New Diver(s)

[Baxx]

Hello all,

My 12 year old son and I have completed all of our classroom and pool time and are now waiting on warm weather for our open water dives. We'll probably have to wait until the end of June since we're in Southern Illinois but we're very excited to get started and have some plans to make a few dives this summer.

We would like to buy a couple of pieces of gear so I'm doing my best to school myself on equipment but there's so much to learn! I'm glad to have found this board and am starting to filter through the tremendous amount of information.

Anyway, just wanted to say hello.

~Baxx

 

[TSandM]

Baxx, congratulations on starting this wonderful sport with your son! One of the most fun students I've worked with was a wonderful 12 year old boy, who was both earnest and SO excited.

May I offer a bit of advice? See if the shop through which you are getting certified will let you come join some pool sessions between now and your open water dives. Even a few weeks out of the water can really reduce your facility with skills, when you are brand new and they aren't ingrained yet. (We just had that experience, with a class whose OW dives had to be postponed two weeks. It was actually a surprise to all of the staff working with the class, how much they changed in that short time.)

Come back and tell us how the certification dives go!

 

[Baxx]

Thanks for the info, that's a great idea. My dive shop has said it will be fine to come back for some pool time. I also get more free pool time if I buy my buy gear from them. My son is exactly as you described, he's very excited and very intent on learning. My struggle now is deciding on what path to take to get some gear. What to buy first, internet or LDS, how far do I buy into the future.... that kind of stuff. This forum is really going a long way to answering some of those questions but there are SO many opinions.

I really want to support our LDS, our instructor was awesome and the whole shop really has been great to us. I'm considering getting us each a reg and a computer to start off and am looking at these that they carry. Regulator and Computer. The LDS's prices are much better than what you see in the links but the computer is still pretty lofty.

 

[iamrushman]

wonderful to hear the parent/ child underwater connection with your son...a family that dives together makes a much stronger bond..

 

[Sieg@VU]

Hi Baxx,
Going through the class together is a wonderful opportunity to bond with your child and just the beginning of many adventures that you'll share together!

You're taking the right approach to gear buying.....learn all you can so that you are an educated consumer and can make decisions based on knowledge rather than opinions.....even though we all have them

The advise that TSandM shared is a great idea, get back in the pool as often as you can before you do your dives at the end of June. Here in Northern Illinois we have already started local open water dives, but it is a bit on the chilly side and does take some of the fun out of it for new students - especially kids! After all, you want this to be a great experience so that your son can't wait to get back to do more dives with you! Enjoy!!

 

[nimoh]

welcome to scuba!

I recommend you ask as many questions about gear as you can think of. Forum participation is free, but gear purchase mistakes can cost a lot, I know they did for me

You will probably find that some gear questions you ask will spark heated debates. However, I find that there is a lot of good information in those debates.

 

[Baxx]

Thanks for all the great comments, guys.