haven't been on here in 6yrs, so much to read, kinda overwhelmed, please help!!

I'm looking to upgrade my diving qualifications and hopefully instruct someday, I currently have my PADI open water certification but I got it in 05 and haven't been able to dive since. Does that expire? I hope not. I live in Burlington, Ontario Canada and I'm looking for the most dependable/ reputable place to start taking courses, also I'd like to start getting my own gear as well. Any help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thank you

First suggestion is that you ask some helpful moderator to move this out of site support, since your questions have absolutely nothing to do with site support.

Your certification does not expire, but after five years without diving, I'd strongly suggest that you sign up for a refresher course.

Derek...considering five years away from it, first thing should be a refresher. As to what agency you do it with is not really that important (I did mine with PADI even though I was NAUI certified).

Shops in or near Burlington,ON...not very familiar with that area as I am presently hailing from Ottawa. However a quick search on the internet brought up FloatNFlag, Marlins (both in Burlington) and Dandiveshop in Ste-Catherines,which seems to have an exhaustive list of items in its online store as well.

Derek ... since you asked for suggestions, I'll offer one.

Go diving.

It's nice to have a goal in mind ... and I don't know why you went five years without diving. But what I do know is that the industry has way too many instructors who barely know how to dive ... and they aren't doing their students any favors. Please ... if instructing is your goal, I say go for it. But develop some skills first. You won't get those by taking classes ... you develop skills by spending time underwater.

Follow RTee's suggestion for a refresher. Then go find some diving opportunities. Dive a lot ... you'll learn things about diving that you'll never pick up in a class. And you'll come to realize whole new meanings for the things that a class can teach you. These are the difference between a quality instructor and a bad instructor ... you'll never meet a quality instructor who doesn't dive a lot, and who doesn't have mad skills. They didn't get those by taking classes.

If you're going to be an instructor ... be a good one. That's neither a short road, nor an easy one ... but it's a very rewarding one once you get there ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)