How do I find a buddy in different places?

[Newlynarked]

Until I can convince my wife that there are no sharks in swimming pools, the chances of her getting certified is bleak.

As an airline pilot I can get to many cool diving places. But there I am alone, with no idea where to go, and often without the experience to know what would be a good and safe dive. Can local dive centers hitch me up, or are they, at best, going to refer me to a dive club to see what they have going on? Does anybody do this? Do instructors or master divers dive for a fee? I would love to dive the kelp forests in southern California, or the Keys, the Sound in Seattle, the reefs off San Juan. I can get to all of these places, it's just that I'm by myself. Thoughts or advice?

 

[Diver Dennis]

First off, welcome to Scubaboard. This is a great place to find dive buddies. There are forums for different places so all you have to do is post a thread in there and you will find lots of folks willing to dive with you.

Here is a link... http://www.scubaboard.com/forumdisplay.php?f=420

 

[DocVikingo]

Hi Newlynarked,

Scubaboard Regional Travel & Dive Clubs http://www.scubaboard.com/forumdisplay.php?f=420

Scubadiving Buddy Finder
http://dive.scubadiving.com/buddyfinder/

Scuba Duba Diver Buddy Directory
http://www.scubaduba.com/cgi-bin/Database_manager/nfdb_manager.cgi?setup_file=nfaddress_book.setup

Yes, local dive centers and dive clubs can be good places to begin exploring diving possibilites in the area.

Best of luck.

DocVikingo

 

[Scuba65]

You are more than welcome to take me along and i'll be your buddy! ha,ha,ha..

 

[Cacia]

Pilots are usually excellent divers very quickly and you willl be able to tell a lot about buddy material by observing people. Just stay away from the trainwrecks...."if it looks like duck, walks like duck..." You can probably size up co-pilots rather quickly.

once you think you are solid, then you can mentor those if you feel like you would like to take that on..it can be fun.

Hiring your own DM is not expensive at all and may give you exactly what you are looking for. This way, the dives can meet your objectives. Diving with someone "better than you" is a quick way to excel. I would encourage you to get strong on navigation, which will be right up your alley. I like diving with pilots...they usually know exactly where we are!

 

[herman]

Welcome to the board
You may want to try posting here on this board with something like "I need a dive buddy in XXXX" . I suspect you could fairly quickly get a list of SB members in the areas you travel to who could/would be happy to dive with you. For what it's worth, I have found SB members to be above average divers, at least the ones I have had the pleasure of diving with.
Stick me on your RDU list. See, got one already.