New Diver from Texas

[eleanordream]

Hello everyone. I'm new to the site, looking for some great info and tips on gear and places to go diving. I dove when i was younger with my older brother's friend who was a certified master diver. I myself never got certified. After trips to Barbados and the Bahamas with my wife and talking about all the fun I had as a kid diving and the fun we could have together and with the kids when they get older, My wife purchased both of us certification classes for our open water certifications as my Fathers Day present. I was exstatic.. I dove off of Maui as a kid and was hooked but never had the time or money to get certified and nobody to dive with.. Now it has all come together. Now to buy some gear and get my cert next month and I plan on going on from there. My wife and I are professional photographers to top it off so it could open a whole new world for that venture as well. Looking to get advanced, and several other certs and maybe even a Master cert some day. Any advise ya'll have or recomendations are more than welcome. Maybe even meet some new friends to go diving with.

 

[driftwood]

First welcome the scuba and ScubaBoard. Under the Regional Forums/United States there is a Texas forum. Nice people who don't bite too hard or often. Great place to find dive buddies and info on local diving.

Go slow on buying gear and get a mask that is a really good fit. Personally, I would go ahead and get a neoprene strap for your mask. You will be taking your mask off a lot in your OWC and a neoprene strap makes putting it on a lot easier.

 

[eleanordream]

Well I completed my OWC this weekend with my wife at Athens Scuba Park. Everything went great. Our instructor Dean and his Divemaster Paul where awesome. They were very good at making sure everyone was safe and taking the time to help people when they had issues. They didn't hurry people through and were more than willing to take the one on one time when it was needed. Things were a little interesting in the open water due to the HUGE amounts of rain we have been getting lately, but the guys did an outstanding job of watching over everyone and and making it a very good experience for everyone involved. Calvin and Shannon and the rest of the crew were supper nice and took care of everything we needed, from mouthpieces that fit better to wet suits due to for some reason them temp deciding to deop into the 70's in JULY in Texas. I could not have asked for a better group to be learning from. The overall experience was excellent. I can't wait to move on with my training and specialty classes. Man it feels good to finally have that cert out of the way. Now to get some more.