Hello from NC

[bcutie]

My husband I and just returned from Panama and we did a Discover Dive in Portobello(sp?). I was so scared at first that I gripped the guides arm all the way down. I bet he still has marks! :0) But once I relaxed and trusted that the tank was going to keep giving me air, and nothing was going to eat me, I really looked around at all the beauty surrounding me and fell in love. It's a whole different world down there. I'm so excited about it that now I want to buy my equipment and get certified. We are going to Fiji in June because I heard it's beautiful, but I want to be certified before I get there. The only problem is I don't know where to start! There's so much different equipment I'm totally lost. And being brand new, I don't want to go to a shop and get ripped off or talked into buying something that I'll regret later. I'd appreciate any tips anyone could give me. And does anyone know anything about getting certified in NC? I live in Fayetteville.

Thanks
Tonya

 

[herman]

Welcome to the board Tonya.

It's a little early to be worrying about equipment now. The first thing to do is find a good dive shop and a good instructor. Once you get your certification done and get some experience, then start thinking about gear. It's really best if you rent gear until you have a feel for what kind of diving you intend to do and what style of equipment suits you. The one exception is your mask, once you find a good dive shop (known as a LDS- local dive shop- on this board) they can help you find a good mask. I am not familiar with the LDS's in the Fayetteville area but I can recommend 2 really good ones here in Raleigh. It's a little bit of a ride for you but having a good shop and instructor is well worth it.
Dive training is broken up into 2 basic parts, the first being classroom and pool training and the second is “open water”- basically you have to do everything you were trained to do in the pool over again in a more open area like a quarry or the ocean. This time of year, the dive shops I am familiar with do the open water portion in the Florida springs. Starting about May, they use some of the local quarries, we a have one in Rolesville just north of Raleigh, one near Asheboro and another in southern Virginia. Dive shops closer to the coast do the OW (open water) dives in the ocean.

If you would, add your location to your profile, it makes it a lot easier for us to answer location specific questions if we know where you are. It's not uncommon for threads on this board to have comments from people all over the world. Recently,I have been discussing Bonaire with a member in Austria.

 

[cleung]

Hi, it's great that you discovered the awesome world of scuba diving. As for equipment, just get whatever you need to take the certification course which is usually just mask, fins and snorkel. Check out your local dive shops. There's an article on how to get certified at;

http://www.FreeSpiritActivewear.com/scubaartgetcertified.htm

This will point you in the right direction. Good luck

 

[murphdivers286]

Welcome to the board. I'm so glad you found what the rest of us on this board consider our passion.... No one but a true diver would understand.. It sounds like you are a true diver. Now get certified and come to Florida and dive with the Conchs. As for your questions, please do a search in these links. They should get you started. If you need any additional help send me a PM (Private Message)

Click here ---->[red]A Beginner's Guide to Scubaboard.com[/red]

Click here ---->[red]New Divers & Those Considering Diving[/red]

Click here ---->[red]Basic Scuba Discussions[/red]

Click here ---->[red]The Equipment of Scuba Diving[/red]

 

[docmojo]

You should interview the dive shops that you are thinking of getting your OW card from.. I have found that some.. I would say few but some stores are after your cash, the rest like teaching people the sport of diving. They work hard to make the equiptment fit the person and the type of diving that they are going to be doing.
Most places you can rent your equipment... To start you need your own Mask (that fits well) fins and snorkel.... After that rent awhile and try different equipment... Spend the time in finding that great dive shop you gel with and you won't be sorry...
Happy Diving...and be safe!!!!

 

[Sasquatch]

Welcome to SB!

It might not be a bad idea to just nose around all your local dive shops and say hello. Try to get a feel for one over the other and take an innocent, non-commtted look at the gear then come back here and solicit some opinions from other divers in your area.

Sea ya!

 

[Scuba Brad]

Tonya we are all divers and don't bite honest. Call us or just stop in you'll get as much time as you need to understand equipment. As far as Fiji is concerned......I just got back from there and it was really fun. The weather was warm and diving divine. Visibility was mostly between 60-80' and some days better. Fish are everywhere! You'll love it. Where are you going? Which resort?

 

[DandyDon]

Got the bug bad, huh...?

Yeah, you need to find a local dive shop, get started training, and research your equipment purchases. Check on our NC dive club forum for shop suggestions, then our New Diver forum for equipment suggestions. You can indeed get stuck when you're new, but maybe you'll find a better shop.

:biggrinba don

 

[bcutie]

Okay, from reading all this, it seems that all I need to buy right now is my mask, fins, and snorkel and wait on anything else. That helps alot! I was feeling overwhelmed looking at all the stuff on the internet. You guys are awesome. Now, who should I try to get certified through? There are a bunch of different agencies, but it seems like PADI comes up most frequently. Is there a difference? Is there any one that I should avoid? I want to make sure I get the best training possible. What is the course going to be like?

Tonya

 

[herman]

The agency is really of little concern, most of their standards are pretty close to each other. The big differnece is the instructor and the general attitude of the LDS. Find a shop and instructor you feel comfortable with.
The class will go something like this. You will get books and possibly videos to study before the class, at least a couple of chapters at a time. Each class is broke up into 2 sections, classroom and pool. You will go over the information in the class and do a simple test on the info then head off to the pool to learn about the equipment and the skills you need to be able to do. The instructor will discribe the skill, show you the skill and then you have to do the skill. Don't worry about doing it exactly right the first time, the skills are learned over time and sometimes it takes a while to get the hang of them. After you have covered the written material and completed all your pool skills you will change to an "open water" area. This could be a quarry, spring or the ocean. Most shops in NC use the quarry in summer and the Fla springs in winter. In the OW portion you will do all the skills you learned and preformed in the pool all over again, only in 20 to 30 ft of water. You will also get the oppertunity to "dive" or swim around the OW site after or before the skills. The OW section usually last 2 days, typically over a weekend. After that, you are "certified" as an OW diver. Please understand an OW class teaches you just enough to dive safely-just barely. Please do yourself and your buddies a big favor, find some GOOD local divers to dive with and get some experience before heading off to dive on your own. We have a very active group of local divers in NC and I think I can speak for most of them, we are always happy to dive with new divers and help them along as long as they don't ask to go on dives that we feel are more advanced than their experience. Come join us on the NC divers board and at the quarry once you are certified.
www.ncdivers.com