DevO Posted December 2, 2006 Report Share Posted December 2, 2006 I just completed the PADI open water diver course! It was 4 days long and I did a total of 4 open water dives, on the island of Ko Lanta, Thailand. www.scuba-fish.com Thats the school I did it with. So now that I finally did this, I'm certified for life! Any other diver skanks on board?? Are there any good diving opportunities in Lake Ontario or thereabouts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneMtn Posted December 2, 2006 Report Share Posted December 2, 2006 I haven't yet dove in Ontario, but I do dive.I understand that the real diving around here is wreck-diving (in very cold water) at Tobermory.Have you been certified using hoods and booties and gloves and all the stuff you need to dive in cold, Canadian waters? It's the same deal, but more stuff to pay attention to, and the thicker wet suit (unless you're in a dry-suit) makes you way more buoyant, so it's harder to establish neutral-buoyancy and buoyancy control. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phorbesie Posted December 2, 2006 Report Share Posted December 2, 2006 i don't have the slightest desire to dive in canada. i'd rather be in warm tropical island water yep. have fun in the chilly willy water Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CyberHippie Posted December 2, 2006 Report Share Posted December 2, 2006 Nice job Kev!! I used to think I'd only want to dive in warm tropical waters. But frankly I love it so much I'd dive in cold now. One of these summers I'll get up to Tobermory for some wreck dives. I hear there is also good diving out kingston way. Your blood will now forever crave nitrogen! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc Posted December 2, 2006 Report Share Posted December 2, 2006 I got my Padi in Honduras. 8 years ago.There was some fantastic spots there and in Belize. Not sure how it is now. Hopefully fishing, pollution, tourists etc... have not done too much harm since.Diving in tropical water is fun as all heck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazykorey Posted December 2, 2006 Report Share Posted December 2, 2006 Innerkip quarry (just outside woodstock,ontario)is a good spot to dive. They have sunk boats, cars, buses and planes plus have a cave and other underwater quarry type stuff lots of stuff to find and explore (underwater scavenger hunt) plus you can party in the park(bring your non-scuba friends) and they have diving boards off the quarry walls.Also some good wreck dives chartered out of Portdover Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nattyMatty Posted December 3, 2006 Report Share Posted December 3, 2006 I Love Snorkeling. I have yet to get certified for S.C.U.B.A... Some day I will. Untill then just me with some fin's my mask and my snorkel. ANd Thats it. P.S Tobermory is a Beautiful little port town in the summer. I some of the best sax busking down by the docks when i was there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouche Posted December 3, 2006 Report Share Posted December 3, 2006 I just completed the PADI open water diver course! It was 4 days long and I did a total of 4 open water dives, on the island of Ko Lanta, Thailand. www.scuba-fish.com Thats the school I did it with. So now that I finally did this, I'm certified for life! Any other diver skanks on board?? Are there any good diving opportunities in Lake Ontario or thereabouts? Tanks for the reminder. Sharon and I want to take some diving lessons before we go to Thailand next summer. That is one of my few dreams in life, to swim and breath at the same time. That and to get a pilots license. 2 lofty plans that are going nowhere at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nattyMatty Posted December 3, 2006 Report Share Posted December 3, 2006 That is simualar to mine booche. Though i don't want o fly a plane i wanna float in a balloon. I really wanted to make it to The NRPS show that they played at the New jersey balloon festival. A tank of helium and a lawn chair and 6 pack of beer a few sandwichs and a bb gun and a couple bags of balloons will do it for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarahbelle Posted December 3, 2006 Report Share Posted December 3, 2006 ha! I just found out my dad has his.. I didn't get mine when I was in Thailand but I did snorkle a lot Hope ur having fun Kev O!! let me know when U get back to the hammer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevO Posted December 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 Diving is the balls! Yeah obviously tropical waters are preferable, but I'll take what I can get eh. You'll love it bouche. It just takes a few days, then you're certified for life! Yeah StoneMtn, after your open water course you are certified to dive anywhere in the world, just no deeper than 18m. After you get your 'Advanced' you're certified to dive to 30m. To get your advanced you have to do 5 'adventure dives'. Two of them are mandatory (deep water, and navigation dive) and then you pick three from a huge list of exciting dives. Like wreck dive, current dive, underwater photography dive, underwater naturalist dive, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouche Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 that sounds fan-fuckin-tastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phorbesie Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 or you can go to malaysia & indonesia where you can go down to 30m no matter what kind of license you have... i do have an open-water but went down to 30m several times. sipadan island is the bomb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoneMtn Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 You are certified for Canadian waters, but I really suggest you do a one-day course with a Canadian instructor, if you haven't used all the cold-water gear. I'm sure you'll figure it all out on your own, as it's mainly just more warm stuff, rather than any other technical gear, but I've already seen tropics-certified divers get a little freaked out using all the gear they required off the west coast of Canada. (It might not be as freaky in an Ontario lake, though.)Fun hobby, though, eh? It's addictive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paan Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 I am NAUI certified myself, but have not been diving in years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevO Posted December 5, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2006 (edited) or you can go to malaysia & indonesia where you can go down to 30m no matter what kind of license you have... i do have an open-water but went down to 30m several times. Wow, thats pretty sketchy! Although, I guess as long as you have your open water, going to 30m is the next step. I could sign up for a 'deep dive' adventure dive today (which is mandatory if you would like to work towards your 'advanced' anyway) and go down to 30m. My friend Ziggy is heading to Sipidan (sp?) in the next few days to do his open water course! I have just over a week left til I go home.. I was hoping to get to Cambodia but at this point it doesn't work out, so I might do a fun dive or two before I go. Yeah I'd definitely be asking for a good briefing before stepping into the cold waters. I asked my instructor and he said that there is a little course you can take for using a dry suit, though not mandatory. Hey Paan, what's NAUI? Some kind of technical diving? What're the diving opportunities like around the Gulf Islands? Edited December 5, 2006 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CyberHippie Posted December 5, 2006 Report Share Posted December 5, 2006 Diving is pretty easy and can be fairly safe if you do it properly. I had a pretty dodgey experience in Belize that I'm pretty sure lead to some late onset decompression sickness.Went out with this Mikey Mouse dive company. They didn't seam real professional. Other places I've dove in are Cuba and Tahiti. Before all those dives the divemasters always gave a group meeting to go over the diveplan and safety etc... These guys never did. We just got on the boat (an hour late) and away we went. I had checked my equipment before we left and all seemed fine. But once I jumped in the water, it seemed like I had a small leak or something and my BC keept taking in air. So I'd start to go down, but because my BC was slowly refilling I'd slowly rise up again. The dive master actually pulled me down with him. I should have had a bit more weight on, but it would have been fine if not for the air leak.Long story short I was up and down about 4 times in a very short amount of time. We were only diving at about 40ft though. But for the next few weeks after my body was doing some strange things consistent with effects from the bends. Luckily everything seems good now.Hindsight is so 20/20 though. If that happened again I'd just disconnet my BC from my tank and check out those cool lagerheads...Ahh well... Always make sure you go with a well reputed dive company, and be on your top game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paan Posted December 5, 2006 Report Share Posted December 5, 2006 NAUI (National Association of Underwater Instructors I believe) was a course that I took many years ago.. a pretty extensive one. It was for four hours per week for about 2.5 months. Half in the classroom, half in the pool, followed by a series of dives to get a license to 100ft for level one. I don't know how it compares to the other certifications. However, unless you go through a decent course, I would not recommend going much below 15 to 20 feet, you can do some nasty damage to yourself if you don't know what you are doing. I really don't agree with the resorts doing a half hour lesson followed by a dive for people who have never dived before. But they do take you in pretty shallow water usually.Sadly enough, on my many trips away I have not gone diving (the snorkelling seemed to be very adequate). I do recall that one of my test places was Sherkston Quarry, and it was kinda cool because it was a quarry that filled so fast that they could not remove the equipment. So you are hovering over trains and buildings... almost feelig like you are flying.Dang, all this talk of diving makes me want to get out and do it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamH Posted December 5, 2006 Report Share Posted December 5, 2006 I did my PADI about 10 years ago but haven't been diving in about 5. I was spoiled the last time around though having done some amazing wall dives off the coast of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. Coming back from tht to a wreck dive in tobermory was a shock, though that was fun in it's own right. I just couldn't see more than 5 feet in front of me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CyberHippie Posted December 5, 2006 Report Share Posted December 5, 2006 Hah sherkston quarry, that's where I got certified too... My only cold water dive. Man that thermocline is a bitch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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