Qnape
Contributor
Hey everyone,
My daughter and I tried a Discover SCUBA experience in Jamaica with Dressel Divers along with another father / daughter, and we loved it so much we started making plans upon our return to get certified. What we discovered was a lot of great people and that we had a lot more to learn than what we read in our OW PADI manual.
First of all, I have to commend the folks at Dressel Divers; upon reflection after learning a bit more, they did the best they could to teach us enough to get by with a shallow reef dive or two. My daughter and I were fortunately very comfortable in the water and caught on quickly, but they spent more time with our companions who were a bit less sure of themselves on critical skills before heading us onto a boat. They had us all repeat the few skills they had time to teach several times. They were constantly checking on us to make sure we were OK.
We had the good luck to meet up with some great people at our local dive shop here in NJ, and chose the full certification course as opposed to the shorter "executive" course. We enjoyed the course and the pool work, and again felt very comfortable with our skills. Our instructor was extremely safety oriented, and we have come to respect him a great deal. He has gone beyond any expectations I could have had and has made quite an impression on us. On other threads I have read discussions on whether the instructor can make a difference - I know that this is true. Our DM during our course has also been great to us, has answered question after question and gone out of his way to help us out. He also happens to be a member here at scubaboard, and I thank him (again) for pointing us in your direction.
One of the most important things we have learned is how much we still do not know. I realized that as a new diver with a buddy who is newly certified and 14 years old (and needless to say, kinda important to me), I have considerations other divers may not have. I need to be that much more well prepared, that much more sure of myself, first because my buddy may need me, and second because I can't count on her as much as if I was with an experienced adult diver. I realized - hey - give me more training and practice before we hit the real open water; this despite the fact that we sailed readily through all the skills we had learned - our instructor called my daughter a "fish", lol.
We've picked up some gear, including computers. We have practiced since our certification dives at a quarry with another family we met during our OW check-out dives; when our instructor learned we were getting together to dive for practice he offered to accompany us. We made him a great BBQ lunch that day, and we all had some good dives and a great time.
We've signed up for the AOW course for next month, so we can learn more and practice (perhaps mainly just to get in the water again). We want to be as ready as we can be.
Our payoff comes in February '09 - we're heading to Cozumel. It will be our first dive trip, and we can't wait! We're looking to book 4 days of diving with a night dive for a 7 night stay, and want to work a specialty course into our dive schedule. We'll be well trained, enthusiastic, but lacking in experience - but ya gotta start somewhere.
In closing, I want to complement this online community. I've been lurking here for a month or two, reading a lot but had not yet introduced myself (ourselves?). You have scared me, reassured me, excited me, and made me hungry to learn more. I've learned a lot from reading the incident reports, equipment discussions, and of course the various threads on Cozumel in that section. You helped teach us what should be obvious to new divers but may not always be, that we still have a lot left to learn.
Glen & Christine
My daughter and I tried a Discover SCUBA experience in Jamaica with Dressel Divers along with another father / daughter, and we loved it so much we started making plans upon our return to get certified. What we discovered was a lot of great people and that we had a lot more to learn than what we read in our OW PADI manual.
First of all, I have to commend the folks at Dressel Divers; upon reflection after learning a bit more, they did the best they could to teach us enough to get by with a shallow reef dive or two. My daughter and I were fortunately very comfortable in the water and caught on quickly, but they spent more time with our companions who were a bit less sure of themselves on critical skills before heading us onto a boat. They had us all repeat the few skills they had time to teach several times. They were constantly checking on us to make sure we were OK.
We had the good luck to meet up with some great people at our local dive shop here in NJ, and chose the full certification course as opposed to the shorter "executive" course. We enjoyed the course and the pool work, and again felt very comfortable with our skills. Our instructor was extremely safety oriented, and we have come to respect him a great deal. He has gone beyond any expectations I could have had and has made quite an impression on us. On other threads I have read discussions on whether the instructor can make a difference - I know that this is true. Our DM during our course has also been great to us, has answered question after question and gone out of his way to help us out. He also happens to be a member here at scubaboard, and I thank him (again) for pointing us in your direction.
One of the most important things we have learned is how much we still do not know. I realized that as a new diver with a buddy who is newly certified and 14 years old (and needless to say, kinda important to me), I have considerations other divers may not have. I need to be that much more well prepared, that much more sure of myself, first because my buddy may need me, and second because I can't count on her as much as if I was with an experienced adult diver. I realized - hey - give me more training and practice before we hit the real open water; this despite the fact that we sailed readily through all the skills we had learned - our instructor called my daughter a "fish", lol.
We've picked up some gear, including computers. We have practiced since our certification dives at a quarry with another family we met during our OW check-out dives; when our instructor learned we were getting together to dive for practice he offered to accompany us. We made him a great BBQ lunch that day, and we all had some good dives and a great time.
We've signed up for the AOW course for next month, so we can learn more and practice (perhaps mainly just to get in the water again). We want to be as ready as we can be.
Our payoff comes in February '09 - we're heading to Cozumel. It will be our first dive trip, and we can't wait! We're looking to book 4 days of diving with a night dive for a 7 night stay, and want to work a specialty course into our dive schedule. We'll be well trained, enthusiastic, but lacking in experience - but ya gotta start somewhere.
In closing, I want to complement this online community. I've been lurking here for a month or two, reading a lot but had not yet introduced myself (ourselves?). You have scared me, reassured me, excited me, and made me hungry to learn more. I've learned a lot from reading the incident reports, equipment discussions, and of course the various threads on Cozumel in that section. You helped teach us what should be obvious to new divers but may not always be, that we still have a lot left to learn.
Glen & Christine
