We’ve had a few threads on specific questions but I’m hoping this is a more general topic. I assume The Game Room is the best place for this, if not, feel free to move to a more appropriate forum.
We’ve started spending our XMas break in the Caribbean, Aruba last year and Turks & Caicos this year. I’ve always loved snorkeling and dabbled with scuba a bit but never got certified. My wife is a little less comfortable in the water, but she had a great time snorkeling off the cat in Aruba.
We love skiing, biking, and hiking, but as we age we’re always looking for outdoors activities that are less impacted by orthopedic injuries. A retired friend is currently on an amazing diving cruise in French Polynesia and the photos he’s sending back are really inspiring. I found a dive shop near us in T&C that runs Intro to Scuba course, two days (pool session first, ocean dive second) to help us understand if this is for us.
So, this thread is about general advice on how to get into diving, gear, places to dive, and I hope some great underwater photography.
The intro course will let you and your wife get a sense if this is for you. I think scuba diving is one of the best things ever but it is not for everyone (my ex-wife felt claustrophobic wearing a mask and that was the end of that…everyone is different).
It is possible to travel and take resort courses and go diving within a day. Ideally though, you get certified somewhere near where you live. Scuba diving is a weird mix of pretty safe and dangerous. Mostly it is safe (for shallow dives) but you are underwater and, if something goes wrong, there is little room for error. Having completed a dive course makes scuba diving somewhat safer (still risks).
Getting certified ahead of time helps with being comfortable when you travel somewhere to dive which will increase your enjoyment. It is worth noting that different places are different so diving in cold lakes is different than in the warm Caribbean (as an example).
Also, if you get certified, you will likely bother to get some goggles and flippers (aka fins) that work well for you. Everyone is different and faces are different shapes so getting a mask that works and fins that are comfortable are nice to have if you dive a lot. Also a BC (buoyancy compensator). You will be spending a lot of money on travel to get to dive locations so best to not rely on their gear if you do not have to (you will probably be relying on their tanks and regulators).
After that there is no shortage of resources that review cool places to scuba dive.
ETA: You should always go with a guide wherever you are when you scuba dive. They know the local conditions. If you are experienced you might dive on your own but I’d still think it is worth getting a local guide to dive with you.
Agree that if you are interested, getting certified before the trip is the way to go. If you are just interested, any PADI-affiliated resort will almost certainly have the kind of pre-certification course where you go down to ~30 feet with a divemaster (I assume this is what you are referencing) which is a good way to get a feel for whether this is something you will enjoy.
SCUBA diving in open water is actually pretty safe—the vast majority of accidents are on the surface, either moving around on deck or getting ing of the boat, or possibly being hit by a skiff piloted by an unwary driver—and at 60 feet or above you can ascend safely even if you run out of air (which shouldn’t happen, especially with modern air-integrated computers but people still like to push the limits). However, there are a lot of equipment and procedures to learn, and while the actual diving is low impact, moving around on deck and getting out of the boat can be tricky with the weight of the tanks, ballast, and gear, and frankly there is a learning curve to diving well (i.e. managing buoyancy, keeping track of depth and air, et cetera) that is overwhelming to some people. If you want to explore wrecks or do deep wall diving then getting certified is the way to go, but if you just like looking at colorful ocean life, snorkeling on the surface really gives you most of the scenery with almost none of the cost or equipment.
Also, beware that once you get certified you will get mail-bombed by your certification organization and every dive store they sell your name to for all manner of gear, trips, extra training, et cetera; the training is basically a loss-leader to draw you into the hobby and get you on a marketing list. One of the reasons I quit dive instruction was due to the incessant pressure to sell, sell, sell. One expense you should not forgo, however, is a Diver Alert Network (DAN) membership as it will give you access to cheap trip and injury insurance; if you are injured in a dive-related event and are unable to fly it can be incredibly expensive so this is extremely valuable coverage for minimal cost.
Underwater photography is a whole activity onto itself and I’ve never invested much into it, but be prepared to spend as much on a waterproof casing as the camera it will contain. Again, a cheap waterproof camera from snorkeling/freediving height will give you a lot of the benefit with little cost, but you’re not going to get those spectacular shots of an octopus hiding in its den or a sea anemone waving in the still water at depth. Agree with paying for a local guide (most boats will offer if there is a free deckhand) because they’ll show you the things you wouldn’t think to look for, and tip reasonably afterward, because they don’t make much as deckies.
Just to be clear…never, ever, ever dive by yourself. Always, always have a dive partner and stay reasonably near each other. Not sure but this may be rule #1 (@Stranger_On_A_Train might be able to say better as a former instructor).
All of the major dive certification orgs certainly promote the dive buddy system and most explicitly reject the notion of solo diving, which makes sense for new and casual divers, but with the right training, experience, and equipment it is certainly possible to dive solo. The main issue is having the knowledge of self-rescue and a completely independent air source (not just an auxiliary second stage on your regulator). It is not a good idea in overhead or confined environments, and not for really deep dives unless you have good confidence of not suffering from nitrogen narcosis but frankly what you see on most dive boats is that people jump in the water and become SOBs (“same ocean buddy”), too far away for a recovery and not paying attention anyway.
In fact, you see a lot of unsafe and shitty behavior from a lot of divers, including not planning divers, ignoring no-deco limits, using scooters to just zip around without making sure they aren’t interfering with other divers, grabbing wildlife or plowing into reefs, popping up away from the boat and expecting a deckie to come collect them, et cetera, which is another reason I got out of instruction and have generally stopped diving in groups. Frankly, I think it has become way too easy to get certified with very minimal knowledge and treat diving like a casual leisure activity instead of something that should be learned gradually, and while casualties are comparatively rare versus rock climbing, skydiving, motorcycle riding, et cetera, I had to fill out too many incident reports (which you have to do as an instructor when you observe an incident even if it wasn’t your student or you had nothing to do with the diver) that were purely a result of someone not paying attention or following good practices.
Sorry for the rant. Diving is a fun activity, and quite safe if you pay attention, learn, and actually follow good practices. Just don’t be one of those people who jumps off the boat on top of someone else because you didn’t bother to look, or runs into coral reefs because you don’t have buoyancy control, or expects someone else to maintain and carry your gear around for you.
That seems along the lines of, “Rule #1 of driving a car is not to run into a brick wall.”
Not to mention, if you do run out of air, having a dive partner is one of the best ways to save you. I was taught buddy-breathing (sharing air from one regulator) as part of my certification.
If you liked Aruba, try Bonaire. Super healthy eco-system, and the whole island revolves around diving. The rental equipment is as good as rental equipment gets. Re: solo diving–I have done it. I came to realize that if you’re more than 20-30’ from your partner, you’re pretty much diving solo. I took a Spare Air canister when I did. Some of the more demanding diving we’ve done (high current) you’re definitely on your own and had better be prepared to care for yourself.
Also–I was so claustrophobic on our test dive that I could barely stay at depth (I was hyperventilating a bit–makes you bouyant). Now I could nap down there. We did a 3 day certification on Bonaire, which I do not recommend. Way too stressful. Take your time! Scuba is pretty easy on the body once you’re in the water, but you may be surprised how tired you are after 3 dives in a day. If you get certified and get into it, I highly recommend the Naia liveaboard on Fiji! https://www.naia.com.fj/
Something interesting that I learned is that if you have bad eyesight you can get prescription-ground dive masks. I wear very thick glasses and I’m afraid of wearing contacts in a mask, in case of leaks. Having a mask ground to my Rx is the perfect solution. Now I can see clearly underwater just like on land.
This made a huge difference to me snorkling in Hawaii. But since the OP didn’t ask about vision at all, I (perhaps falsely) assumed it wasn’t an issue for them.
Several decades ago, diving was one of my preferred hobbies. Apart from two extended trips – one to Roatan and one to the Yucatan, I did a lot of diving on dive boats and from the shores in Southern California, even taking a few dive trips on The One That Burned.
IMHO, it is magical. It is otherworldly. It is profound. It is inspirational. It is meditative. It is, without exaggeration, life-changing.
You don’t have to become a gear junkie. You don’t have to constantly move up the ladder of certifications. But skill, training, experience, and competence will help you, and those with whom you dive, be safer and get more out of it.
When you’re good at diving, there’s just less attention paid to the mechanics of diving and more bandwidth to dedicate to what’s going on in that world around you.
I’ve dived a few caves, long drift dives, a fair number of wrecks, and any number of night dives, which – to me – were sublime. I always used less air at night than during the day. I just found night diving incredibly relaxing.
I never got particularly into a specialty (eg, hunting, photography, caves, wrecks, ice diving, etc). Just … a generalist.
A couple quick memories:
Being in a cove off of Santa Barbara Island, just my brother and me, and being met by dozens of the famous sea lions who kept nudging us and ‘bumping’ into our masks;
Penetrating through a number of layers of a wrecked ship – through maybe 6’x6’ holes cut for access – at night, dive light in hand, head first (feet pointing toward the surface), stirring up silt and struggling to see. Slowing down to let the visibility improve, I noticed my dive light reflecting flashes of light occasionally. Turned out to be a couple of good-sized barracuda circling me as I penetrated the wreck.
Many/most of my dive buddies were instructors. They … uh … not infrequently defied conventional wisdom (read: broke the usual rules), but without consequence. It was amazing to keep company with such seasoned divers, and truly humbling to be welcomed into their ranks.
I got certified in scuba diving way back in 1992, but never did any follow-up dives at that time. Then in 2015, I recertified along with my teenage son. This consisted of online and in-person instruction along with several pool sessions with our local dive shop.
I’ve kept fairly current since then—our first few open-water dives after certification were one-day outings off of cruise ships, but in 2018, I planned a week-long trip to Bonaire, which I highly recommend. I went again last fall and plan to hopefully go again later this year.
As for gear, my son and I each have our own masks, fins, snorkels, dive computers, and miscellaneous safety gear (like whistles, safety sausages, sea snips, wrist compass, etc.), but still rent BCDs, regulators and tanks. This has worked fairly well for us because we tend to dive about once a year or so down in the Caribbean or someplace warm up and it would be a hassle to maintain our own gear with such infrequent use, I think.
I didn’t mention it but I wear glasses and use contacts under my ski goggles and often when biking. For snorkeling I just suffer with imperfect vision but have considered a prescription mask if we really get into it.
Also, I’ve been using an Olympus Tough TG-860 for the past 10 years, the screen finally died in Aruba. I suppose I could try to get the screen replaced but I suspect I’ll get a new one soon. It takes good pictures still, but without the screen it’s useless.
I have a complicated progressive prescription in my regular glasses, and went for monovision in the mask, so one eye can see close (including reading) and the other can focus far.
I also got cheap swim goggles with the same prescription. (They are fairly cheap. I was able to buy them in several prescriptions, with independent eye pieces, and nyx and match until i found something i like. That’s actually how i decided what to get for the mask.)
It’s revolutionary. I highly recommend them to anyone with iffy or poor vision who does much swimming, or any snorkeling or scuba.
Me too. I never thought I could tolerate contacts, but I gave it another try when I took up skiing and scuba diving. The motivation for skiing was trying to wear glasses under ski goggles and having the glasses abruptly fog up once while rapidly going down a slope.
And for scuba, the whole point is to see your environment! There is some benefit to the natural magnification that comes with being underwater, but contacts help even more. I thought about getting a prescription dive mask, but since I only go diving once a year or so and my eyeglass prescription changes every year or two it didn’t seem worth it.
P.S. One problem is near vision, though. My glasses are progressives, but my contacts are only single-vision distance. They apparently don’t make daily-wear contacts that correct for astigmatism and also act like progressives. When I go skiing, I can simply use a compact pair of reading glasses (while looking at a map on the lift, for example), but that really isn’t an option underwater. Fortunately, I can still read my dive computer and wrist compass so it hasn’t been an issue yet.
Mine really made snorkeling in the USVI amazing. I didn’t know if others had heard of getting a mask with prescription lenses so I thought I’d share the info.
