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Scuba Forum / Scuba Locations / December 2004Best place to get open water certified
I have decided to get dive certified before a trip I am taking to the Caribbean in September next year. I got to thinking, and figured why not take a week off in a place like Cozumel, Hawaii, or other Caribbean location and attend a dive certification class there prior to September. Are there any suggestions or reasons why not to do this? Where would be the better places to do this? I am brand new to diving, so any information would be helpful. Chip chip313@hotmail.com > I have decided to get dive certified before a trip I am taking to the > Caribbean in September next year. I got to thinking, and figured why not [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > better places to do this? I am brand new to diving, so any information would > be helpful. I just did my open water cert in October for the same reason as you, going to the BVI in May. I went to Maui Dive Shop on Maui. I was happy with the course.  SignatureDale L. Falk There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing around with airplanes. http://home.gci.net/~sncdfalk/flying.html >I have decided to get dive certified before a trip I am taking to the >Caribbean in September next year. I got to thinking, and figured why not [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >better places to do this? I am brand new to diving, so any information would >be helpful. Better to do it at home. You will, at the very least, chew up four complete days of your vacation. Plus, you are likely to pay more for it. >Chip > >chip313@hotmail.com Signaturedillon "When the French are against it, you know we can't be far wrong." - Adm. Bobbie Ray Inman Do the classes at home and then get a referral for the open water dive some place warm with visibility over 5 feet. > I have decided to get dive certified before a trip I am taking to the > Caribbean in September next year. I got to thinking, and figured why not [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > chip313@hotmail.com > Do the classes at home and then get a referral for the open water dive > some place warm with visibility over 5 feet. That is the best advice. In your hometown in a heated pool somewhere, then do your referral at any cooperating dive company somewhere WARM. There are 100's within the PADI organization that will do your requires 2 days of 2 tank dives. I paid about $250 in the TCI, and $75 here in the states plus the CD ROM interactive course. Course work goes by fast, so pay attention. Not too often, but it's life and death down there............ Mtbchip >Do the classes at home and then get a referral for the open water dive >some place warm with visibility over 5 feet. This is absolutely the best advice. My limited observations suggest that you will get better training close to home. Too often the classes I see at resorts seem to be rushing people through the classroom and pool work without really teaching them thoroughly the minimum knowledge and skills that every open water diver should have. Of course that can happen at home, too, but at home you have the opportunity to look at various offerings and find one that does a good job. *DO* that the time to talk to seveal shops and instructors before you decide. Another important point that someone else made is that if yo do you check-out dives in tropical conditions, you will NOT be qualified to dive in cold water without some additional training or supervised experience. If this is not a concern for you, then don't worry about it. Just be aware. SignatureCharlie Hammond -- Hewlett-Packard Company -- Ft Lauderdale FL USA (hammond@not@peek.ssr.hp.com -- remove "@not" when replying) All opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily my employer's. I agree with the other guys. Do your classwork and pool work at home at your leisure with plenty of time to absorb it all. Then ask your instructor and any divers you know for recommendations on where to go and which dive operator to use for certification. Take plenty of time to think everything through and practice in the pool if you can so that you can breeze through the open water dives and really enjoy yourself, feeling safe and self-reliant all the while. Jeanne > I have decided to get dive certified before a trip I am taking to the > Caribbean in September next year. I got to thinking, and figured why not [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > chip313@hotmail.com > I got to thinking, and figured why not > take a week off in a place like Cozumel, Hawaii, or other Caribbean location > and attend a dive certification class there prior to September. > > Are there any suggestions or reasons why not to do this? What are the chances that you'll dive someplace that isn't tropical after you've gotten certified? There's a reasonable argument that you should do your OW checkout dives in the kind of place that you will be doing your more challenging post-cert diving. If you might dive in the northeast or off the west coast of the US you can make your first 4 dives in those places with an instructor for no extra cost. OTOH, if you're only planning to dive warm, clear water, then doing the checkout dives as a referral makes sense. Unless you have lots of time and money, I'd also suggest doing the course at home. > Where would be the better places to do this? Where's home? Hawaii would be a great place to do it (the water may not be as warm as you think, though), but not if you need to fly from anyplace more than 500 miles west of the Pacific Ocean. Cozumel could be good, but it's better known for it's challenging diving than it's easy diving. Grand Cayman isn't the cheapest place, but has lots of very easy diving. If you have a buddy you can also do lots of east shore diivng for about $10 per dive. St John would also be a good place, IMHO. I suppose St Thomas would also be good, except for the staying on St Thomas part. What would you be looking for besides the diving part? SignatureSteve The above can be construed as personal opinion in the absence of a reasonable belief that it was intended as a statement of fact. If you want a reply to reach me, remove the SPAMTRAP from the address. >I have decided to get dive certified before a trip I am taking to the >Caribbean in September next year. I got to thinking, and figured why not >take a week off in a place like Cozumel, Hawaii, or other Caribbean >location and attend a dive certification class there prior to September. To get the most bang for your buck, I suggest you take the classroom and confined water (pool) portions of your course locally, and schedule your required check out dives for your pre-trip trip. Cozumel is probably not your best choice. The diving is great, but the environment is not the best for training dives. Almost any place on the island that you can get into the water, you'll experience medium to strong current. That can make stationary training exercises a bit more difficult. Additionally, the best diving in Cozumel is considered, by most, to be advanced. It's deeper and includes risks that a new diver may not be ready to deal with effectively. Personally, I suggest someplace like Grand Cayman, where there is a lot of very nice diving suitable for newer divers. Hawaii is not in the Caribbean. > Are there any suggestions or reasons why not to do this? Where would be > the better places to do this? I am brand new to diving, so any information > would be helpful. Where are you? Lee Thanks for all the replies from everyone. The prices around Oregon where I am, are approximately $285-$350 for the open water certification. I have been finding the average cost in Cozumel, and Cancun to be around $350. To do the classroom and pool work, and the check out dives in Mexico will be about $400 total cost. Therefore, it seems smart to just do the entire class down there. I have to burn a week a timeshare time and I can pick where and when I go. Since I will be there for a week without any plans, I figured that going to a dive class for 4-5 hours a day for 4 days would be kind of fun. Seems like classes there will be a lot more enjoyable than the classroom environment here in the rain drenched state of Oregon. Right now, the big decision is flight costs. I really wanted to go to Maui, but at $750 RT for flights this summer, it is ridiculous! That is also why I am looking at Cancun even though Cozumel is rated so much higher- the cost of the flight will be around $450 vs $700. Stupid airline industry.... Thanks again for all the comments! > To get the most bang for your buck, I suggest you take the classroom and > confined water (pool) portions of your course locally, and schedule your [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > > Lee > Thanks for all the replies from everyone. The prices around Oregon where I > am, are approximately $285-$350 for the open water certification. I have [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > classes there will be a lot more enjoyable than the classroom environment > here in the rain drenched state of Oregon. As a many times visitor to Cozumel, I've gotta tell you that the last thing I would want to do there is be cooped up in a classroom; when you are indoors in a SCUBA class, what diff does it make what the weather is like? I also think that you will get better instruction in the States, if for no other reason than for most Coz diving instructors, English is a second language. Furthermore, if you do your cert dives at Cozumel, that sort of diving is the extent of your limitations; diving, say, in Monterey Bay would be outside them and possibly dangerous for you. I don't think that one should choose the easiest path for training. To me it just doesn't make sense to go to one of the world's greatest diving destinations for a week, and spend most if not all of your entire visit preparing to dive. You could get prepped for it beforehand and spend your time actually diving; if you do your whole cert class there, you will (IMO, of course) miss a whole lot of what Coz has to offer. You have to figure that into your bang-for-buck calculations. > Right now, the big decision is flight costs. I really wanted to go to Maui, > but at $750 RT for flights this summer, it is ridiculous! That is also why I > am looking at Cancun even though Cozumel is rated so much higher- the cost > of the flight will be around $450 vs $700. Stupid airline industry.... Get your cert in the States, fly to Cancun, spend $35 and a couple of hours on the bus and ferry, and go to Cozumel. Gordon in Austin >> Thanks for all the replies from everyone. The prices around Oregon where I >> am, are approximately $285-$350 for the open water certification. I have [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] >you will (IMO, of course) miss a whole lot of what Coz has to offer. >You have to figure that into your bang-for-buck calculations. I've been reading everyone's answers and I must say I agree both with Chip and the folks who are urging him to just do the OW in Cozumel. We are in the Chesapeake and the only way I'd dive there is if something is wrong with the boat that I have to go under to fix it - like something wrapped on the prop. Otherwise I have no intention whatever of diving in my home waters. I only want to dive where the water is warm and the viz is good. The Chesapeake is sometimes warm, but the viz is almost never very good. I did my classes at a local pool and paid about $200 for them (about 8 years ago), and then did the checkout dives in the Virgin Islands. It did cost me another $200 for that. My second trip to the VI, my husband finally took advantage of the resort course that was offered free with our charter, and decided he'd like to dive too. But there were too many other things competing for his attention for him to want to take classes at home as I had done. He was working in Baltimore during the week, and only driving 100 miles home on weekends for one thing, and the classes I had taken were Wednesday, Sat and Sun. So I found us a cheap flight to Cozumel and booked classes with Papa Hog's shop and they are Canadians who speak English pretty well. I think the instruction was first rate. Bob had read my manual first, so it was not hard for him to pass the knowledge part. He did the water skills classes right off the beach (the only problem was getting sun burnt). We were there for less than a week, and at the end he had his OW certification too, plus I'd gotten a bunch of diving in. >> Right now, the big decision is flight costs. I really wanted to go to Maui, >> but at $750 RT for flights this summer, it is ridiculous! That is also why I [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > >Gordon in Austin grandma Rosalie > Thanks for all the replies from everyone. The prices around Oregon where I > am, are approximately $285-$350 for the open water certification. I have > been finding the average cost in Cozumel, and Cancun to be around $350. To > do the classroom and pool work, and the check out dives in Mexico will be > about $400 total cost. Therefore, it seems smart to just do the entire class > down there. Because you think it will be $50 cheaper? You may have a week of timeshare to use or lose, but IMHO losing several days of vacation costs a lot more than $50 even if the vacation is "free". Also, is there any chance that any of the courses at home include diving a drysuit? You can dive the Pacific northwest in a wetsuit, but I think most people prefer a drysuit. If there's any chance that's included in an OW course I think it would easily justify a somewhat higher cost. Even if you have no intention of doing cold water diving after you're certified, I think the extra work you'd get on buoyancy control would be well worth it. > am looking at Cancun even though Cozumel is rated so much higher- the cost > of the flight will be around $450 vs $700. Stupid airline industry.... Yeah, the airlines are definitely stupid, but the demand for Coz apparently justifies a higher fare. I'd suggest that it may not be really smart to go to an inferior destination just because it will be a bit cheaper. You could save a lot more by staying at Motel 6 and diving the local quarry, too, but I'll bet that isn't on your list of options. BTW, have you checked airfares for weekday flights? You may well save $100 or more. If you really want to go to Maui, maybe it helps that for about the same airfare as Coz you'll get more frequent flier miles towards a future trip by going to Hawaii. Just for fun I checked Continental's website and as of now I can fly from Newark to HNL for $479 (Man, I'll bet that pisses you off, living 2000 miles closer to HNL than I do) and get nearly 10,000 FF miles, or pay $808 for Grand Cayman and only get 3100 miles. At least in theory, I could fly to HNL 4 times *and* earn a free trip to GC for slightly more than twice the cost of one flight to GC. Sometime's you can use airline stupidity to your advantage. SignatureSteve The above can be construed as personal opinion in the absence of a reasonable belief that it was intended as a statement of fact. If you want a reply to reach me, remove the SPAMTRAP from the address. > I have decided to get dive certified before a trip I am taking to the > Caribbean in September next year. I got to thinking, and figured why not [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > better places to do this? I am brand new to diving, so any information would > be helpful. My $0.02 is that you should do your cert dives in conditions that are less ideal than those you will encounter in the Caribbean. If you are trained to handle yourself in 10 feet of viz in a full wetsuit, then diving in warm clear water will be well within your limits, and you can concentrate more on looking for critters and enjoying the experience. Also, if you do your cert dives in a Caribbean resort, you'll spend a lot of your valuable vacation time doing "baby" dives. In a week on Cozumel, you'll most likely only have 5 dive days. By the time you're just getting comfortable, it'll be time to leave. Gordon in Austin > My $0.02 is that you should do your cert dives in conditions that are > less ideal than those you will encounter in the Caribbean. If you are [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > Gordon in Austin Again, thanks for all the excellent advice from everyone here. Although 4 to 5 hours for four days wouldn't be bad, I am afraid that I would have to spend the evenings and such studying- that I don't want to do! So, due to the overwhelming consensus, I will look to doing the classroom work before I leave, and the ow portion either in Cancun or Cozumel. For those who mentioned it, I really don't plan to do any diving here in the pacific NW. It is just too damn cold. The whole attraction to diving is the warm water aspect; at least for me it is. Plus it gives me a great excuse to travel each year. So, the final question is where to do the ow certification. As mentioned, I will most likely be staying at Cancun, as the flights are about $325 less per person over Cozumel. I figure that I could easily take the bus/ferry over as others mention. Any last pressing thoughts over doing the certification dives in Cozumel or Cancun? 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