New to diving!

Ok, I just got certified the past weekend and plan to go on my first dive this coming weekend I cant wait to go diving im looking forward to it. Im open water certified, plan to get advanced/nitrox certified as well. I do not have any equipment and hope for every one here to help me out on that. Im in the south florida area and looking to join a local club to. I am thinking about and read a little about the USA dive club, and plan to attend a meeting there. Does any one know about the club or any other clubs around?

Congrats!!! The best thing you have going for you is that you are in South Florida!!!!

Make sure you dive Key Largo, and get Nitrox certified with Jupiter Dive Center in West Palm Beach, or any good shop in WPB, Boynton, etc - perfect conditions and depths for Nitrox, and alot of the reef life you see in the Keys. As far as clubs, can't help you since I'm green with envy that you are from So FL and I'm not, but there are some great divers I met for shore diving in the Lauderdale By The Sea area. Maybe they'll chime in and invite you for a shore dive there.

Apparently all of the South Florida divers are too busy diving to read this forum! What part of South Florida are you in smartdog? I will steer you towards peeps, shops, boats, etc...

HAHA litterly Lauderdale by the Sea is where i work so thats just a hint of were i live right on the beach a1a

Dude, you are living right next to some of the best shore diving in the country. Walk to the pier, look south a little ways (not too far), and you should see a bunch of dive flags in the water on any given day along with divers entering and exiting the water. Walk down to that area, intro yourself, and say "I need dive buddies". There is no better, or cheaper, connection! I got air at Force E in Pompano and was impressed by their shop and pleased with the service. They are at 2700 E. Atlantic Blvd in Pompano, check them out. They can point you in any direction you want. I also really like Pro Dive down there, they are right on the beach. Check out their website as well, Pro Dive - Scuba Diving, Snorkeling, Scuba Instructor Training. If I recall correctly, ONESPEED here on the boards lives in your neck of the woods, hit him up. If you want a good day trip down to Key Largo, contact Speargirl (Becky)here on the boards. She can set you up with some good entry level diving down there. Conch Republic Divers down there is also awesome, check out their website and they have a calendar showing what sites they plan on diving each day along with a description so you can decide which are and are not for you. One thing with dive boat calendars though-they are always subject to change based on a lot of things. Most boats always try to at least stick to the preannounced profile (shallow, deep, reef, wreck, etc...) so the dive they do resembles what they advertised, but many times mother nature and other factors require they change plans from what was originally announced. I'm not saying this to scare you or anything bad at all, just trying to save you the same confusion I had with boats when I first started diving! Congrats on your license to learn, now the fun begins!

what really begins is questions "time to start picking up some pennies to buy my equipment" lol im young and my parents said they love for me to dive but i have to pay for it. No money and i do have a job but it still is alot of money to buy as you all know. Yea i think im going to go to the USA dive club meeting next month.

You need gear. You live in a spot where diving is cheap (the cost of an air fill) ONCE you have gear. What do you need to dive LBTS? Not much.

3mm wetsuit
booties
Fins
Mask
BC
Weightbelt - Weight
Reg
SPG


That is it. You need a tank, but often renting a tank vs. filling a tank is a wash. Buy a tank when you can.

Renting this gear on a daily basis can run you $75 a day, so that would quickly pay for the entire setup. Look on ebay, look for Dive shops selling last years stuff, or buy used. If you love to dive, and plan to do so much, gear is a must. Start saving your pennies.

If you have questions about good gear, well most IS good. Appropriate is a different subject, but I've seen some of the best divers in the world diving crap. It does not have to look pretty or be expensive, but it needs to function, especially the reg.

Good luck, and welcome to diving and SB!

Congratulations on your certification )
Happy diving

does anyone know about the sherwood magnum? i made a thread about it in the BC thread