My Discover Scuba Diving Experience

[gfaith]

My DSD was in a pool locally. After all the stories I've read about the ones done at a resort, I would not recommend a resort one to anyone.

You never know. I did my DSD in the Phillippines, Boracay to be exact. The instructor was great, and I enjoyed it. He even spent time with me after the dive to identify the fish from his book. As I remember, the max depth was 40ish ft total run time 45 minutes.

Later we went to Belize and my wife and I did the OW course. Another great instructor, he insured all skills were completed (no exceptions). I remember getting really cold in the pool when my wife was learning to clear and replace her mask underwater, but we stayed with her and she finally got it. I had quite a difficult time donning/doffing my BCD on the surface (underwater no problem).

I did not know there were any poor (bad) instructors..

Later in Cozumel we did AOW&Nitrox again great instructor. So not all resort courses and instructors are bad or maybe we are lucky.

 

[Marie13]

All the horror DSD experiences I've heard/read about have been in the ocean. Several people have died as a result.

People who have very little instruction have no business being in the ocean. Pool is the best place for a DSD.

 

[dmaziuk]

Perception bias: the ones who had fun DSD experience don't make the A&I forum here. When we were on Bonaire a cruise ship stopped by and I believe DFB ran a bunch of DSD dives in the open sea -- well, such as it is outside of the Yellow Sub. We haven't heard any screams and from my experience with DFB stuff and DMs I strongly doubt they ever do bad DSD dives.

 

[GreggS]

I basically dived for years doing DSDs given my opportunities were very limited and I didn't know if I would get another chance. Too bad you couldn't take advantage of multiple dives with the instructor after the first dive. After the first dive things start to slow down a bit. I can completely understand not wanting to commit to OW before knowing what you're getting into or when your next opportunity will be. For me the DSDs were like a refresher with a very attentive instructor followed by a nice reef bumble. DSDs without the OW portion wouldn't have worked for me. When I did get to a place in life where I could commit to diving, OW was a breeze. Not necessarily a path for everyone, but it worked for me. I recommend DSDs to all my friends that are already comfortable in the water and enjoy watersports. Congrats on you & your wife's first taste. My wife is my dive buddy and we have a blast with dive travel. Good luck & safe "future" diving. (and welcome to SB)

This sounds just like my experience. I had done 3 DSDs over the years in Aruba, Coz, and Key West. But I guess I thought I wouldn't get to dive much so did not get certified until several years later. Finally had the time and opportunity to get certified. Did my OW at a dive quarry 4 miles from my house in NC and my AOW in Florida springs. Then my wife get her certs and we now work towards diving every weekend during the summer.

The diving bug bit us hard.

So get back out there. Whether it's quarry diving or ocean diving, it"s great just to be in the water.

 

[jonhall]

With 20/20 hindsight I probably would have signed up for a open water cert class locally, and then did my OW dives in Roatan.

Also, diving seems like a really tough hobby to do just sometimes. I want to go again, and am thinking about signing up for a course locally, but I'm not sure if it's worth it since I don't want to plan every vacation around it...and maybe not even once a year. I have other hobbies (also expensive and time consuming, haha). There are some quarries around here, but I'm not sure if they'll cut it after getting started in the Caribbean.

Your 20/20 hindsight is what I'd recommend. We were going to Grand Cayman in 1998 (first time to travel outside the U.S.) and took the PADI OW course locally with the intent of doing our 4 checkout dives in GC. As I look back, it was a nice family activity (wife and son) to go to class 1 day a week for however long the course was, and then be able to enjoy our vacation with only the checkout dives to do.

It was 7 years later (2005), when taking only our 2nd trip out of the U.S. to St. Croix (okay, technically the U.S.) that I did my next 2 dives. Felt comfortable and had no problems. My 3rd trip was also to St. Croix 2 years later (2007) when I did 4 dives with one of them being to 100 ft. Guess I'm saying that it is not necessarily a tough hobby to do sometimes, as long as you feel comfortable AND it doesn't have to be every year as long as it's something you feel you enjoy doing.

I'm fortunate enough now that since 2007, I've been diving every year somewhere in the Caribbean. I am what is termed a "vacation diver" and usually travel somewhere that I can dive if I want to. Don't need to plan vacations around diving, but it's nice to have the option. The only thing I'd invest in, so the "hobby" isn't so expensive, is a mask (I still use the same mask with prescription lenses that I bought in 1998) and snorkel as everything thing else can be rented. If you decide later that you are going to dive more, then you might invest in some of your own gear.

Glad you had a great experience in Roatan.

 

[TMHeimer]

All the horror DSD experiences I've heard/read about have been in the ocean. Several people have died as a result.

People who have very little instruction have no business being in the ocean. Pool is the best place for a DSD.

Yeah, these are the situations I've heard of. As well, I've talked to people (divers & non divers who knew others who took DSD) and heard of inappropriate instructor to student ratios in the ocean. I'm not sure even the standard ratios are desirable (I can say that, I'm retired from DMing now). One on one maybe.

Along the lines of what you say about those with very little instruction, I think a DSD in the ocean would be a better idea for someone who is very comfortable there--has swam/snorkeled a lot, etc.--rather than someone without that experience just "trying something new". I have seen a number of students doing the latter in OW courses as well.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

My DSD experience out of the Embassy Suites in Maui in 2000 was overall very positive. there was first time in the pool that weeded out a number of people. Now I've spent a lot of time in the water so I enjoyed tremendously the feeling of weightlessness in the water.

I think it varies and I am not aware of good statistics to draw conclusions as to how well these programs are being run in warm water destinations.

 

[Abby1]

good job

 

[JohnRVA]

Your 20/20 hindsight is what I'd recommend. We were going to Grand Cayman in 1998 (first time to travel outside the U.S.) and took the PADI OW course locally with the intent of doing our 4 checkout dives in GC. As I look back, it was a nice family activity (wife and son) to go to class 1 day a week for however long the course was, and then be able to enjoy our vacation with only the checkout dives to do.

It was 7 years later (2005), when taking only our 2nd trip out of the U.S. to St. Croix (okay, technically the U.S.) that I did my next 2 dives. Felt comfortable and had no problems. My 3rd trip was also to St. Croix 2 years later (2007) when I did 4 dives with one of them being to 100 ft. Guess I'm saying that it is not necessarily a tough hobby to do sometimes, as long as you feel comfortable AND it doesn't have to be every year as long as it's something you feel you enjoy doing.

I'm fortunate enough now that since 2007, I've been diving every year somewhere in the Caribbean. I am what is termed a "vacation diver" and usually travel somewhere that I can dive if I want to. Don't need to plan vacations around diving, but it's nice to have the option. The only thing I'd invest in, so the "hobby" isn't so expensive, is a mask (I still use the same mask with prescription lenses that I bought in 1998) and snorkel as everything thing else can be rented. If you decide later that you are going to dive more, then you might invest in some of your own gear.

Glad you had a great experience in Roatan.

That's good to know, thanks! I can see myself being a vacation diver.

 

[stuartv]

My first experience breathing on scuba was a DSD in open ocean from a boat off Maui. Max depth was about 30 feet. We saw a huge turtle and some other critters. It was awesome. That is when the hook was fully set.

@JohnRVA In case you don't know, there is a nice scuba park pretty close to you to the south. Lake Phoenix (formerly, Lake Rawlings).

Lake Phoenix (warning: their stupid site starts playing music when you go to their home page - I HATE sites that do that!)

Anyway, if you decide you want to go ahead and get certified, you could do your course locally, including doing the open water dives there. Lake Phoenix gets pretty warm in the summertime - at least, in the top 30-ish feet where you would be doing your dives. At the very bottom (around 60-ish feet) it stays chilly all the time.

I had originally thought to do my OW cert while on vacation in Hawaii. Someone pointed out that doing OW cert dives means doing skills, not sightseeing, and being pretty limited on the dive sites you can go to. So, it was recommended to me not to waste vacation time on that. As you have a pretty good option on a local place to do your cert dives, I would definitely make the same recommendation to you. Take the class. Do your cert dives in Lake Phoenix. Then when you go on vacation you can do fun dives without having to deal with the training aspect of it.

Also, I play bass in a band (at least, only 1 band right now) and ride (and raced for a long time) motorcycles. I can still find time to go diving - and more than just on a yearly vacation. It's worth it!!