dives. Viz was not that good. But we did all the apprpriate drills, including the three ways to clear the two hose, single stage, regulator... turn over on your back to free flow, blow it clear if you had air in your lungs ,or, drink the water in the mouthpiece so you could get it clear enough to get a breath. Yep, he made me drink salt water!

I'm sorry if this is getting long winded...now fast forward to the first real dive.

It was on one of our regular weekend fishing trips with my dad & friends. We ent to a familiar place, a small island east of Puerto La Cruz, called Isla Plata. It was unforgettable! We made two dives, first was about 25 fsw and secong was about 50fsw. We did no spearfishing and I realized at a later point in time that he was monitoring my task loading. Now for the rest and the rest, rest of this story..... In the 70's I went back for about five years. Did a ton of diving on all the spots I had grown up diving on. The change was dramatic! The abundance of marine life had deminished substantially. Straight across the board. Then in 1999, our son, also a DM, was working in Venezuela. My wife, now also a diver, made several trips to Venezuela that year. (Also to Margarita island) Now the bad news. A cement plant had been in operation in the vicinity of Isla Plata, which is a near shore island. It was SHOCKING to see what had happened in less than my lifetime (I'm still kicking) The reefs were stark from the residue and overfishing. Marine life was void compared to what it had been earlier in my life. Additional dives around the outer islands (now a national preserve) were equally disappointing. Where I had previously seen an abundance of lobster, grouper, snapper and mero (Goliath grouper) there was little or none. Also on one day we observed lobster poaching ongoing in the preserve. Go figure. I am still a very active diver. Over a period of a least four decades I have witnessed the rapid decline of the underwater world in general. Sad.

I have enjoyed viewing the other post regarding first dives. If this post is found to be too long, I apoligize in advance. I just love this s**t called diving. Always will!!

Regards to all,

 

[raposarose]

It was hard to tell where I was because the visibility in the pea soup colored water was so poor! It was about 2 feet viz. The instructor, who has been teaching for over 25 years, said he had never seen it so bad. My girlfriend started crying because she was so scared to descend into that (of course she made it through and now loves to dive).

When I was at the shore I thought I was at La Jolla Shores, in the San Diego area. It was just when I decended that I got confused and wondered if in fact I had ended up in the soup bowl of the Jolly Green Giant.

 

[one4snow]

My first OW was in Lake Tahoe California in November of this year. The water was not bad but out of the water it was snowing and windy and cold! I had a great time and would do it again in a heart beat.