Hello

[vixer]

Hello, I am new to the board. I've just signed up for my open water certification and thought this forum would be a good place to enhance/continue my dive education. I have always been an aquarium junkie, and taking up diving is an unexpected but also natural extension of that. First breathe through the second stage was a terrifying and exhilarating experience, and after getting over the initial fear, I was definitely hooked.

I will be doing my first OW dives in Key Largo, probably in March, so until then I've got zero experience outside of a pool... and a thousand (quite possibly silly) questions.

I am so thrilled to get to learn, and eager to get more experience. Although it is just beginning for me, I feel like diving is already changing my life and my outlook in very meaningful ways.

Vixer

 

[mudhole]

vixer, welcome to ScubaBoard. I kept aquariums for my high school and college years, when I took up diving, my aquariums got bigger, and all those plastic toys went into the trash as I found scenes in the underwater world to try to reproduce. Interesting rock piles, sand that wasn't flat but, high and low areas. . . And a few things brought from a fresh water lake. I found a small tree stump. . . I trimmed a few long roots, and soaked it in Chlorine then into the aquarium. Tropical Aquarium fish hid under and around the stump, just like local fish.

Even now you can watch your aquarium fish. See which movements scare them and how to behave so you can get close. Use food to calm your aquarium fish, and fish in the wild (Caution, some underwater parks will not let you feed the fish).

While the waters are cold, be sure to look through the picture gallery. There are thousands of pictures from around the world, free for the browsing. At the top of any page, click on the "Forums" button and don't be afraid of the long list of topics that jumps out. This is a worldwide meeting place for divers. There is organization to this madness, the messages are organized by interests. In the beginning are topics about instruction, later there are messages about equipment, and further down are messages about dive travel and clubs.

Under dive travel and clubs, you can find divers close to home and around the world. Florida has lots of divers posting and spread up and down the state and Atlantic and Gulf shores. Want to look to your future in diving? While we're getting snow and ice, Cozumel is getting "El Norte's" and the divers have to wait on the beaches in 70 sun for the waves to calm, you can read about their tough times on the "Cozumel" forum, under "Mexico" forum.

As a new Board member, don't worry about the alphabet of initials you will see in the posts. Most training organizations go by initials, If you have questions about one over another, there are lots of posts, just know that a good instructor will make learning fun, and if he gives you a recognized certification card, all is fine. All of the major cards let you buy air and rent equipment equally. Your education as a diver starts after you start blowing bubbles without some instructor getting in the way.