Getting my Divers License

[Dilan Patel]

I am officially certified!!! It was such an amazing experience going under the water for the first time. Seeing all the fish/corals/inverts in their natural habitat is so cool. Wish I took photos but I decided to listen to you all about not taking a camera:).

 

[chefjpaul]

I am officially certified!!! It was such an amazing experience going under the water for the first time. Seeing all the fish/corals/inverts in their natural habitat is so cool. Wish I took photos but I decided to listen to you all about not taking a camera:).

You will have plenty of chances to use a camera, get your buoyancy first.

 

[Brianstone575]

Been diving since 1982 and I am by no means the expert. It was an entire semester in college for me, and instruction included loading a spear gun, using an underwater camera and staged decompression. Thank goodness they don’t teach that to under graduates any more.
Modern diving instruction is taught the way you described these days. They wouldn’t do it like that if it didn’t work. And you know if you are comfortable in the water or not. How did it go?
Are you planning to collect? Where are you going to dive?
And remember: when you eat breakfast the morning before going on a dive boat in rough seas, peanut butter tastes the same coming up as it did going down.

Photos on the Marisa dive boat out of San Diego before MACA a couple of years ago. Highly recommend the boat.

 

[Dilan Patel]

I am officially certified!!! It was such an amazing experience going under the water for the first time. Seeing all the fish/corals/inverts in their natural habitat is so cool. Wish I took photos but I decided to listen to you all about not taking a camera:).

Been diving since 1982 and I am by no means the expert. It was an entire semester in college for me, and instruction included loading a spear gun, using an underwater camera and staged decompression. Thank goodness they don’t teach that to under graduates any more.
Modern diving instruction is taught the way you described these days. They wouldn’t do it like that if it didn’t work. And you know if you are comfortable in the water or not. How did it go?
Are you planning to collect? Where are you going to dive?
And remember: when you eat breakfast the morning before going on a dive boat in rough seas, peanut butter tastes the same coming up as it did going down.

Photos on the Marisa dive boat out of San Diego before MACA a couple of years ago. Highly recommend the boat.

The dive went really well! I enjoyed myself and this dive was one I think I got my buoyancy under control which made enjoying the scenery even better lol...not that I touched it much on the pre certified dives prior lol. I am not sure what I plan to do lol. I dove in Jamaica. While there I was able to get completely certified and this last dive was my first certified dive :). Yeah I had an orange juice as I don't like to eat before doing anything labor intensive. Whether that be working out (which I did legs the day prior...probs not the best idea lol) or diving now. I just feel drinking something gives me more energy in my opinion. I start college in 2 weeks so I am very glad I was able to get my first dives in.

 

[Brianstone575]

Orange juice is genius! When you feel the sea sickness coming on, yell “I’m a dragon!” And let it fly. You will live in infamy.

 

[Dilan Patel]

Im lucky I don't get seasick:). I just love orange juice lol.

 

[Brianstone575]

Also works for college keg parties.

 

[Reeferdood]

I would strongly recommend that you DO NOT take any sort of camera with you on your checkout dives, or really, for several more after that until you get comfortable enough that the basic equipment and tasks are second nature. This is coming from nearly 30 years of diving everything from Ohio quarries (over 1000), Great Lakes wreck diving, many hundreds of Caribbean dives, and certification up to Cavern. I've helped with several rescues, and one recovery. Things can go straight to crap really fast if you are not paying attention. I can promise you there will be a guy at the resort who's only job is to go on dives and takes photos/videos of the guests (and sell them to you)

If you have a camera in hand you are, for all intents, solo diving. Certification diving needs to be anything but that.

Learn first. Get some dives under your belt. Then, maybe, start adding extras.

I can’t agree more.. I am a skydiver and I hate seeing new jumpers with a go pro on their helmets...They are more focused on getting their footage than the safety of their jumps.
Safe is always better..

 

[Dilan Patel]

I can’t agree more.. I am a skydiver and I hate seeing new jumpers with a go pro on their helmets...They are more focused on getting their footage than the safety of their jumps.
Safe is always better..

I couldn't agree more. I did not take a camera on my checkout dives as I wanted to focus on the skills that I was supposed to complete! But I did decide to take my camera on my final dive as I felt confident that I would not just focus on my camera(which I didn't). I wear a dive watch which helps me stay where I am supposed to be and count the min for my safety stop and keep time for my total dive as well as how long I can stay at the current depth. Before jumping in I made sure all my equipment was working properly. I know this may have been over excesive but I wanted to make sure I was good on my air just in case I was using more than I thought and or there was a leak or something I hadn't caught yet, but I would chck my pressure guage after a couple mins.

 

[Dilan Patel]

Here is a video of a lobster as we were descending as well as some pics as promised :) As I said before I got the knock off gopro but it works good. Just the water clarity was not the best this day. Doing these dives made me want to pull the trigger on some blue reef chromis lol.