First Ocean Dive

[osanties]

Wow, that's a pretty rough day for a first ocean dive! Many boats in our area won't even go out in that. You should be proud to just have seen it through! And don't worry that it wasn't 100 ft vis with bright corals and manta rays and whale sharks... those great perfect dives don't happen every time, but you almost always see something worth seeing.

Take a look over to the left after all the posters names- see the # of logged dives? Lots of them in the multiple hundreds. I guarantee that there were plenty of bad vis dives, sand dives, equipment issue dives, seasick dives, cold dives, and just plain boring dives mixed in there. Of course, also mixed in there are the awesome vis dives, the perfect day dives, the incredible sights (dolphins, whale sharks, turtles, wrecks,etc) that make the memories. All of them give you more and varied experience and ultimately make you a better, safer, seasoned diver. There's no replacement for experience.Keep planning those trips- I guarantee you will hit far better conditions most of the time.

Thank you this is very encouraging.

 

[ScubaGirlJg]

Wow, that's a pretty rough day for a first ocean dive! Many boats in our area won't even go out in that. You should be proud to just have seen it through! And don't worry that it wasn't 100 ft vis with bright corals and manta rays and whale sharks... those great perfect dives don't happen every time, but you almost always see something worth seeing.

Take a look over to the left after all the posters names- see the # of logged dives? Lots of them in the multiple hundreds. I guarantee that there were plenty of bad vis dives, sand dives, equipment issue dives, seasick dives, cold dives, and just plain boring dives mixed in there. Of course, also mixed in there are the awesome vis dives, the perfect day dives, the incredible sights (dolphins, whale sharks, turtles, wrecks,etc) that make the memories. All of them give you more and varied experience and ultimately make you a better, safer, seasoned diver. There's no replacement for experience.Keep planning those trips- I guarantee you will hit far better conditions most of the time.

I have thought about it and I am glad we faced difficult conditions and got it out of the way! I feel more confident about future dives because I feel I am well prepared to tackle difficult situations. I completely agree with what you wrote, this was the same thing I said. Unfortunately not all dives will be perfect but getting to go is good enough. You are right that there is always something interesting to see down there even on the worst of days. What I loved the most is that I wanted to spend all my time underwater as opposed to being on the boat. But now I am more confident because if I could do a giant stride into very choppy water then I can do anything....as well as being crashed into the boat by the waves while trying to get up the ladder. I am so excited to go do my next dive! Thanks for your comment! It was truly a nice one to read!

 

[deich]

One more solution... and it is a bit out of the box... I live and dive in south florida year round and I remember that Sunday.. the water temp was 84 or so but the surface temp was low 70's witha brisk wind...

1) Get nitrox certified if you are able to dive EAN that will limit your amount of SI needed.

2) Alot of the smaller dive operators that take out less than 10 divers will let you dive on your own schedule. When you are ready to enter the water off you go, or alot of time we will just get out of the dive gear and wait out the SI in the water...

If you plan on diving SF again send me a PM and I will be more than happy to give you the names of some great captains that will take you out... The smaller guys are so much more fun than those big dive charter boats that hit up the same old reefs day after day....

I'm with you once it goes on it stays on....

 

[ScubaGirlJg]

Thanks for your two cents deich! That day I believe we were on one of the smaller charters. There were only 10 dives (including the dive master) and then there was the captain and the girl that helped all the divers with getting in and out of the water. I think the reason why it was so fast paced on this boat was because it was an afternoon dive and they knew the conditions weren't optimal and my feeling was that the captain wanted to get us out of harms way as fast as possible. I definitely will get nitrox certified soon enough!! If I would have been I would have seen that grouper I missed out on! Although it felt fast to me, we left the dock at 1:30pm and got back around 5pm. I also totally understand the reason why people choose nitrox over air when it comes to feeling tired.....because me and my buddy were sooooo tired!

 

[deich]

What boat were you on?

 

[CJ Waid]

I must have missed it, Where did you do your first ocean dive??? I read that you were disappointed in the reef, sounds like West Palm Beach (Although, I like West Palm). I saw that you were certified in the springs of Florida, I just finished teaching there. Blue Spring was my favorite local haunt.

If you are diving southern Florida, check out Pompano Beach, it's cheap, and closer than the keys for regular dives and the reef is very colorful, best part is you can just dive off the beach if you want. There are a lot of good parking spots right by the beach, easy access and the reef usually starts about 100' off shore or so... and more reef the farther you go out. I've seen shark, and every fish you can imagine and very colorful reef.

Anyway, a cheap boat, that is nice and doesn't make you sea sick is the Deep Relief, Deepreleifcharters.com I think, or something like that, they are associated with US1 Scuba.

They have a pontoon with a nice side ladder that has a platform you can stand on, not something I normally care about, but they do a very good job and they have more snacks on their boat than most. Which is something I care about.

Side note about the deep relief charters (I only dove them once, but was impressed). We were a half hour late getting down there, driving down from Daytona Beach and they HELD THE BOAT for us, and were still smiling when we pulled up. Ya know, service like that isn't typical these days.

But, you can dive from shore anywhere around Pompano Beach/Ft. Lauderdale and the reef is incredible. + No Sea Sickness.

Puking is part of boating.

 

[ScubaGirlJg]

Deich we were on Starfish Enterprise. Honestly in my opinion I think that the crew on that boat was incredible! I feel they did a great job especially considering the circumstances. The captain really knew how to drive the boat and avoid the big waves. I would dive with them again, no problem. I felt the reef wasn't colorful because of the fact that the ocean was a little stirred up. But I have no complains on the boat, its the conditions I didn't like.

CJ WAID Thank you so much for your comment and the resources you provided. I have never posted a thread that so many Scuba board members have gone out of their way to help me out the way the members have in this thread. Thanks!

 

[osanties]

I must have missed it, Where did you do your first ocean dive??? I read that you were disappointed in the reef, sounds like West Palm Beach (Although, I like West Palm). I saw that you were certified in the springs of Florida, I just finished teaching there. Blue Spring was my favorite local haunt.

If you are diving southern Florida, check out Pompano Beach, it's cheap, and closer than the keys for regular dives and the reef is very colorful, best part is you can just dive off the beach if you want. There are a lot of good parking spots right by the beach, easy access and the reef usually starts about 100' off shore or so... and more reef the farther you go out. I've seen shark, and every fish you can imagine and very colorful reef.

Anyway, a cheap boat, that is nice and doesn't make you sea sick is the Deep Relief, Deepreleifcharters.com I think, or something like that, they are associated with US1 Scuba.

They have a pontoon with a nice side ladder that has a platform you can stand on, not something I normally care about, but they do a very good job and they have more snacks on their boat than most. Which is something I care about.

Side note about the deep relief charters (I only dove them once, but was impressed). We were a half hour late getting down there, driving down from Daytona Beach and they HELD THE BOAT for us, and were still smiling when we pulled up. Ya know, service like that isn't typical these days.

But, you can dive from shore anywhere around Pompano Beach/Ft. Lauderdale and the reef is incredible. + No Sea Sickness.

Puking is part of boating.

CJ Waid, thank you very much for all this information we will definitely try pompano beach next time. I am very excited to do a shore dive and can't wait to do one.