lots of questions...sorry for long wind....

[thehat]

Hope you all excuse me for beig so long winded on this one...

I have been thinking about diving for several years but time, money and certain concerns have kept me from continuing. However the thought wont’ leave me J Next June we are taking vacation to Florida and having been there before I know it is a nice place to dive, so I thought I would once again approach the subject…

I am 42 (male) and have 4 sons (20, 18, 14, 12) and have thought about all of us going (wife not interested L) , I don’t think my oldest can actually go, he has history of epilepsy and in over his life has had seizures, so may be out of luck there.

With myself, I went on a “30 minute” Scuba when I was in St. Thomas USVI about 10 years ago, did the 2 hr pool lesson and then 30 minute dive from the beach, it was cool but I had a problem with pressure and darn near got sick which was a little scary, ended up having to stay higher level hanging on to the bouy…that was not too fun –
SO I am concerned about pressure and my sinuses, while I don’t have any recognizable sinus issues, medically speaking that the family doctor could see, I am concern I might be too hindered….? My 18 year old seems to have same kind of thing so concern is there as well.

Also nervous about the younger kids (and so is mom) that they might freak and something happen, but I know there are a lot of kids…

Should we wait until spring, since I doubt between now and next June outside of the certification we would be able to do any other diving (we like to snowboard too much and with winter coming…J So would it be better to start April or May of next year?


The Hat

 

[scubasean]

If you seriously won't be able to dive between the cert. dives and next June, then I'd probably recommend that you get the cert. closer to your vacation time.

However, the ideal world would allow you to get cert. now, and dive half a dozen times between the cert. and your vacation. this scenario would allow you to become much more familiar with the water, refine your techniques, etc., thus providing a much more rewarding vacation time....

 

[learn-scuba]

I would have to concur with SCUBASEAN. The best of all worlds would be for you to get certified now and take advantage of the time between now and your vacation to get some experience under your belt with (reasonably) local diving or even just logging time in a heated pool through the winter to practice skills and home your buoyancy control skills.

As for concerns... first, there's a medical questionaire I would be happy to e-mail you a copy of that instructors use to "pre-screen" would be divers. If you answer yes to any of the questions on the questionaire, it doesn't mean you can't dive, only that you would need to talk with a dive physician to determine if you can dive safely or what special considerations you would need to make.

As for the younger divers, yes there are some kids who have trouble with diving, but my expeirence has largely been that the kids get it faster and easier than their parents do. I usually far more worried about the 40yo wife who's taking the course because her husband wants to than I am about a 12 or 14yo kid. They're just naturals in the water more often than not.

If you would like to see a copy of the medical history form SSI uses, feel free to email me spiel@learn-scuba.com and I'll send you a copy of it to look at. If you have any other questions or anything else I could do to help you, please feel free to ask.

 

[DeputyDan]

being able to equalize "with ease" comes with experience and practice.

One thing is that - you should have already equalized two or three times before you ever set foot in water.


This becomes a "good" habit and skill.

 

[mattengstrom]

I'd agree with the thought to keep your classes close to some real dives. I did my classes and pool dives locally, about two weeks before a vacation to Grand Cayman. I did my checkout dives on the first two days of vacation, and then "real" dives for the rest of the week.

I'm really glad that I kept things close together like that. I had the option to do my local stuff earlier, but I'm glad that I didn't because I think that the knowledge and skills would have stagnated. Likewise, I'm glad that I had some real dives right after finishing my certification. It helped drive home what I had been taught.