Another "Yay! I did it!" post, and a question about dive travel

[cannon fodder]

Hi New Scuba Guy,

Thanks for the invite, I am out of vacation days, except for the cruise at the end of the year, so no mid-week days in PA for me. I already booked some dives, Aruba - FlyNDive, Curacaou - Dive Bus, and St. Thomas - Coki Beach Dive Center. They are all beach dives, which has the advantage of allowing my wife to get some snorkeling in while I am diving. I got a DM for Aruba, the other dives are guided. I must say that the pricing is cheaper than what the cruise line wants for their dives and since the NCL does not offer diving in Curacao, gives me two more tanks that I would have if I dove with them. I have been on plenty of cruise line cattle boat snorkels full of splashing, screaming kids before.

I am fully aware that a couple of trips out to Bethlehem would do me good, and if the opurtunity comes up I will jump for it.

Lastly, the mail man brought me my c-card today!

Cheers,

Derek

edit, one of my classmates e-mailed that she has some diving friends that may go to Dutch in October, so I will hopefully get another dive or two under my belt before my cruise.

 

[AH_Matt]

Glad to hear you are booked for Coki Beach - that is where I completed my OW last December. You will *really* like diving with Rick and Pete Jackson, they run a professional operation and never have more than 3-4 people per DM. Additionally, the bay is fairly shallow with great viz., which should give you time to work out any kinks with buoyancy or basic skills.

Since you are arriving on a ship you should ask them to have a cab waiting for you, the Coki dive site is 15-20 mins away from the boat (depending on the route). Do not get in a van with two dozen other ship passengers, each with a different destination, because Coki is at the other end of the island and you will be dropped off last. Also, ask them to take you along the lower road, along the shore; the mountain road can be very jammed. I can personally vouch for Red Hook Dive Center (hey Miki) and St. Thomas Dive Club (hey Sean). I have a half-dozen dives with each of the three operators and every-single-DM was professional, courteous, knowledgable, fun, and safe.

Red Hook DC and St. Thomas DC both run boats out to the island/reef for two-tank dives, but you might not be able to get to the boat in time (depending on when you dock) or have enough time (~3 hours for both dives, including putt putt time). I wasn't able to dive with the operator right there by the cruise dock, but from exchanging mail with him it seems like they like to take their boat out to the wrecks in deeper water. Seemed like a good guy, and definitely had a safety mindset because he was concerned about taking a newly certified diver (me) out to deep water.

Cheers, and have fun in St. Thomas. We just love the place.

 

[LowDrag]

Congrat's on your new cert. My wife and I did SNUBA at Coral World on a cruise. We had a good time there. One thing to keep in mind with a cruise. If you book with an operator of any kind that is not affiliated with the ship and they get you back to the dock late the ship WILL NOT wait for you. If you are on a ship sponsored excursion they will wait for a late operator bringing back passengers.

I would agree with everyone else on more diving before you go. I personally have only done snorkeling excursions on the cruises I have been on (except for SNUBA at Coral World) but after seeing the inexperienced people on those excursions I was glad I had plenty of time in the water before going. Dives 5-8 (I only have 9 total so far) for me were all about working on buoyancy and really helped not that I am perfect on my buoyancy. Definitely better than in class though. I would have logged 10 but the 10th dive went so bad that I didn't even get below the surface...:depressed:

Have fun on your cruise and safe diving.

 

[diversteve]

Curacaou - Dive Bus, and St. Thomas - Coki Beach Dive Center. They are all beach dives, which has the advantage of allowing my wife to get some snorkeling in while I am diving.

Pierbaai is a good dive. It starts shallow also - like 20' - so your wife can snorkel some of it. There's usually seahorses - your guide will know where they are (they don't move much...). I often recommend Suzy/Mark at the DiveBus - they run a great operation. The Car Piles there are deeper though - around 100' - but you can also do a bunch of shallower dives at Pierbaai and not see it all.

It's also a pretty nice beach area - Curacao Beach - Playa Marie Pompoen/Pampoen Beach Pictures with a decent restaurant right there - IIRC there's another one nearby also.

Only about 10mins. back to your ship from there so no worries about missing the boat. If you have time, have the taxi driver drop you on the Punda side, you can walk around the famous shopping area/outdoor mall for a little while then walk over the swinging bridge or take one of the water shuttles back to your ship - it will be moored there.

Although Matt has good advice about the shared cabs, one thing I would mention is that if they take the mountain road, it exits right at Coki Beach. So might be faster on a non-shared situation. We also got stuck in traffic for about 20 mins. one afternoon in a private cab along the coast road somewhere around Red Hook.

 

[cannon fodder]

I appreciate all of the support. Hopefully another trip out to the quarry will work out. My wife is a school teacher and one of the 9th graders is a master scuba diver. The kid's parents send him to "dive camp". He has never been to Dutch Springs and wants to talk his dad into a trip out there! It seems that there are quite a few contacts that one can find with a little effort.

I have been on about 40 cruises and know how it works. I have opted for early dives that give me 4 or 5 hours to get back to the ship on time. I have also been to Coki a couple of times before, snorkelling, the trick with many excursions is to get there early before things get too crowded. I have already worked it out with Peter at Coki and the Dive Bus for diving/snorkelling combo excursions. Sounds like I made good decisions.

Thanks,

Derek

 

[EastEndDiver]

Just a heads up on diving with the 9th grader.......if he is less than 15 years old he needs to dive with a certified adult.You did not mention if his parents were certified and were also going to dive with you,if he is less than 15 years old and he is diving with only you it will be your responsibility for his safety.I would question whether that would be wise considering you being a new diver.Below is the PADI definition:

Junior Master Scuba Diver (ages 12-14) Young divers ages 12-14 can continue building experience and exploring unique diving environments on their way to the Master Scuba Diver Rating. They must dive with a certified adult.

 

[cannon fodder]

if he is less than 15 years old he needs to dive with a certified adult

Yes, the combination of a youthful diver and and new diver would not be a particularly safe one. If I were to tag along it would be with one of the 9th graders certified and more experienced parents as the senior dive partner.

 

[cannon fodder]

Well, it looks like I will get a couple of dives before the cruise. One of my class mates has an experienced friend that has set up a boat dive for us off of Brooklyn. The wreck of the Black Watch, which looks suitably shallow and easy. We are going on Sunday and I have re-confirmed the reservation with the captain. So the Carribean will not be my first after certification dive!

Derek

 

[DukeAMO]

Well, it looks like I will get a couple of dives before the cruise. One of my class mates has an experienced friend that has set up a boat dive for us off of Brooklyn. The wreck of the Black Watch, which looks suitably shallow and easy. We are going on Sunday and I have re-confirmed the reservation with the captain. So the Carribean will not be my first after certification dive!

Derek

Shipwrecks are cool!

See if you can have someone watch you try to hover and swim in the water next time. If your legs float down, or if you tend to swim with your head up, you will be kicking up all of the time, and that means you'll have too much weight on, or too little air in your BC, to compensate. Then you'll start to sink when you try to stop kicking. Since you said you kept sinking when you stopped kicking, that's probably what was going on. I had the same problem.

To fix that issue, you can learn to swim more horizontally. Pull those legs up! Lay down on the floor and kick from there. Use the frog kick. You can also move some weight up higher, in trim pockets or ankle weights attached around the tank valve. Assuming you're wearing thick neoprene, why not put 1/4-1/3 of your weight in trim pockets on the tank bands next time to see if you can hover without moving?

Of course, you will wear a lot less weight in the Caribbean, but if you work on weighting and trim in the next couple of dives, you'll have a better starting point when you get there. And once you get there, ask that private DM in Aruba to spend 15 minutes of the first dive working on weighting and trim. After that, the conditions should be pretty consistent, so you'll get better with every dive. You might even use less weight by the end of your trip. In the Caribbean, with just a shorty or swimsuit, you may even be able to get to where you have no air at all in your BC under water.

Another bonus - when you're not fighting bad trim (constantly kicking, fighting drag), you'll use less energy, so your tanks and your dives will last longer. And that's really the goal, right? More fishies...

Aw, I'm jealous! I wonder when we can get back to the Caribbean? Some day...

 

[cannon fodder]

Thanks Duke, I am almost afraid to ask what I look like underwater. I got a good view of my class mates while they did their compass navigation past the platform. One made a good 30 degree angle in the water, her head almost 2 feet above her fins and the other did a nice sine wave from one end to the other. I imagine I was doing the sine wave at a nice angle. The instructor made Ms. Sine Wave do some extra fin pivots before he passed her. Interestingly enough the instructor made me do the CESA 4 times before I managed it to his satisfaction.

It had not occurred to me that I could ask for extra instruction from a DM on a guided dive, I will definitely do that. It will make the extra cost even more worth while. I look forward to less struggling and more enjoying. The consensus seems to be, practice makes perfect, so I will keep practicing.


Cheers,

Derek