Jumping from Snorkel to Scuba

[CDKing80]

Hi everyone.

I've been snorkeling twice. Once in Key West and another time in Hanauma bay in Oahu. I decided i may want to try Scuba. Just joined and will be taking a look around. I'm going to be in New Zealand in May and decided to take a side trip to Port Douglas Australia and scheduled an introductory diving session out on the Great Barrier Reef. I'm looking forward to it.

 

[kerrycorcoran]

Should be a blast, however it would be my recommendation that you become certified before your trip. Intro to Scuba and Scuba are very different in my opinion. Knowing what you're doing while scuba diving allows you to really take in the entire experience.

 

[spectrum]

Welcome, you have a big head start, more on that here.

Pete

 

[DENLASCUBA]

If you are doing the PADI Discover Scuba Diving program (DSD) verify with your instructor that he will register you with PADI and gives you a certificate of completion once you have completed the few skills involved with the first dive; some instructors do not do this for some reason. The PADI DSD program could be used in conjunction with the PADI Open Water course, that is that the Open Water Discover Scuba Diving dive could be counted towards dive one of the 4 necessary dives required to complete the course. This is good for a period of 1 year from your date of DSD completion but thhis isn't guarnteed as it is up to the judgement of the instructor who will be certifying you for your Open Water Course.

 

[Squirttle37]

Sounds interesting to me because I already set up my plans for exploring the underwater world: After gaining experience in snorkeling, I am going to start Skin diving (Breath hold diving with snorkel) and take a course to be certified for it.

 

[boulderjohn]

Hi everyone.

I've been snorkeling twice. Once in Key West and another time in Hanauma bay in Oahu. I decided i may want to try Scuba. Just joined and will be taking a look around. I'm going to be in New Zealand in May and decided to take a side trip to Port Douglas Australia and scheduled an introductory diving session out on the Great Barrier Reef. I'm looking forward to it.

A little over a year ago some very old and dear friends, my wife, and I decided we would go to Australia for a vacation together in 2014. I convinced them that if they were going to go to Australia, they needed to dive the Great barrier Reef, and for that they would need to get certified. So I certified them for the sole purpose of that trip. To cut to the chase, we did four days of diving on the GBR together in April. Did they like it? They bought all their own gear immediately after the trip, and they just came back from a dive trip they took on their own.

You will have much more fun if you get certified before the trip.

 

[victorzamora]

I got my wife certified before our big trip to Roatan (we were youngsters in college, it was a big deal ) and now she's got more than one full set of gear and is a VERY competent diver. We're looking for our next dive trip now, and she's the one pushing it.

Getting certified before your trip takes the work out of the vacation. When you get there, it's all fun....and scuba is worth the work.

 

[boulderjohn]

I will add that in many cases, doing what is called a referral, in which you do your beginning work at home and the final dives on vacation, can be a good way to do things. In our case, it would not have worked at all, because the dive boat we used on the GBR did not do OW certification dives.

 

[CDKing80]

Sorry it took forever to report back. I should have followed the advice in here and got certified first.

My first 2 intro (resort) dives went well. I opted to do a third one that day and thats where things went down hill. I came close to drowning and they had to pull me up into the little chase/rescure boat. What ended up happening is i started sinking and couldnt stop. I panicked spit out my regulator and the guy said i refused to accept it when he was putting it back in my mouth. I completely forgot everything we had gone over and practiced that day. I did take in a fair amount fo water but in the end the only damage to me was a large hematoma and the doctor cleared me to go snorkeling the next day.

The good thing is the incident is not going to deter me from trying again. Although i will get certified before i even think of trying again. I feel if i gone through full training before going out there, i would not have panicked as i would have a good deal of practice dealing with these types of scenarios in a shallow pool

 

[Is_907]

Sorry it took forever to report back. I should have followed the advice in here and got certified first.

My first 2 intro (resort) dives went well. I opted to do a third one that day and thats where things went down hill. I came close to drowning and they had to pull me up into the little chase/rescure boat. What ended up happening is i started sinking and couldnt stop. I panicked spit out my regulator and the guy said i refused to accept it when he was putting it back in my mouth. I completely forgot everything we had gone over and practiced that day. I did take in a fair amount fo water but in the end the only damage to me was a large hematoma and the doctor cleared me to go snorkeling the next day.

The good thing is the incident is not going to deter me from trying again. Although i will get certified before i even think of trying again. I feel if i gone through full training before going out there, i would not have panicked as i would have a good deal of practice dealing with these types of scenarios in a shallow pool

Glad you're okay... but man, that's a bad way to spend a day of your holiday! =/

I'm doing my OW class right now. Actually, I'm all done with class and pool and am doing my OW dives next weekend. I can absolutely see how it's much better to master all those basics in a pool than in real water--takes some of the edge off so you can inch in (shallow, deep, open water.)

Good luck! Hope you have a great LDS nearby to help you certify.