Greetings from Upstate New York

[Alucard]

Hello!

Just found the board and signed up. I'm basically a beginner - got SSI certified using my LDS for the classroom and pool work and did my OWC in Grand Cayman. Am utterly hooked, so much so that I am trying my first local open water dive tonight. I am a bit concerned as to how I will deal with the colder water, and whether I have warm enough equipment, but we will see.

Highlight of my dives so far? Difficult to find one - the feeling of being weightless, of not feeling "submerged" while underwater, the 120'+ visibility with all the fish, the wall diving that we did, and swimming with Stingrays and Moray Eels.

I have dealt with one mini panic attack when I realised that I was dropping too fast and had gone well beyond our planned depth, but that just taught me to pay much more attention to my computer on descent!

So far I am very impressed with the patience and knowledge shown on this board - I know it will help me to learn more and more about the sport.

 

[mwhities]

Welcome to SB and CONGRATZ!

From Cayman to New York, you wil need to invest in a thicker 7mm suit or better. I know this is coming from someone that just dove all weekend in shorts, but I know that te tempaturesare completely different.

I'm sure there will be posts from SBers that are in that area or that dive in colder water. Listen to them, I did.

Michael

 

[Alucard]

thanks for the welcome.

The only reason I am trying this is to keep my hand in - they say that the water temp is around 74 until you hit the thermocline, so I will just stay shallow and practice my skills.

I've got a trip to the Florida Keys scheduled for later in August - I think the water temp there will be much more to my liking.

 

[Alucard]

And sorry to ask a dumb question, but the link to the diver profile gives a blank page and none of the photo galleries work - am I missing something?

 

[ScubaDivaDivemaster]

Welcome to the scubaboard, nice to see you here! What a rough place to do your checkout dives...

C U underwater,
scubadivadivemaster

 

[chuckrt]

Welcome to the Board. Were you in Skeneatlas,can't spell for crap, last night? If in the Syr. area we probably use the same shop. On Friday or Thursday there are three to four of us that go to A-Bay for the day and we always welcome anyone that wants to go. You can message me here or if you use NAS on the Boulevard get in touch with either Kevin or Chuck. Kevin is one of the instructors there as well. Hope to see or hear from you soon.

chuck

 

[Jason Ooi]

Welcome to Scuba Board

 

[sasscuba]

Welcome

 

[Don Wray]

Hi. Welcome to the board. In answer to your question about the photo album and diver profile, some of the functions are temporarily disabled. NetDoc has a fix for later this month or next month I think.

 

[Alucard]

Were you in Skeneatlas,can't spell for crap, last night? If in the Syr. area we probably use the same shop. On Friday or Thursday there are three to four of us that go to A-Bay for the day and we always welcome anyone that wants to go.

Chuck, yes I was in the lake last night. Loved it, too. My goal was to just stay up on some skills (esp bouyancy!) and get comfortable again. I dove in my skin, and have to say that i was quite comfortable. The thermocline was at around 25-28 feet and apparently the vis below that was bad, until you got down below the thermocline, but I wasn't after depth, I was after fine-tuning my diving and working with my buddy.

And yes, NAS did my cert work - highly recommended. Had Frank as instructor and loved it.

A lot of the folks last night were talking about A-bay and the St Lawrence, and the wrecks sort of caught my interest, but the idea of shelling out more money for a 7mm, plus hood, gloves, etc just isn't on the cards right now, if I want to balance it with long weekends somewhere where the water is warmer below 25 feet.

I may consider it at some point in the future, for sure.

Thanks for the welcomes, everyone!