PADI scuba divers??

[snotsnfarts]

Nightmare said:

moles said:

Tried scuba last year in Kenya and I couldn't get on with it at all. Kept having panic attacks when I removed my mask or got the slightest bit of water in the back of my mouth and would shoot up to the surface. A shame as I really wanted to get into it.

same thing happened to a friend of mine - she learnt in the red sea and was fine until it came to mask removing....total panic attack

would totally echo what Pete has said......She has since booked a couple of evenings at local swimming pool and done rest of course there.....loved it and has since been back out in open sea and loved that too.

in diving circles this is known as PADI. PAY AND DIVE INSTANTLY unfortunatly it's true....As a diver of 30 years I've noticed a few changes in divers boasts it used to be "when I started diving, we didn't have wet suits then, we used to tie bits of rubber together", nowadays it's "Look at my computer, you can play tetrus on it" but one thing I have noticed that's changed over that period of time and it's sad, is the complete lack of fish nowadays (or I need new lenses).

[amsie]

I learned in Egypt, and absolutely loved it. It was always a dream of mine having been a swimmer for my school and later town swimming club.

The red sea is a great dive, unfortunately, due to marriage and having kids, it's something I probably won't do for years now :-(

[Jasandjules]

CyprusCraig said:

But it is under the instrcutors discretion to allow me take the course, without wanting to sound cocky, i have never had a problem (albeit 12 dives) i have already assisted in one rescue (avoided other student from doing a rapid ascent from 30m0.

What were you doing at 30m? You have already done the AOW in your 12 dives?

I, like you, had no problems at all with training etc. (in fact, the Divemaster said he'd be surprised if I had any problems because, at risk of sounding really, really arrogant, all the stuff was very easy for me, even removing the BCD and sitting on it then putting it back on was all nice and simple, but I am a fairly good swimmer including a lot of underwater stuff, i.e. I can easily free dive to 20ft and swim around for a bit), and I was fine to help my buddy during the training dives and take pictures as well) BUT I would no way think I am ready for a rescue dive course.

[bluetone]

amsie said:

I learned in Egypt, and absolutely loved it.

Me too

Sinai Divers @ Dahab - great facilities/equipment/instruction and fabulous reefs.

[3sixty]

bluetone said:

amsie said:

I learned in Egypt, and absolutely loved it.

Me too

Sinai Divers @ Dahab - great facilities/equipment/instruction and fabulous reefs.

Ah, any other info? I'm due to dive there in October as part of our honeymoon. We both have Open Water already from when we learnt in Greece, but was bad weather and poor visibility. Went to Malaysia last year and dived at Perhentian, was really very nice, clear sea and lots of great fish.

[Jgtv]

Dan_1981 said:

Red Sea around Sharm - good - wish i'd done the thistlegorm.

Its worth the trip from sharm, I was very very lucky when I went the vis was incredible and the surface was like glass, two very long quite intrusive dives into the wreck, loved it.

Long day though, next time I do it it will be on a Live-a-bord rather than leaving from Sharm everyday.

[Jgtv]

Dupont666 said:

[
My OH has clocked loads of hours and even she didnt want to do the divemaster yet... Im happy with the PADI and the advanced and see from there, just living in UK means no nice warm seas to go in.... just the thames

well there is no point doing it before your comfortable.
where abouts do you dive?
last time I went in the UK it was Portland, I think? or maybe Dosthil? over Slough way

[mel]

I've got a handfull of padi cards that have been given to me at various stages (never done a course) but the only real qualification that means anything I've got is an unrestricted HSE II. It's normally enough to do as I please but always makes me smirk when you even come across PADI instructors that don't even recognise it, the PADI world is very blinkered and almost believes that it invented diving, I honestly believe that the letter P in PADI is stretching the truth and they seem able to give out fairly high responsibility qualifications simply by ticking boxes with no real reflection of aptitude, ability and experience.

[Fezant Pluckah]

I've been diving for 30 years, worked as a NAUI instructor and course director in Thailand and Oz for a number of years in the 80s. I now just dive of a NAUI Rescue ticket as I don't dive for other people's pleasure, just mine own.

I've seen some shockers in my time. I was escorting (steady now!) a group of divers in Papua New Guinea and one of them was a PADI intructor. I did a twilight dive with her and she was ste. No bouyancy control, crashing into the coral, bumping into things, arms and legs flapping. Sucking air like it was going out of fashion. When we surfaced she said words to the effect of "That was a great dive, Jim, thanks very much for taking me on my hundredth dive!" Hundredth dive She dived like someone who'd only done 1 dive, let alone 100, and was an instructor as well.

[bluetone]

3sixty said:

bluetone said:

amsie said:

I learned in Egypt, and absolutely loved it.

Me too

Sinai Divers @ Dahab - great facilities/equipment/instruction and fabulous reefs.

Ah, any other info? I'm due to dive there in October as part of our honeymoon. We both have Open Water already from when we learnt in Greece, but was bad weather and poor visibility. Went to Malaysia last year and dived at Perhentian, was really very nice, clear sea and lots of great fish.

It's all here:

http://www.sinaidivers.com/english.htm

The Dahab dive centre is located in the Hilton Hotel complex (great Hotel btw - spent 2 weeks there - rather pricey but for a Honeymoon why not?)

The Bells/Blue Hole is an amazing site quite close to the resort.
http://www.divesitedirectory.co.uk/dive_site_red_s...

A lot of rather tragic history @ Blue Hole - there is an archway out to the ocean @ 52m that people are tempted to try and it doesn't always turn-out well...

Would also highly recommend Gabr el bint for a day boat trip: http://www.divesitedirectory.co.uk/dive_site_red_s...

They also dive out of Sharm el Sheikh and this is probably the better location tbh, particularly if you are keen on seeing some big stuff.

Thistlegorm is a reknowned wreck dive south of Sharm:
http://www.divesitedirectory.co.uk/dive_site_red_s...

I did my Advanced Open Water with Sinai Divers and felt very comfortable doing so

Have a great time! (not in the least bit jealous..)

Edited by bluetone on Tuesday 11th August 09:50

[Dupont666]

Jgtv said:

Dupont666 said:

[
My OH has clocked loads of hours and even she didnt want to do the divemaster yet... Im happy with the PADI and the advanced and see from there, just living in UK means no nice warm seas to go in.... just the thames

well there is no point doing it before your comfortable.
where abouts do you dive?
last time I went in the UK it was Portland, I think? or maybe Dosthil? over Slough way

Not in the Uk, dont like the idea of seeing nothing... well less than 2ft and the fact that its sooooooo expensive here, I may look at finishing off the theory and doing the practical when away or just doing it all in Asia as it was $250 - $350 all in last time I looked and here its nearly that just for the theory.

When doing the training I had no problem with anything and got it all spot on, the only issue I have ever had was the first proper dive and I sneezed into the mask and had to resurface due to snot dripping down from everywhere.

If you know of some reasonable places in the UK, it might be an idea to get back up to speed again, just dont fancy the prices they charge as it feels like extortion.

[MacGee]

dived in Turkey...quite bland and grey
egypt....sharm (and dahab-snorkelling @ bluehole.) and hurghada. great colours/fish.
off to Borneo next week. This will be 4th trip where we can dive. Hope to get at least on in. Anyone dived here. Not very experienced but the children love it.

[Shabs]

Nightmare said:

moles said:

Tried scuba last year in Kenya and I couldn't get on with it at all. Kept having panic attacks when I removed my mask or got the slightest bit of water in the back of my mouth and would shoot up to the surface. A shame as I really wanted to get into it.

same thing happened to a friend of mine - she learnt in the red sea and was fine until it came to mask removing....total panic attack

would totally echo what Pete has said......She has since booked a couple of evenings at local swimming pool and done rest of course there.....loved it and has since been back out in open sea and loved that too.

I didn't like the mask part of the OW course either, glad I learned to do it though as I had a mask failure at 24m two years ago and had to take a spare mask from the dive instructor. To make it worse I had put soap in my goggles before to stop them misting, the combination of soap in eyes, no mask, breathing through mouth not nose and retaining boyancy control was interesting. I have around 55 hours of bottom time and thankfully the experience paid off

Shabs

[bluetone]

Shabs said:

To make it worse I had put soap in my goggles before to stop them misting

What's wrong with spit Shabs?

[Fezant Pluckah]

The best thing to stop a mask fogging up is to rub toothpaste and a little bit of water into the lenses, and leave overnight. Then rinse of thoroughly the next morning. And it makes the dive all minty!

[Jgtv]

Dupont666 said:

If you know of some reasonable places in the UK, it might be an idea to get back up to speed again, just dont fancy the prices they charge as it feels like extortion.

I have done a few, I will sort all the names and sites out and let you know.
over the years I have acquired everything short of a tank, know a school very very well in Bracknell so I used to help them out for a dive when I did it, Mates with access to a boat can be a godsend too.

[Zod]

The thing about PADI instructors is that you need to apply common sense in assessing the instructor. There will always be some who don't take their responsibilities seriously, but the guy who taught me was a very serious marine biologist in Mauritius who was ultra strict and made me redo every part of the test until he was satisifed. I had to do the emergency ascent from 10m several times over two days until he was satisfied that I was not rushing it and understood why this was important.

[3sixty]

Shabs said:

Nightmare said:

moles said:

Tried scuba last year in Kenya and I couldn't get on with it at all. Kept having panic attacks when I removed my mask or got the slightest bit of water in the back of my mouth and would shoot up to the surface. A shame as I really wanted to get into it.

same thing happened to a friend of mine - she learnt in the red sea and was fine until it came to mask removing....total panic attack

would totally echo what Pete has said......She has since booked a couple of evenings at local swimming pool and done rest of course there.....loved it and has since been back out in open sea and loved that too.

I didn't like the mask part of the OW course either, glad I learned to do it though as I had a mask failure at 24m two years ago and had to take a spare mask from the dive instructor. To make it worse I had put soap in my goggles before to stop them misting, the combination of soap in eyes, no mask, breathing through mouth not nose and retaining boyancy control was interesting. I have around 55 hours of bottom time and thankfully the experience paid off

Shabs

Everyone was laughing at me at the mask flood/take off & put back on. I was the only one smiling and my eyes opened fully, I quite enjoyed the whole training thing. Everyone else seemed to hate it and couldn't open their eyes.... but then they had the last laugh when it took me 5billion attempts to get the fin pivot right. I swear my natural buoyancy is wrong.

[DJFish]

Passed my PADI open water this summer in Stoney Cove but have yet to use my new found skills.
I'm going to Brussels in Sept with work so was wondering about visiting Nemo33 whilst I'm there.
Chap I work with is an ex commercial diver with an HSE 2 ticket and wants to "Bounce the 30m pool and just spend the rest of the time fizzing off" whatever the hell that means.

[aclivity]

DJFish said:

Passed my PADI open water this summer in Stoney Cove but have yet to use my new found skills.
I'm going to Brussels in Sept with work so was wondering about visiting Nemo33 whilst I'm there.
Chap I work with is an ex commercial diver with an HSE 2 ticket and wants to "Bounce the 30m pool and just spend the rest of the time fizzing off" whatever the hell that means.

I haven't done Nemo33 but I did do HMS Dolphin a couple of years ago - to be honest, warm water deep pools aren't that interesting compared to open water, it was just an experience to add to the logbook.

If you can get on a "hard hat" experience, give that a go, even better would be a "dry dive" in a chamber. I did both of the above at the York dive college, well worth a trip; if you should ever need chamber treatment, better to have seen it before so you know what to expect.