My brother and I are looking at getting into Scuba diving....... What is the best way to go about this? Do it Privately? Buy your own gear... Buy some gear but not all?

Take lessons from someone, or take the PE classes on campus?

What certifications are required, how long do they last?



Thanks for your input.

6/28/2006 11:44:28 AM

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"What is the best way to go about this? "

Get certified

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"Do it Privately?"

Group lessons is fine. See your local dive shop

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"Buy your own gear"

If you plan on diving frequently, yes. To rent all the gear is around $50( but I don't rent so don't quote me on that).

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"Buy some gear but not all?"

Just look at the cost of rental and the cost to buy. Figure out how much you are going to dive and calculate the best option for you. For example if a wet suit rental is $12 but it cost 100 to buy online, then since it'll last a while as long as you dive 10 times in your life you saved.(numbers are made up for demonstration purpose).

Quote :

"Take lessons from someone, or take the PE classes on campus?"

Even if you take the class you are learning from "someone". But seriously, if you don't need the PE then just take the class from a dive shop(probably cheaper than 3credits and much much faster).

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"What certifications are required, how long do they last?"

Just start with basic "open water". You'll need a PADI or NAUI certification. Doesn't really matter.
They last forever.

Probably should've been posted somewhere else. Like lounge.


[Edited on June 28, 2006 at 12:27 PM. Reason : or]


[Edited on June 28, 2006 at 12:38 PM. Reason : 've been]

6/28/2006 12:21:48 PM

thanks

6/28/2006 12:31:14 PM

I was certified through State and from what I understand, it's much cheaper.

Also, b/c the instruction is spread out over the course of the semester... you learn more and imo, can become a better diver b/c of it.

6/28/2006 1:04:05 PM

cost at dive shop: 325 everything you need but mask fins and snorkel

cost at State: (in-State) around $500 (incl. fees) to add the extra credits.
(out-of-state) Ridiculous
Plus any fees the class itself charges
http://www.fis.ncsu.edu/cashier/tuition/ugtuition.asp


Dive shop: classes start weekly and you'll be done and in the water soon.

don't worry about "learning more". You'll learn EVERYTHING you need in a dive shop-- PADI sets the standard. Even the Dive Masters learned at a dive shop. Don't worry about that. The best way to learn is get the basic safety procedures, get out there and dive.

Unless the class at NC State offers "open water", and "advanced", and maybe "nitrox" all in one semester it's probably not worth it.

6/28/2006 1:32:39 PM

Quote :

"Unless the class at NC State offers "open water", and "advanced", and maybe "nitrox" all in one semester it's probably not worth it."

You can get multiple cert, its less than $500, and you get to go in the pool a lot. def worth going through the school. sign up carroll or brown....if they are still around

6/28/2006 1:46:42 PM

yea, when i took the class in school, i got "open water" and "nitrox" certified.

you can't discredit the amount of time you get to spend in the water and in the classroom when you take it through the school vs. local dive shop/quarry

also, i didn't pay anywhere close to $500.... i was registered as a full-time student and i just covered book cost and minor fees for tanks, etc.

i only shelled out other money for mask, fins, and snorkel but you have to buy those either way

6/28/2006 2:17:33 PM

anyone know anybody looking for a drysuit with brand new seals and boots?

pm for more info thx

6/28/2006 2:20:18 PM

^^,^^^
yeah, I messed up the tuition pricing. Anything over 12hrs is the same price right? I've been in grad school awhile so I forgot about that.

Quote :

"You can get multiple cert..."

Then I agree. Go through the school, unless you're really impatient and want to go this summer.

Then, it'd be cool if you could take a class at state and go for advanced, nitrox, and some specialty like cave or rescue...

6/28/2006 4:01:30 PM

Ok, first you don't want to get certified at a shop at all costs if you can avoid it. The BEST diver from a dive shop will be worse than the worst diver from NCSU I can just about guarantee it. We have people who come into our program all the time who are already certified and I guess they're taking it to either dive more or because they think it'll be easy credit. By the end of the course most of them say that they pretty much learned how to actually (horizontal in the water, good buoyancy and trim, etc). You'll most likely never get that from a local dive shop. One of my pet peeves is people in the water who can't control what they're doing and they're flutter/scissor kicking all around kicking up sand to destroy the visibility or touch the coral or stand on the wreck...

If you have a the slightest idea that you ever might want to dive, take it at NCSU. We have one of the best diving curriculums out there, bar none. We use high quality equipment (backplate/wing setup instead of a jacket-style BC) and we have a 13ft deep diving well with mirrors on the sides to help you show you how bad (or good, perhaps) you look with your trim and technique.

At a dive shop you'll get certified with a few hours in the classroom and perhaps 5-10 hours max in the pool.
At NCSU you're in class 2 hours/day, 2 days/week for the entire semester. Probably 60-70% of that is in the pool with the rest doing classroom work.


This is a post I recently made on ScubaBoard.com and I'll just copy/paste it here--it should be quite informative. If you have any questions feel free to PM me; I TA (technically we're volunteers since we're not paid) for the course and might volunteer for the rescue course next semester as well, depending on my schedule.

In this post I said there are 4 classes; technically there are 5. PE226 is the OW/Nitrox class and is worth 2 hours. If you wish to get certified you are required to sign up for PE229 (this is the one I left out)--which is a 1-hour credit only deal. That's the quarry/coast/keys stuff. Those classes meet on occasion (depending on which section you're in it could be once or twice a semester for the keys or every week for the quarry) to assess your skills with the instructor you will be making the trips with.

As a final note--the classes are demanding but quite rewarding. If you catch the diving bug, your bank account might start to suffer, though... Like I said, if you have any questions feel free to PM me.

Quote :

"As far as I've seen NCSU has a very comprehensive scuba curriculum. 4 different classes are offered--OW/Nitrox, Rescue (includes lots of other stuff), Scientific Diving, and Scuba Leadership. We have 3 dedicated NAUI scuba instructors (I believe all are ITs and one is a NAUI course director; when I say "dedicated" I mean they are employees of the university) that teach classes. Two of those each teach 3 sections of OW/Nitrox (6 sections of OW/Nitrox total) and the other instructor teaches one section each of Rescue, Scientific Diving, and Scuba Leadership. This last instructor is also the aquatics director so he's quite busy--thus he doesn't teach multiple sections of those classes. Personally I feel that taking a scuba course over an entire semester in college is the only way to go. It's much more comprehensive and you get so much more pool time and face time with the instructor. The OW/Nitrox class is set up this way, in terms of costs-- $75 equipment usage fee--the university has it's own miniature 'dive shop'--25 tanks (standard Al80s), reg sets (Apeks AT20s with US4 1st stages), and Halcyon Eclipse BCs. We also have our own small air bank and compressor. You have to buy your own mask/fins/snorkel. Usually this will range anywhere from $100 to $200 depending on where you get it. I believe we recently had a deal worked out with LeisurePro for ~$115 that had mask, fins (JetFins, even!), and snorkel. Unfortunently LeisurePro takes years to ship out that many sets and we've only done it with them for 2 semesters--not sure if we'll continue. It gets old waiting almost a month to get basic mfs equipment. The students are not allowed to use the university equipment on their open water dives--we want them to learn how to interact with a dive shop so they have to go rent their own. Certification dives are completed 1 of 3 days-- A. All certification dives completed in the local rock quarry (~$90) B. All certification dives completed in the local rock quarry plus 2 offshore (weather dependant) on an artificial reef. (~$120) C. All certification dives completed in the local rock quarry plus 5 dives down in the keys. (~$360) We spend about a month working on basic skin diving skills before we ever progress to scuba. Classes meet 2x/week for 2 hours/day so there's lots of pool time. Once on scuba we spent the rest of the semseter about 3/4 in the pool with some classroom time thrown in there as well. What I really love about this course is how long and comprehensive it is for a basic course. It's a frikkin' semester long!!! We have enough time to actually introduce the students to being horizontal in the water and we basically don't allow flutter/scissor kicking (we use that for skin diving)---frog kicking only on scuba. We use bungied backups and are taught to donate from the mouth. We even spend a class session or two on rescue. We have mirrors all along the length of the diving well on the sides so that you can see how you look while diving. We also have several digital videocameras with underwater housings that we use to film the students and their skills. These are all put on the web for the students to download and go over to see what they can improve. The OW/Nitrox course is a PE course and is worth 2 hours, while the open water dives are given 1 hour but it's credit only. Most people take the course credit only as well--many of the skills are "pass/fail" and are worth 10 points on your final grade, so...screw up one or two things and there goes your GPA. The rescue class is taught by a gentleman who is a course director/cave instructor etc, so he demands perfection; at times it almost feels like boot camp. There are times when you have him plus several TAs yelling at you to do something differently so it can be rather stressful but in the end it's really worth it. This class covers rescue/advanced rescue, nitrox (again but more in depth), CPR, advanced O2, AED...the list goes on. There's even some beginning cavern stuff (ie follow the line aross the pool with duct tape covering your mask). All the dives for rescue certification are done in the local rock quarry but earlier than the OW/Nitrox students so it's nice and chilly; when we went in April it was in the mid-upper 50s. It's done over 2 days, with the first day usually having 4-5 dives (plus the 'across the quarry tow') and the second day has some surprise rescue scenerios thrown in at any point during the day. The rescue class is also worth 2 hours and is again usually taken credit only. To be a TA for either the OW/Nitrox or the Rescue couse you have to take Rescue + Scuba Leadership. The leadership course is just that--a scuba leadership course. Talks about how people learn, how to handle students, that kinda stuff. Usually in the end you'll end up with Training Assistant, but you can keep progressing if you stay with the program. I know several Assistant Instructors and at least one Instructor who got it through NCSU. Several of our TAs are cave trained (through that instructor) and I know of several people who have been coming back to help out the program for 13+ years. I currently TA ("volunteer" since we are technically university TAs since we aren't paid) for the OW/Nitrox courses and am considering TAing for the rescue course in the future. The scuba leadership course is a 1-hour credit only course, even though it lasts for 3 hours every Tuesday evening... I haven't taken the scientific course yet (next semester perhaps?!) so I don't know much about that."

[Edited on July 1, 2006 at 10:45 PM. Reason : ]

7/1/2006 10:36:47 PM

Quote :

"don't worry about "learning more". You'll learn EVERYTHING you need in a dive shop-- PADI sets the standard. Even the Dive Masters learned at a dive shop. Don't worry about that. The best way to learn is get the basic safety procedures, get out there and dive."

You're right, PADI usually "sets the standard" because PADI has a great marketing department and most divers have their basic certifications through them--hence the nickname "Put Another Dollar In". PADI is set up so that you can "learn to dive" in a weekend. MOST DIVERS ARE AWFUL, especially those that come out of a PADI curriculum--due to the lack of proper training. They get almost 0 pool time (I've heard of classes where the first time they're in the water is for their open-water checkout dives) and the information taught in the class isn't great.

Trust me when I say that taking the course at NCSU is the only way to go. If you do, and you ever go diving afterwards--just look at the other people on the boat, both ON the boat and in the water.
Most will be totally vertical in the water and will have some kind of equipment malfunction whether it's small bubbles leaking or an outright complete failure. While this is usually the fault of the dive shop and not maintaining rental equipment, they fail to do proper bubble/pre-dive equipment checks.
Out of the water, several of them will probably talk about how they were on the wreck or in the sand--and some will most likely forget how to assemble their equipment.
As to how their equipment is set up: most will have useless shit dangling everywhere. There's no reason to have hoses and crap hanging 3-feet under you; it only drags in the sand or coral or whatever, destroys the environment, and creates drag. Most people will also have their backup regulator in some kind of convoluted device to "hold it" but half would never know where to reach for it if someone came to them in an OOA (out of air) situation. Most will also have their tanks hanging SO LOW on their back that the tank valve is in the middle of their back and the bottom of the tank is below their butt--they'd never be able to reach the valve to cut it off if they have an equipment malfunction.

"Dive Master" and "Master Diver" are the most useless certifications ever. Scuba is NOT a "follow me" or "trust me" sport--yet most dive masters just lead people around (while not watching them); especially in the Keys or the carribean. As to a Master Diver certification--a 12-year old girl in Hawaii was recently one of the youngest certified PADI Master Divers, if you can believe it. Would you trust a small 12-year old girl to get you to the surface and tow you to a boat, in rough seas, if you had a heart attack or stoke underwater? (happens occasionally with older people who are out of shape and shouldn't be diving...) I know I wouldn't trust her to do it.

At a dive shop you, especially in the faster-paced courses, I truly believe that you don't learn everything you need to know to dive safely. Go read any "accidents & incidents" forum or pick up DAN's annual report on diver injuries & fatalities--you'll see that most people do stupid CRAP because they weren't properly educated at a dive shop.

PADI has the mentality that "everyone can dive" when there are people who just shouldn't be diving.


As to cialias--if you truly want to learn how to dive, go take a GUE Fundamentals of Doing it Right (DIR-F) course and let them kick your ass.

*steps off soapbox*

[Edited on July 1, 2006 at 11:14 PM. Reason : ]

7/1/2006 10:55:33 PM

dude, you're a fucking idiot. I am positive I have logged more hours diving than you. I was certified in 96 and grew up in Wrightsville beach where I dived every other fucking weekend.

Quote :

"Go read any "accidents & incidents" forum or pick up DAN's annual report on diver injuries & fatalities--you'll see that most people do stupid CRAP because they weren't properly educated at a dive shop. "

People are fucking idiots what can I say. And so what if someone gets hurt how does that affect you.

And as far as the "destroy the environment" argument you keep talking about, there is far more destruction caused by other factors than divers. How about you try to stop those first.

You don't have to be a fucking navy seal to enjoy diving. Get the fuck off your stupid adolescent power trip.

I don't even feel like reading your entire rant so I just picked a few sentences and realized you're a fucking douche.

Quote :

"*steps off soapbox*"

how about you
*step off life*

7/2/2006 12:41:46 AM

If it's someone I know or I'm diving with, then it affects me. More importantly it affects the sport itself.

Personally I don't care how many hours you have underwater--I've seen people with 1500 dives+ who suck ass. With your attitude that you're the all-knowing super-diver I seriously doubt you're as experienced as you say you are. Everyone I've ever seen who has an attitude like that is the buy who puts his tank on backwards.

Yeah you don't have to be a SEAL to enjoy diving, but it's much more enjoyable when you know what's going on and you know how to deal with problems that can go wrong.

As to PADI setting the standard--yes you're right; they set the standard--the lowest standard you can possibly have to dive. GUE sets the bar.

7/2/2006 2:44:31 AM

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"With your attitude that you're the all-knowing super-diver I seriously doubt you're as experienced as you say you are."

right back at ya, sport.

7/2/2006 12:21:03 PM

Go take PE227 if you get a chance; it's the rescue class. You'll probably enjoy it. That "tow them across the quarry and back" tow is a bitch, though.

7/2/2006 2:53:48 PM

I love diving.

7/2/2006 11:09:39 PM