Scuba certification - BSA Sea Base

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battb

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Hello folks....

My son is a Star scout and has expressed interest in learning to dive. Neither he, myself, nor his troop have any scuba background. I have been looking into the BSA Sea Base OW certification and am curious of your thoughts. What do you think of the certification program? Is it worth the travel money (from Virginia) to spend pool time in Florida (I'm assuming it's alot of pool time?) Despite the cost, personally I like the idea of getting certified over a summer week with friends/scouts away from hassles of work and school. Would appreciate any and all experiences and thoughts. Brian
 
Since it seems that you might have a number of scouts/dads that are interested in certification - I would check any local dive shops for group rates and compare. I don't know the BSA OW course but standards are fairly uniformed throughout the industry. The quality comes in the instructor. Find a good one!
 
I am working with several troops in my area as an instructor. The troops I am working with are getting certified locally and then planning a Dive trip to a tropical area rather then spending their entire funds for the certification. The scout program is a boy lead program so if they are going to sea base they may not know of other option. I am sure they will have plenty of tropical dives included with their certification which will make it a great option for them rather spending the whole week on just skills.
 
We have had several (over 20 so far) youth and adults get OW certified through our troop. We make the OW certification course the focus of an outing, either for a week or a long weekend. The training is done locally to us with follow up dives at nearby quarries and then in Lake Michigan. We have gone to Sea Base to dive and in fact are planning a trek for 2012. But we go as certified divers so we spend our time there diving, not learning to dive. Everyone who has gone so far has really appreciated this approach as they get to see the reefs instead of the pool. Hope this help.:D
 
With the BSA certifying through PADI I can't really see spending the money going there to learn. The course will be damn near identical to any other PADI course. I'd hire an instructor locally from a university or something to work out a deal there, then go to SeaBase certified already. Much more fun can be had that way
 
Battb,

Welcome to ScubaBoard!

The Florida Sea Base runs a GREAT program for scouts. I am a PADI instructor, have been to FSB a dozen times and live in Virginia. I've certified a lot of scout troops and crews headed to Sea Base.

PM me & I can give you more info.

Mike
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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