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Edmonds is great, but it’s a lot closer to Seattle than Canada.
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Mar 6, 2022 07:39
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Ropes4u posted:Where in Thailand are you? Expat? Yep! I'm in Koh Samui, Thailand.
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Mar 6, 2022 07:59
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therobit posted:My wife and I went snorkeling in Hawaii last month and she says it’s the best thing she’s ever done. I really enjoyed it as well but we live in Portland, Oregon so it would be cold water stuff here. I have always kind of wanted to go scuba diving though and I think if we are already going to need wetsuits, mask, and snorkel then I am clearing one of the big hurdles as far as being a fat guy trying to scuba dive with rented equipment. While she isn’t enthused about SCUBA because she is apprehensive about the awesome power of the ocean, she said she’d be willing to do it with me if I really wanted to. All the good dive shops have terrible online stores and look like a mad wizards den. I lived in Portland for awhile, but I'm in Seattle now. Many of the shops in Salem/Portland do their diving in the Puget Sound (there's actually a lot of good diving there, lots to see, easy sites). I know of some shops in Seattle but you would need to drive up for the open water days (which you may have to do anyway). Also, nobody uses a wetsuit in the PNW, everyone dives dry. asur posted:If someone is hesitant about scuba, I would absolutely not take the training in cold water and it would be even worse if visibility is bad. It's potentially cheaper and doesn't use vacation time to train locally, but cold and bad conditions can definitely sour someone on the entire experience. I agree with this, and I'm near-exclusively a cold water diver. learned in cold water in the PNW in the winter, and you have to be dedicated to have a good first experience. It's cold as gently caress, your wetsuit is immovably thick, you have like 40 pounds of lead, and viz goes to hell as you bounce off the bottom. The environment was absolutely miserable. However, once I got in a drysuit (which you should do immediately if you're in the PNW), life was good and I got used to the cold in like 10 dives. I only hit warm water for the first time months after I started and it was so easy by comparison. PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 01:56 on Apr 1, 2022 |
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Apr 1, 2022 01:52
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That’s interesting. I have had some people, including one shop, say “dry suit only, and BtW since you are fat and not tall you will have to buy instead of rent,” and then I had some people and a different shop say “nah, we always use a 7MM wetsuit with a 5mm hooded vest for all our classes and it’s fine, you only need a dry suit in mid winter and it’s because of thane air temp when you get out.We rent to big people all the time and you will just have a slightly too long suit.” I’m still on the fence but am leaning towards back-burnering it until next February when my wife and I take our next sun vacation and do something n the sea of Cortez. Unfortunately all of the warmer water Caribbean stuff is just too long of a flight for the amount of time we can get without kids.
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Apr 1, 2022 05:13
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I did my training around Seattle during the summer in a 7mm john and jacket style wetsuit, it's tolerable if you can handle being cold*. The dives in my open water class were really short and shallow, only one dive went over 30 minutes or deeper than 30 ft. With that short of an exposure to the relatively warmer shallow waters, it was easy to warm up between dives with a good jacket and a thermos full of coffee. Summer diving isn't the most fun because algae blooms in the shallows reduce vis, but the vis in your open water class is going to be terrible anyway with you and the other students kicking up the bottom. Both of the groups you describe in your post sound off to me. The shop telling you that you HAVE to buy a custom dry suit before your first class is trying to rip you off. Wait for warmer sunny weather, take your classes with rental gear, and find out how much you really like local diving before you commit to buying a drysuit. The other group also sounds weird because once you have a drysuit you're going to use that thing all the time, it's much more convenient and comfortable. In the sound, the difference between summer and winter bottom temps is only 10 degrees! I don't know anyone who has a drysuit who doesn't use it year round; I would only use a wetsuit if I were traveling to warm water. * If you can't handle being cold, diving in the PNW probably isn't for you. Even using a drysuit in August, you're going to be happy to get out after 45 minutes in the 56 degree water.
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Apr 1, 2022 06:06
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Any shop telling you that you have to buy gear is full of poo poo; they're preying on ignorance. You may have to rent gear but buying isn't really anything a newbie should have to do.
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Apr 1, 2022 07:11
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Yeah they basically said they probably couldn’t accommodate my size. For reference I and 5’8” and 290 pounds. I know I’m fat but I also know based on google searches that Pinnacle has options out there even for someone as heavy as I am. I’m also currently having some success losing weight so I figured maybe I rent until I have slimmed down a little more. I don’t mind getting cold at all, and as a kid I would swim at the Oregon coast in the summer with naught but some swim trunks. Also when you are this fat you don’t get cold as easily. But my wife hates being cold and if she can’t see any sea life because of poor visibility then I think that pretty much will kill it for her. I’d do it myself but once I started talking about prices she said that while she felt it was expensive, she thought it would be a fun thing to learn to do as a couple.
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Apr 1, 2022 07:55
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Buying a wet suit is one thing, but those assholes wanted you to buy a dry suit. Average prices for those are hundreds and hundreds of dollars.
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Apr 1, 2022 18:49
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Trivia posted:Buying a wet suit is one thing, but those assholes wanted you to buy a dry suit. Average prices for those are hundreds and hundreds of dollars. You misspelled thousands.
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Apr 2, 2022 11:53
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If buying new, a dry suit starts at about $1200 and only goes up from there, even more so if you're not a standard size. A quality suit can easily run you 2500-3000. And the zipper and neck/arm seals require regular maintenance. It's not something you buy as a new diver. Even as an experienced diver it's something you have to run the numbers on to see if it's worth it over renting depending on how, where and how frequently you dive. I've been diving for 15 years and have dived dry almost exclusively for almost ten of those, but I don't dive often enough to warrant buying my own so I just rent.
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Apr 2, 2022 13:36
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If I were you, I might just look for a piece of poo poo 7mm used wetsuit somewhere, accept that you're going to use it just for your four open water dives, and then start renting dry suits in the PNW for subsequent dives. Especially if you've never been in a cold-water wetsuit before, some of the 7mm farmer john + jacket are extremely constricting, you can't breathe fully, arms don't bend well (and you've got thick gloves to contend with, which makes the mask removal skill a lot harder. It adds a lot of extra stress to the open water class. Looking back at my open water logs, I was in the water for 24-27 minutes in 55f water (four dives). Another option for your wife is that you could take open water by yourself locally, get your card, and then when you're somewhere tropical you could do discover scuba together (rather, she would be in discover, you would be doing a regular open water dive but you can just stay with her the entire time), and then she can go through open water later if she enjoyed the experience. lord1234 posted:You misspelled thousands. Yeah, I was wondering where people were getting a $500 dry suit. Mine ran around $2k PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 19:10 on Apr 2, 2022 |
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Apr 2, 2022 19:06
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For what it's worth, I've dived dozens of times in the PNW and never used a dry suit or bought a wet suit. The instructors at my school in Eugene all had them, but they never pushed them on students and frankly I would have judged them if they did. A 7mm suit has always been fine for me, even in 40 degree water like in Clear Lake.
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Apr 2, 2022 19:18
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Buying anything other than the standard mask/fin/snorkel for an OW course is bonkers. Just use the equipment provided which I think should be free, but you may need to rent. If your wife hates cold then do the course in Mexico somewhere, the Sea of Cortez is reasonably warm in the summer.
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Apr 2, 2022 22:01
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I said "hundreds" because I figured that a new diver would automatically go for the cheapest dry suit they could find, and a quick google search for "cheap dry suit" was about $500. Mystery solved.
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Apr 3, 2022 03:57
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I'd say in terms of the ridiculousness of a new divert being expected to buy a dry suit is that they have no idea about what kind of kit they get on with let alone what kind of diving they are going to do. Buying the cheapest dry suit you can find is pretty much a recipe for wanting to get a new one a year or so down the line (being people who make an informed decision to do so). Or it ending up on eBay because you realise during your course that cold water diving is not for you. It's just irresponsible on the part of a shop to recommend, let alone require someone make that kind of purchase for an introductory course. That's coming from someone who thinks it's reasonable for new divers to buy a dive computer.
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Apr 3, 2022 09:19
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asur posted:Buying anything other than the standard mask/fin/snorkel for an OW course is bonkers. Just use the equipment provided which I think should be free, but you may need to rent. If your wife hates cold then do the course in Mexico somewhere, the Sea of Cortez is reasonably warm in the summer. MrNemo posted:I'd say in terms of the ridiculousness of a new divert being expected to buy a dry suit is that they have no idea about what kind of kit they get on with let alone what kind of diving they are going to do. Buying the cheapest dry suit you can find is pretty much a recipe for wanting to get a new one a year or so down the line (being people who make an informed decision to do so). Or it ending up on eBay because you realise during your course that cold water diving is not for you. To be fair, she did say something about an semi-dry as well, but to be honest they were going to charge like $700 for the class, plus rental and instructor fees for the check out dives (except they probably wouldn’t have rental exposure suits to fit me so let’s look at these semi-dry suits for $675 or whatever. The other shop was charging $675 including all the rental gear and basically everything except the mask, fins, snorkel, and transportation and lodging for the checkout dive weekend at Hood Channel. He said it would be fine to put me in a slightly too- long wetsuit to get certified. He was a pretty laid back older guy and was like “If you decide to do your class with us, here’s the schedule” with no pressure. It did seem like the gear in the second shop was more expensive than anywhere online but he did not seem to be about the sales pressure and I figure it would be worth extra money on the personal gear to not get ripped off on the class and not be dealing with jerks.
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Apr 4, 2022 08:08
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Mate just go down to Mexico and do it in warm water. You'll have a MUCH better time (all around), I promise.
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Apr 4, 2022 08:20
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PRADA SLUT posted:Yeah, I was wondering where people were getting a $500 dry suit. Mine ran around $2k eBay. My 20+ year old drysuit is showing it's age, and I was able to pick up a new version (minus pockets, which is NBD to add) for $700. A dive shop in socal told me I *had* to have a custom drysuit due to my size, and quoted me $4400
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Apr 4, 2022 08:38
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Trivia posted:Mate just go down to Mexico and do it in warm water. You'll have a MUCH better time (all around), I promise. Yeah, I’ll probably do the referral program with the good shop where you do everything but the checkout dives locally and then finish at a warm water destination so my wife can participate. I don’t really want to spend a couple days of precious vacation time doing classroom and pool stuff when we could be snorkeling, diving, and gorging ourselves on delicious Mexican food.
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Apr 5, 2022 05:49
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Precisely. I tell all of my Discover Scuba customers that if they want to get their license in the future, then eLearning is the best way to go (even if it's a little more expensive). If you do your pool (confined) sessions in the States, make sure you get a referral page detailing what you've done and who your instructor was.
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Apr 5, 2022 06:16
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Objurium posted:Not sure if this is the thread to share our own scuba stuff or not (it's the only one that came up after a cursory search), but I just finished a week of cavern diving in the cenotes of the Yucatan and figured I'd share some alien landscapes This is dope! I got to dive the Dos Ojos Cenote last year and it was incredible. Hopefully they dont build a train through everything
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Apr 5, 2022 13:11
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Trivia posted:Mate just go down to Mexico and do it in warm water. You'll have a MUCH better time (all around), I promise. This is right. All that disaster talk about dry suits to learn is, well, a disaster. Just take a trip to warm water and see if you like it before complicating things. Go to the ABC islands (I vote Aruba or Curaçao over Bonaire for learning, save Bonaire for later) or Barbados - somewhere warm and not challenging.
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Apr 6, 2022 03:56
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let it mellow posted:This is right. All that disaster talk about dry suits to learn is, well, a disaster. Just take a trip to warm water and see if you like it before complicating things. Go to the ABC islands (I vote Aruba or Curaçao over Bonaire for learning, save Bonaire for later) or Barbados - somewhere warm and not challenging. For us the flight is a little prohibitive for these because we are probably talking a 4 or 5 day window for us to spend on a trip. Baja and Hawaii are a lot easier for us.
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Apr 6, 2022 04:53
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therobit posted:For us the flight is a little prohibitive for these because we are probably talking a 4 or 5 day window for us to spend on a trip. Baja and Hawaii are a lot easier for us. Baja and Hawaii are both good.
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Apr 6, 2022 05:36
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What about Sea of Cortez? Surely there must be a cheap flight down to the west coast of Mexico. Flights to Hawaii are expensive and take time, plus jet lag.
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Apr 6, 2022 14:08
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Trivia posted:What about Sea of Cortez? Surely there must be a cheap flight down to the west coast of Mexico. Flights to Hawaii are expensive and take time, plus jet lag. Yeah, by Baja I meant the southern tip of the peninsula. Flights to Los Cabos/SJD are about half the length and half the cost of flights to Hawaii from Portland. But the water temperature is also colder in the winter when we usually have time for a trip as a couple without the kids. And we have a buttload of airline miles. But when I have looked into Bonaire the fights were both expensive and requiring at least two transfers, which just eats a ton of time. Hawaii and Los Cabos are both nonstop flights for us.
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Apr 7, 2022 06:50
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Yeah ok that makes sense. If you do end up in Hawaii I'm told that there's a manta night dive somewhere off the big island. Maybe look into that eh.
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Apr 7, 2022 09:44
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Trivia posted:Yeah ok that makes sense. If you do end up in Hawaii I'm told that there's a manta night dive somewhere off the big island. Maybe look into that eh. It's completely manufactured, not innate behavior, touristy, etc. But it's loving awesome and you should totally do it. Kona Dive Company is who we went with. Twice.
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Apr 7, 2022 13:01
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Yeah it’s a fantastic dive and there’s snorkel options as well for family that don’t scuba.
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Apr 7, 2022 13:24
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therobit posted:Yeah, by Baja I meant the southern tip of the peninsula. Flights to Los Cabos/SJD are about half the length and half the cost of flights to Hawaii from Portland. But the water temperature is also colder in the winter when we usually have time for a trip as a couple without the kids. And we have a buttload of airline miles. But when I have looked into Bonaire the fights were both expensive and requiring at least two transfers, which just eats a ton of time. Hawaii and Los Cabos are both nonstop flights for us. Belize is also a pretty quick flight and there are tons of diving opportunities down there. Plus it is pretty cheap.
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Apr 7, 2022 17:44
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If you go to Oahu, do the OWD and then see if you can get a charter to the 'sea cave' (not a cave, a pass-through cavern). It's not really a cave, it's a (overhead) pass-through that's about 75 feet across that opens up into a big open-water chamber and then passes back out the other side onto a reef. Current pushes you through it a bit like a mild drift, and reef sharks like to hang out in the dark edges of the cave during the day.   It's technically overhead so I wouldn't do it unless you feel competent, but it's big, wide, and straight, so you can't get lost/silt it out. Video still of ~sharks~. Swam up to me and then darted off 
PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 19:24 on Apr 7, 2022 |
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Apr 7, 2022 19:19
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Trivia posted:Yeah ok that makes sense. If you do end up in Hawaii I'm told that there's a manta night dive somewhere off the big island. Maybe look into that eh. The Manta Experience is worth it. Be ready to duck even if you're clinging to the bottom; they will fly right into you if you aren't careful and they will absolutely ring your bell if you get hit in the head by one. (Voice of experience.) The other night dive you should do off the Big Island is a blackwater dive: https://bigislanddivers.com/charters/night-dives/kona-blackwater-night-scuba-dive/ I highly recommend Big Island DIvers, I've done the blackwater dive twice and it's been mindblowing each time.
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Apr 8, 2022 02:15
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Yeah seeing them up close reminds one that manta rays are in every way similar to boats, including size and weight. They can be up to 30 ft wide and more than 5,000 lbs.
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Apr 8, 2022 03:52
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Tiger Crazy posted:Belize is also a pretty quick flight and there are tons of diving opportunities down there. Plus it is pretty cheap. The only problem with Belize is that you will want to do the hole. And that’s a great dive but I’ve posted here about that - you leave really early and there are people that just got OW certs on the boat lol.
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Apr 9, 2022 03:56
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I just watched the Deep House. A thriller movie about a couple who goes diving to explore a mansion that was flooded to make a lake. There any Midwest locations that has something like that where I can dive and explore legally?
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Apr 9, 2022 04:49
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joebuddah posted:I just watched the Deep House. A thriller movie about a couple who goes diving to explore a mansion that was flooded to make a lake. Aren’t there a bunch of sunken old steamboats around the Great Lakes?
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Apr 9, 2022 06:22
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I'm hoping US goons would be more familiar with the Caribbean locations. Is Roatán a good spot for a week or so? There are some cheap-ish flights for November-December so I'm thinking of booking it now to have a 7-10 day winter trip already taken care of.
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Apr 14, 2022 13:53
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The Mrs and I did a liveaboard in Roatán and loved it. That said, nearly everyplace we got in the water was accessible from shore, so the liveaboard was a bit superfluous. (Gloriously, amazingly, decadently superfluous, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.) The locals are doing a really superb job with the marine park and the diving was wonderful.
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Apr 15, 2022 01:41
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Thanks, sounds awesome! I'm still hesitating a bit because of a trip to NY and Sri Lanka coming up and  but the tickets are still available so I might yet pull the trigger. Never done a liveaboard and I'm not sure I'm into the seal life in that way so I'd probably just stay on shore though.
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Apr 22, 2022 11:23
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I'm going to Bonaire in August! Super excited about it. I'm sure I'll be back here with many questions, but for now - what are the average depths for most of the shore dives? I am expecting, and hoping, fairly shallow. I'll be buddying with my sister who is a super beginner and frankly I kind of still am myself. Any and all other advice much appreciated.
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