Any PADI members?

[Sytes]

Wife and I completed the e-learning for "Open Water" and finishing the pool / ocean in the next couple weeks. Curious for land locked Hunt Talkers, are you involved in spear fishing in lakes to keep up with the dive activity?
For any PADI members:
Do you make a point of frequent dive trips? How often does one need to dive to maintain proficiency?

Is there value in $ savings routing through dive groups to travel different areas of the world or better using Kayak.com , etc type searches?

Thanks. I've come across spear fishing pike guru's while putting around a few lakes in NW MT. What other land locked dive activities are available for the open water cert depth dives?

 

[JLDemo]

PADI member and dive as much as we can out of Kansas. Out of all the places we've been, I think the Caymans are our favorite. We're there yearly and it never gets old. There's a few places to dive around here and Mizzo. As far as proficiency goes, an annual big trip and a small day dive locally here and there is more than enough to maintain a safe level for us. We aren't against a group dive but haven't done one.

We have always booked our trips through an actual dive shop, it's just been easier with gear rental rates and usually stay close to the dive shop through a dive shop package deal. But not having our own gear has bit us in the arse with this covid ordeal, shops stopped renting and were only taking divers with their own gear for a while. Not sure if that's still a thing but it does have us researching out own gear.

Haven't spear hunted yet but always willing to give it a go!

 

[Werty]

I haven't dove in years, but when I do. I tell the dive shop or whoever I go with, I need a refresher. I have always booked a trip and found a dive shop where I'm going.
I can't speak for other people, but diving is like riding a bike. I never seem to forget how to do it. It something I wish I did more of. Its a blast!
The packaged trips were always more expensive then just adding a couple of dives to the trip. With that being said, if you want too dive everyday, it has to be cheaper to get a package trip. Hope this helps

 

[Kaitum]

I got dive certified through PADI while living in Alaska. Classes at the local pool, open water cert in Prince William Sound in November.... Forget that. I finished my open water cert in HI through a dive shop. My wife and I have only done our diving in Hawaii. We never went through a dive group, just booked trips through a local dive shop once we arrived on the island. We own mask, snorkel and fins but always had to rent the rest. We were making one dive vacation a year and I felt that was enough to keep building on my skills. But we haven't gone in 6 yrs now and I'd definitely want a refresher class before diving again. Looking to get back into the routine next year to some other locations, like Bonaire or Roatan.

 

[bradr]

I was PADI certified in HI while in the Army. Made several dives there. After getting out of the service, I dove very little. My last dive was in the gulf several years ago. I miss it very much.

 

[ssmusicman]

Got my Padi back in high school a few decades ago. Did a lot of diving locally back in the day, a bit in HI on a couple vacations. Haven't dove for a couple decades now, hobbies change....

I think I could jump right back in it though if it didn't involve any deep diving calcs....

 

[Blaser270]

I got certified eons ago, NAUI, not PADI though. Worked for a dive outfit in south FL all through college and dove a ton. I didnt hunt in Florida, next best thing was spear fishing and photography. If going overseas isnt for you, head for Florida Keys. I recommend diving Loue Key, just east of Key West. Visibility is 100’+ and dives are shallow, under 25’ so super long bottom times. Renting equipment is very normal. Hauling tanks and weight belt on vaca is a pita. @Kaitum , Bonaire and Roatan were huge back then too. Cant imagine they’re any less beautiful now. @ssmusicman , no calcs required, pick up a fairly inexpensive dive computer and let it do the calcs for you. Highly recommend a quick refresher until its all automatic for you. They’re cheap and could save ur life.
Cheers. Pete

 

[NoWiser]

I got PADI certified as a phy-ed class in college. Did some local diving and ice diving immediately after. Ice diving was not enjoyable with a wetsuit.

In the last 10 years or so I’ve dove on 2 vacations. Dominican Republic and Belize. Dominican was ok, Belize was awesome. I can pretty much pick up right where I left off. If I had a trip planned with more extensive diving, I’d do a refresher course before I left.

It’s a fun hobby and I have some awesome memories from it. I wish I did it more often but my wife has zero interest in learning. Maybe my kids will someday.

 

[Gellar]

I got certified in college. Did my open water in an old rock quarry in southern Illinois where the visibility was like 4 feet. I did not care for it at all and have never dove again. I would like to try diving in an ocean where the visibility is greater. I think I would like that better.

 

[Sytes]

Anyone dive in/around Cabo Pulmo?

 

[ovis2]

Started diving back in the 80's. It's pared down a bit since moving to UT 20 years ago, but still try to go when I get somewhere good. Last time was a couple of years ago in Maui. Favorite place is up and down the Florida Keys, as much about the attitude down there though. Although I did do some pretty neat night diving off Oahu once.

 

[SFC B]

I got PADI certified way back in the day in IN. My open water cert was also in a quarry (just barely deep enough). Diving in fresh water like that visibility can go from pretty good to non existent in the flash of a fin. When I was stationed at Fort Lewis I dove the Puget Sound quite a bit and it was ok (saw a six gill shark, some octopi and some HUGE sea stars) but the cold water was unpleasant to me. I have since dove the Cancun/Cozumel area and the Bahamas and really enjoy shallow, warm reef dives. I have a buddy who now works for SSI certifying and enrolling shops who cross over from PADI (he was my instructor). I am another one with mask, fins, snorkel (and a 3mm shorty)....everything else I rent where I go.

 

[JustinsDad]

I got my PADI certification in 1990 and logged over 500 dives over the next 10 years. Spearfishing at Channel Islands off my boat was my favorite pastime for a while there. Also dived places like Cozumel, Cabo, Bahamas, Belize, Hawaii and Bonaire but I always missed the kelp forest. Did lots of fresh water dives all over too. I eventually got out of it when I injured my back. Underwater hunting is awesome though.

 

[NEW PA MT MN]

Anyone dive in/around Cabo Pulmo?

Cabo Pulmo was my second dive after becoming certified in 2007. I have dove Cozumel,Roatan, Jamaica, Utila,cenotes in the Yucatan,Catalina and a bunch more.
Cabo Pulmo is still my Favorite.
Not deep,clear water and tons of fish.

Anyone dive in/around Cabo Pulmo?

 

[npaden]

My wife and I are certified. Did a lot of diving before our son was born (14 years ago now) but not that much since.

Fiji was our favorite dive location by far, really just a completely different level of pretty than the Caribbean diving that we have done. Roatan, Honduras is probably # 2 on the list.

The best bang for your buck tends to be dive packages with lodging, etc. all in the same bundle if that is what you are going to spend most of your time doing on that trip.

One of the unique dive spots I've done is getting my advanced certification at the Blue Hole in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. It is nearly 100' deep and at altitude is counts even more than that. My wife got narc'd a bit and couldn't do some of the skills stuff that they had us do at the bottom.

Never done any spear fishing. Would like to try it someday though.

Way too many hobbies and not enough time for half of them.

 

[WapitiBob]

PADI certified in the early 80' out in the ocean. Haven't gone diving for a long long time.

 

[Sytes]

Cabo Pulmo was my second dive after becoming certified in 2007. I have dove Cozumel,Roatan, Jamaica, Utila,cenotes in the Yucatan,Catalina and a bunch more.
Cabo Pulmo is still my Favorite.
Not deep,clear water and tons of fish.

Our time frame isn't the greatest... Mid January (we are in countdown mode...) However, we've been told it's the main time frame for the whales. Just dive opportunities vs wind vs vacation days and cooler temps, for the area. Hoping it keeps fair visibility.

So from what I've gathered; Seems worthwhile to price both dive packages and add on dives to a normal vacation package. Looks like we're routing as many here have - hopefully annual/bi-annual trip though possibly going to fade off as years pass (judging on the majority of posts) - who knows. With that, I think we will hold off the big purchase items and stick with the base, wetsuit, full and short - light/whistle/knife - fins/mask/snorkel - gloves/booties/dive computer.

Any other items worth purchase that's easy to fly with?

 

[Brauee20]

Before kids my wife and I did quite a bit of diving when we lived in Florida, as well as a trip or two per year. Most inland diving doesn't hold a candle to reef or wreck diving. Usually to have good viz the water has to be on the cooler side inland. I can tolerate lower viz, but my wife doesn't care for much under 15-20ft. Done a bit of spearing carp around the piers on Lake Michigan. Amazing some of the things you see when under.

We liked to take our gear to a high school pool and give it a run through before any big trips. Prevented a regulator issue from popping up on the trip one time, and a computer issue another. If your staying above 30ft or so I'd feel comfortable jumping in without diving the past 4 years or so. Any deeper and I'd probably go take a quick refresher.

Had a great hammerhead and goliath grouper check us out off of Marathon in the keys, and got dragged by my stringer by a bull shark off the northern Florida coast spear fishing. Did a bit of cave diving in some of the springs in Florida (not for me, especially when your pushing your bcd and tank ahead of you through holes). Saw the biggest muskie I've ever seen and a huge group of coho off the St. Joe pier here in Michigan.

 

[npaden]

I know a lot of people disagree with it, but I bought all our equipment in "lots" off of ebay. It all needs to get annually checked out anyway where they replace the o-rings and stuff, and I felt comfortable buying used gear that way. We had a friend who was certified in one or two manufacturer's equipment so we bought what she recommended (Sherwood was the one she liked the most) and got all our gear for about 25 cents on the dollar. Dive computers and the works.

We bought our masks and fins new but that was about it. Was a lot easier on the pocketbook for sure. We took all our gear with us and just had a separate bag that had just scuba gear in it.

I have a few pictures if you want to check them out. http://padens.com/vacations.html

 

[Cammy]

PADI = Put another dollar in. NAUI = Not another underwater incident. LOL!

While stationed in Turkey I got into diving BIG! Went from never having touched SCUBA gear to being a PADI Dive Master between May and October. Weekends consisted of heading to the ocean Friday after work for a night dive and sometimes 3 dives on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. Basically lived by dive tables and was in the water as soon as we were safe to go. Haven't been diving since 1996 though.