New Diver saying Hello.

[Marasol]

Hello everyone,
I would just like to take a minute and say heya to you all. I am a New Padi half-certified diver in the Chicago area. I say "half-certified" because I have completed the class sessions and pool sessions and am wating for warmer weather to complete my open water. After that I will be signing up for AOW as I would like to have the extra experience and training while I am in Cozumel this Sept. Anyhow, I have really been enjoing the reading here and taking in all the great information you all have shared.
Thank you.
Jeremy

 

[El Orans]

Hello Jeremy,
welcome (Scub)aBoard! :balloon
Laurens

 

[spectrum]

Congratulations Jeremy, My wife and I are right behind you, I guess were 3/8 of the way there with 2 pool sessions still to go. 2 got postponed due to snow storms. In a way it's good since the extended schedule will reduce the gap between the last time in the pool and the open water dives.

We plan to be in the water early late April / early May. We want to get some dives under our belt an plan do do AOW befre summer is out. If all goes well it's drysuits and training before another Maine winter!

We are planning to get out for a few skin dives on our own as soon as we get our cold water wetsuits. That way we'll be comforatable getting into water that may be barely 40F at the time of our checkout dives. Besides we're very anxious just to get back in the ocean for any form of diving.

It sounds like you're doing all of your traiining near home and that's often recomended. Like here in Maine if you can do it there you can do it anywhere. I get concerned about cold country divers going south for theire training, IMO it's best to do it in your most frequent and challenging enviornment.

Based on our gut feeling and frequent advice we hope to log a good 12-20 dives before we do AOW. We want to be 100% in our own gear and perhaps had enough time to find a few bad habits that the instructor can coach us on. We also want to be reasonably proficient in the basics so we can enjoy extending ourselves.

Pete

 

[dbg40]

Get ready for a lifetime of wonderful adventures and meeting many new friends.ENJOY!!

 

[Fishlips_1]

Hello,
I'm new here also. Not yet certified, but will be taking cert. classes next month. Looking forward to the classes and advancing to altitude and wreck diving. I'm also going to the caribbean this fall.(Nov.)

Good luck, have fun, and be SAFE,
Joe

 

[SDAnderson]

Welcome to the board, Jeremy! You're in for an exciting summer - there is a mess of terrific diving in the Chicago area.

 

[Wijbrandus]

Welcome aboard, everyone!

ScubaBoard is a great place to ask questions and learn. If people can't get you an answer, they can usually tell you how to find out.

I hope your open waters go as easy as the pool sessions.