Do You Have A Scuba Diving License?

Ive never even done it.

I want to a lot now cause of someone I work with who has.

I really don't like deep water when my face is stuck above like a joke in jaws film.

With full gear I think id do well.

My claustrophobia level is good, one of my better traits id think if it comes to it.


Never been scuba diving tho.

No thanks to caves.

Surrounded by water vs mass rock and water is very different.

 

I was certified , but it expired. besides there isnt any blue water here,. so its a waste of time unless youre a rescue fire emt fighter or something.

we have an indoor center its 60ft deep ,, somewhere around $80.00/ $130.00 a session. you can just go there and get used to the equipment.

Id really like to take it up as a hobby. probably better for my health than getting high all the time. however there are some negative effects of purer oxygen breathing air mixes.

 

I did it in 1988, mine doesn't expire though. You only really need it to get air.

 

I always wanted to but was always a little nervous, plus it is pretty expensive. Does seem like it would be fun

 

No but when I was a kid I used to watch the reruns of the undersea world of Jacques Cousteau


Hotwater

 

no. and i don't believe in a free country being defined by needing a license to create or explore.

 

I'm an instructor. I worked on an island in Thailand for 4 years, issuing over 300 certifications.

The basic course will start you off in a classroom to learn some theory, then take you into a pool, or if in you're in a nice, tropical spot like I was, you'll go to a beach and stay in shallow water. That also meant I could usually go for a mini-dive afterwards, if the students did well and were comfortable. It's also quite cheap to do it in places like that. Around $280 for everything. Where I worked that also included accomodation for the duration of the course. Latin America, especially Honduras, is also cheap.
You'll do a bunch of skills, around 20, specifics depend on the certifying organization (PADI, SSI, NAUI, etc). This confined session takes 2-5 hours, depending on how many students there are and the skill of the instructor. After doing this, you should be very comfortable with your equipment and moving around underwater. You'll start off standing in shoulder depth water, and go to no more than 3-5 meters during this part. You also have to pass a written test, which is incredibly easy, and if you fail it, you just take another one until you pass.

There will be 4 or more dives to do, going to a max of 18m usually. You really won't notice the difference of depth. It's actually a lot easier to dive at 30m than at 5m, because buoyancy is harder to control properly the shallower you are. Apart from that, it feels the same. Then you're certified, and most(all?) organizations certify you for life.

The basics of scuba diving are, you have an inflatable jacket, a tank of air, and lead to weigh you down. You go to your depth, inflate your jacket just enough to counteract the weight of the lead, and from there you control your buoyancy by inhaling to rise and exhaling to sink. Getting this right is the trickiest part, but it's not that hard. Apart from that, you mostly just breathe normally and cruise weightlessly through the water, taking in the sights.

It's not hard at all, really. Panic and stupidity are the cause of 95% of scuba diving accidents (probably). Even equipment failure's not a big deal, you just gotta stay calm and follow your training. It's actually a lot easier to teach kids for this reason, they are fearless and pick up everything instantly.

 

My husband used to dive, before I was with him. He used to explore interesting stuff in the Caribbean, which isn't down very deep.

 

One of my good friends is an instructor and has a dive company that does the search and rescue here. They just had to do an ice dive and find a woman in a frozen river 2 days ago :/ I've thought about getting certified but I'm claustrophobic. I'm not sure I could handle it. We're going on vacation this summer and he's found places to dive. He found some places for the rest of us to snorkel if we don't want to dive.

 

I have gone a few times after going through said class like above. First time down taught me a valuable lesson, carry a diving/sharp as hell knife. You never know what's under the surface and what you can fit through, your equipment cant!
If you get stuck, don't panic like mentioned. If you can't get free or a fellow diver cant, you have to cut them loose. Not always the smartest play, but you have to make split second choices, o2 gauge don't last forever and is you're lifeline.

 

Snorkeling is harder than scuba diving, to be honest. Claustrophobia gives way to a sense of freedom once you're a bit comfortable, especially when you're out in the open water. It's very relaxing, you're not supposed to exert yourself. Snorkeling on the other hand is rather tiring. So I would say don't do anything you're not comfortable with, but if you're fine with snorkeling, know that you could definitely scuba dive as well.

 

Might sound odd... but ever had someone come into training who didn't know how to swim?

 

No.

 

You must be able to swim 200m or snorkel 300m before you can start your last two open water dives and get certified. You can do the first two dives without a swim test. I certified plenty of weak swimmers, and some I more or less had to teach how to swim or, usually, snorkel, as it is a bit easier.

When you are diving, you are not swimming.. Your arms, for example, should only be used for hand signals and you control your level with your breath. Every now and then you kick a little to move horizontally. It's very relaxing.

 

yes that's why I asked.

 

we train lifeguards where i work, and last year we had a couple people come in that had already been hired to lifeguard at a certain beach but needed certified, and it turned out that neither of them were able to swim. at all.



as far as the actual topic, i am not certified. we've been trying to put a class together for a couple years though, and if it ever happens i plan to take it myself.

 

i understand you don't really need one to witness submarine races.

 

Unlikely. When my wife and I both took our basic open-water course for the second time (long story), there was an old guy in the class who wanted to get SCUBA certified, even though he didn't know how to swim. (His reason for wanting it was good, but he was going about it wrong.) During our first pool session, as soon as he dunked his head underwater, he panicked and that was that. He never came back.

In SCUBA diving, you don't get a "license" (which requires periodic renewal), you get a certification. I've never heard of a SCUBA certification expiring until orison (above) said his had. After Basic Open-Water certs, my wife and I got Advanced Open-Water, Night Diving, and Rescue Diver before we stopped training. We dove for many years, mostly in Oregon and Washington, although we tried to get in a week somewhere in the Caribbean each summer if we could swing it.

I was a serious underwater photographer back then. Unfortunately, I've had very few of my hundreds of color slides digitized since then. I did just post a handful in my gallery, if anyone is interested.