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Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.
Hey all! Just wanted to chime in this thread...I am a NAUI certified diver (I live in NC, and NAUI seems to be more common than PADI around these parts). I have open water, rescue diver, submerged vehicle recovery, dry suit, and full face mask certification cards to my name so far. I will be getting advanced open water and Nitrox in the near future.

I am also on a volunteer water rescue dive team so if you have any questions about rescue/borderline technical diving, feel free to ask! I plan on starting EMT-B classes in the near future to pair with my water rescue stuff. I'm also heavily considering changing careers and becoming a paramedic and remaining as a standby diver for local fire/rescue departments. It is hands down the best thing I have gotten involved with in a long, long time.

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Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.

rockcity posted:

You can get rescue diver before your advanced in NAUI? It's a per-requisite in PADI. There are quite a few people rescue certified on here (it's next on my list to get in PADI), but I'm not sure if anyone is actually part of a rescue dive team. Any interesting stories from that?

I was able to. It might depend on the instructor though. The instructor who I've gone through for everything except my open water is a diving trainer for police departments/fire/EMS and he isn't affiliated with a dive shop--just with some area community colleges who pay him to do the classes. I did my open water through a dive shop. It seems like if it's a NAUI dive shop they want you to have advanced prior to rescue, but maybe I didn't have to have it since I am on a dive team?

Since I'm on the dive team also, the only certification I paid for out of pocket was my open water (which at the time, I did that strictly for recreational purposes, then I went out on a dive charter and met my current instructor who does all the trainings for emergency personnel). He told me I was more than welcome to come play with them after we were talking on the charter and he added me to his Facebook page where he posts all the events, so then I met people off the dive team who encouraged me to join. Once I got on their roster, that covered the costs of getting the other certifications which otherwise would have totaled hundreds or thousands of dollars. I've only had to pay $30 per card (which is just for the NAUI fee, and now since I'm on the team it's a tax write-off).

I don't have any really great stories yet because I haven't been out on any calls yet. My availability is limited to weekends right now since I have a full time job but in the summer I'm off so I'll be putting in a lot of hours at the station then. However, on weekends I've logged like hundreds of training hours by now between certification courses, inservices, etc.

Here are some pictures from our trainings:



This was part of submerged vehicle training (not me). We were in a 15 foot diving well at an indoor pool. The dummy weighed 150 lbs and we inflated that lift bag to get him out by exhaling bubbles into it. Also, we had to dive blind (with our mask stuffed to eliminate visibility) and hook the chain around him without being able to see.



This is another one with the dummy and lift bag but from above. We went down in pairs, one blinded and the other led to the dummy and helped if you were like not even close to the right spot with the chain and lift bag.



All these are also from submerged vehicle training but at our swamp training site. I'm not in any of these either. The pillow looking thing is a 2000 lb lift bag (in other words, it could lift an object weighing 2000 lbs to the surface once inflated). Pretty cool stuff!



Dive team inservice--this was a boat search pattern day. The photo on the left I snapped when I was in our truck while we were hauling one of our boats out to the lake. Our truck is basically the same as an ambulance, but instead of being medically equipped it's full of tanks, markers, fins, basically all the dive stuff we might need. The photo on the top right is two of our guys practicing with the sonar scanner which can help locate stuff below the surface--that day, we were looking for a dummy that was hidden in the lake for us on it.



Another random training at the pool...I'm the lone female in the wetsuit



Me doing some pool practice with the full face mask...I want to say this was a Guardian but I'm not sure--we train frequently with both Aga and Guardian ones. I don't like wearing these because it's hard for me to clear my ears. But I still practice routinely with them so that I don't forget how to clear them.



Me fully suited up in dry suit plus full face, I was coming out of the water here. I was feeling like HOLY BEACHED WHALE BATMAN. Right now I am not a fan of dry suits whatsoever, but it could just be because I haven't worn one that fits me correctly yet. That day the one I rented was cut incorrectly by the dive shop I got it from, so I wound up wearing an extra one our instructor had in the trailer, and it was a little bit snug on me. It was probably the least fun dive ever because I was too claustrophobic. :(



Getting into the water with the dry suits/full face on at our training site.



Bobbing around before we went down.

Hip Hoptimus Prime fucked around with this message at 06:44 on Feb 16, 2013

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.

Unimpressed posted:

That swamp training looks pretty tough. What the vis like in there? Is there anything at all to see or is it just about doing the job?


The swamp is awesome. It's about 40 feet deep, and actually very clear, it's just that in the pics it was all silted up from entering/exiting. But away from the shore it's clear unless you touch the bottom.

There are some fish that hang out in it, but our instructor signed a liability release and contract with the property owners that holds them harmless if there's any injury or death when we're out there, and they also allow him to put anything he wants in it for training purposes. Right now, there are two cars--a white Pontiac and a Ford Bronco--sunk in there. He also sunk a recliner, flat screen TV, and a toilet. At our submerged vehicle training last weekend, we lifted and uprighted the Pontiac, which was originally upside down, (then re-sunk it) and partially lifted the Bronco (then re-sunk). The main objective of that weekend was to become comfortable with attaching and using the lift bags. :)

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.

Bishop posted:

Great post. I've done some training with a few fire department body recovery teams before. (Let's be honest, unless you're a coast guard swimmer jumping off a helocopter it's a recovery, not a rescue) I still respect what you guys do a lot though. It's no fun swimming in completely murkey poo poo water looking for a body. I'd be scared to do it in a lot of lakes because you don't really know what is down there. I took my rescue class with a guy that was on a FD recovery team and he was a great classmate to have once they started really messing with us.

One thing I've heard from a lot of those people is that X lake has a dozen or so bodies in it that nobody has ever found. Always a nice fun fact!

Pic of me trying to revive a dead guy from my rescue class. I'm the one mourning in the middle. He was a DM and friend of mine and I've gotta give him credit, he bought some fake blood at a costume shop or something and made it look like he vomited blood before passing out... (we thought the class was completely done at this point!) Man that was a fun class.



e: dayum, that 2,000 pound lift bag is... most impressive. I just went and told my 60 pound bag: "I'm not mad, just dissapointed"


Thank you! I haven't had to look for a body yet, but I know that the team I am on has done it as recently as a couple months ago. It doesn't really faze me at all that I might have to do it someday, though. But, in our trainings I've learned that if a body is in the water for awhile, most of the time when you find it fish will have eaten off the ears, nose, etc. So that will be chilling to see if I ever recover one.

Bishop posted:

The recovery folks I've talked to are pretty careful though. They are almost always using a thick rear end guideline to keep a their search pattern and stay safe in case they get entangled in something. Also surface coms are very common. I know one department that just got themselves a fancy rear end side scan sonar to help find poo poo. It can be dangerous but they are very methodic about it. This is mostly lake/river stuff. Still a lovely job.

Yep. We do a ton of development on search patterns and safety. I put some nice sized D rings on my BCD (since the ones that came on it are pretty tiny) and I always put a cutting device--scissors or a knife or something--on there in case of entanglement. We have also done skills in the pool before in which we remove our BCD underwater, push it through a constricted space like a barrel, then put it back on. Our instructor really emphasizes that we have to be able to handle low/no visibility, confined spaces, etc. so he's always coming up with drills for us to do for practice.

Sometime in the future we're supposed to do a river class, so that we know how to deal with searching in currents and those kinds of hazards.

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.

whaam posted:

God diving is looking like its going to be really expensive. Just finished my $450 certification and now I'm looking to get some gear so I can dive locally but woo boy it ain't cheap. Looks like about 1k for a dry suit, 200 for a cheap basic reg, 500 for a bcd and thats just scratching the surface. I can't really afford that right now and probably not even later this summer. The local dive shops rent kit for like $45 a day if you already have the suit, but that seems like it would add up quickly. After the suit what is the first piece to buy? The BCD seems smart because it is so central but its also the most expensive it seems. Also getting a wet suit would be a lot cheaper than dry but would a 7/14mm full suit be comfortable in 10C water? Not talking about multiple dives just single 20minute dives.

A little late with my reply. I would definitely look at used equipment. I bought my BCD for $250 out the door at my local dive shop because it was used as a rental once. Practically brand new. However, at my dive shop I'm on a first name basis with the owner because I got my OW there and I've been back in regularly for other needs (dry suit rentals, wet suit rentals, etc). He also knows the other instructor for my dive team stuff really well. So he tries to help us out.

I would check if any shops near you are selling off rental equipment at a discount. It will be used, but 99% of it will still be in good to great shape.

I wouldn't buy a dry suit unless you plan on diving dry like all the time--they are really expensive!

I bought my fins, mask, snorkel, and booties brand new at the same dive shop where I got my BCD, and it was less than $200 out the door for everything.

Next on my list is my own tank, and a skin suit. My own regulator will have to wait awhile.

Edited to add: I would definitely pick up a BCD first. I was renting or borrowing them for awhile and it got old really quick because every time I was diving it was a different, unfamiliar BCD. Part of good dive safety is being familiar with your equipment. Now that I have my own, I have tools how I want them on it, I know how to release the weight pockets if I need to, and I know where all the straps and buckles are. It's helpful and gives me a more secure feeling. :)

Hip Hoptimus Prime fucked around with this message at 14:17 on Feb 23, 2013

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.
Yeah, I wasn't entirely clear. I did buy my mask/fins/booties first before the BCD. I then bought the BCD a couple months later, when I got a work bonus I could throw at it.

Still on the market for a good wrist dive computer, though. I forgot about that and will probably do that and a reg before a tank; but I was thinking of a tank first since it's cheaper and I do a lot of local dives. If I traveled, I wouldn't haul that with me...it would be easier to rent.

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.

raffie posted:

On a side note, i was just reminded of the "dive mills" we have here in Singapore. Since there's pretty much nowhere to dive in our waters, the closest place is Tioman island in Malaysia and every weekend hoards of dive groups will descend on the islands there. It is not unusual for beginners to be offered both Open Water and Advanced certification in one weekend. My buddy flat out forbid me to go there for training, which was why i ended up in Manado with him.

Last week in Manado there was a guy from China who was a certified Rescue Diver with 20 dives under his belt, which had everyone going wtf. Then again China is where you can find divers with Advanced certification who have only dived in 4m deep tanks.

I saw something like that when randomly Google searching for possible dive destinations, but in Thailand. Mermaids Dive Shop in Pattaya. You could go from nothing to DM in a matter of weeks. I have to question the safety behind that.

That being said, I just got my OW in August 2012 and I already have rescue diver, submerged vehicle recovery, dry suit and full face so for me I've come really far in just 6 months. But I train almost every weekend with the dive team I'm on, and I got on the dive team through my intense dedication to training with the EMS people anyway just for fun and to get more bottom time. I'll have more pictures this weekend hopefully--though I don't know if we're going in the water or not. If we don't we'll be doing more search pattern stuff, inventory, etc.

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.
Today we had some dive team stuff again. We didn't go in the water though; instead we were checking the boat engines, practiced using the cascade system to fill tanks and drove the truck.



Clockwise--our Zodiac boat, the Zodiac boat engine during a test run (we had the hose hooked up to it), the chillax area inside the rescue station, and maneuvering the truck between cones to practice backing up and stuff. We also did it with a boat attached on a trailer but I don't have a picture of that. I actually did really well and didn't knock any cones over. :3: Our chief wants us to be comfortable driving in case we get a call and have to back a boat into the marina.



The picture on the left is the cascade system in the truck for filling tanks. There's actually 4 of those big tanks total. On the right, the top picture is gear inside the truck (wet suits and BCD's). Right middle is more equipment in the truck and the bottom pic is the bay at the station where we keep the Suburban, the truck, and all our boats. You can't see it in the pic because it was behind me, but we also have a pontoon boat.

Next weekend I'm going to the pool for some skills training. Can't wait for the weather to warm up soon so I can log some more outdoor dives!

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.
Just checking in again...

I was supposed to work a triathlon with my water rescue squad last weekend, but I got laid up with a kidney stone the night before, and at the ER they gave me morphine, so I couldn't drive the morning of the triathlon to get there. But, I later heard they pulled about 30 people from the water (no one drowned, but some swimmers had to get out).

I just got done booking me & my husband's honeymoon. We're headed to Placencia, Belize in July, so do you guys have any dive suggestions while we are down there? We could get my husband's OW while we are there, but I'm thinking we will just have him do it ahead of time.

Finally, I'm doing my advanced OW and Nitrox certs at the end of May...my main instructor *finally* made a Facebook event for that. Can't wait. Once I have that, I'll have all the prereqs for getting my dive master. :dance:

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.

Crunkjuice posted:

Rescue? or did you do the adventure route and skip AOW.

I got rescue before AOW. So yes, I guess I did take the adventure route. :)

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.
Yesterday I went to a rescue diving inservice. My husband is starting to work on his OW for when we go to Belize so my instructor had me buddy off with him in the pool to teach him mask clearing, regulator recovery, etc. So, this is my husband and me yesterday--me being on the right in the orange shirt/polka dot bikini top! :)

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8z_xj4ujdA

This is our attempt at a scuba Harlem shake at one of our dive trainings at the pool. It's pretty lame but I figured I'd share anyway. :)

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.
Well, I meant to post this earlier in the week but I forgot. Last weekend I completed my advanced open water with Nitrox, and my husband completed his basic open water. Yay! There are pics from that, but I'll post them later because I'm on a much needed Facebook hiatus right now. But, our deep dive for AOW sucked--we passed through two thermoclines on the way down to 60 feet, and even with layered wetsuits, a hood, and gloves, I was still shivering in the deepest one. I also was getting over a cold, so clearing my ears was a bitch on the way down even though I took Mucinex well beforehand (it took me like 15 minutes to go all the way down the line...one of my friends stayed with me the whole way who is a total saint). I now have all the prereqs for getting dive master--which I'd like to have in the near future, so I'm going to keep working closely with my usual instructor since he goes out like every other day and I'm about to be out of school for summer, so I'll have nothing but time to learn more and play.

I've been looking more into dives to do in Belize in July, and apparently the dive center at the resort we will be staying at is terrible. We are staying here, and if you click the linked text and scroll to the reviews that mention the dive ops, you'll see why. Some people mentioned going through another outfit called Avadon Divers that is nearby that is much better/safer, and when I looked at their prices they are also a little bit cheaper than going through the resort and will send a free taxi to pick you up wherever you're staying. So I think that's what we will do (plus avoid whale shark dives since reviews also say no one ever sees them).

Finally, does anyone have this camera? I want it so bad for our trip, and need to order soon because we leave July 3! :dance:

http://www.divers-supply.com/Intova-14MP-Digital-Camera-IC14-P109433.aspx

Hip Hoptimus Prime fucked around with this message at 01:15 on May 31, 2013

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.

Bishop posted:

Some other people might say this but in general, it's a bad idea to take decongestants to dive when you can't clear your ears at surface level. Many people (and almost every person that works in the dive industry) take decongestents to dive, but you have to realize that they wear off. A 15 minute descent would be something I'd thumb every time. Sometimes you just feel too lovely to dive.

I took some pseudoephedrine for my last dive so I'm not judging. Hell I even put another pill in a pocket in my wetnotes just in case I felt the need to down another mid-dive.

Also: do a bunch of dives before making divemaster enters your mind. I don't mean that in an insulting way or anything, just dive a bunch before you decide it's time to get all of the C-cards.

Yeah. Basically, I went down to meet the depth requirement, then thumbed to come back up. My instructor who was leading the class (not the person who buddied with me for that horrid descent) has seen me dive to 60 feet without difficulty on other occasions so it was all good. But I don't plan on doing that ever again (diving with a cold), because it's been almost a week and now I feel like there's an ear infection coming on as a result. Bah. I am gonna go to urgent care tomorrow morning.

I'm not insulted at all by your DM comment! I have to raise my eyebrows a bit at people who go from nothing to DM in like a month, or less. I don't think that's really a good plan. August will be a year since I started diving, so my OW and AOW were spaced out by like 10 months with a bunch of dives in between (and I did rescue/dry suit/full face mask courses in between but spaced out a couple months between each and with lots of inservice dives to keep up skills). I plan on just diving as much as I can during the next year, and see how I feel. I'm feeling like I need a break from certifications and I just want to do fun stuff for a good while. :cool:

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.
I never should have done that 60 foot dive with a cold. I now have the most horrible ear infection ever and I am certain the two are related, because I have never had an ear infection in my life. My left ear is blocked so bad, I can barely hear out of it. I went to urgent care yesterday and they prescribed drops, but the pressure caused by the fluid is pretty uncomfortable. Meanwhile, next week at work I legitimately cannot miss any days because of what we have going on, even if I can't hear out of one ear while it heals.

Not worth it and not doing that ever again (diving with a cold).

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.
RE: ear infection. On Monday I went to see my regular doctor (because it didn't feel like the drops they prescribed at urgent care were helping). They took one look in both my ears and said there was so much wax, no wonder it wasn't getting better. The wax was blocking the drops from reaching the infection. They flushed my ears out, and now finally my left ear is feeling a lot better. Why they didn't do that at urgent care to begin with, I have no clue. But the wax was why I lost my hearing in the left ear--the drops softened and expanded the wax which made for the feeling of pressure and the fake deafness. :)

Anyways--it looks like I'll have leftover ear drops after I finish my treatment. So do you guys think it would hurt to put a drop or two in after diving, just to prevent future infections? This is the only one I've gotten in 10 months of diving, so I think that's pretty good. But, in Belize next month, that's our honeymoon and I'd really rather not come down with a raging ear infection on that trip, so I'm thinking of taking the extras with me to drop in before going to bed on the night after any dives we do. On Saturday this weekend we have a dive team inservice, which I'm going to but I already decided I'm not going to dive because I don't want to get re-infected if I *just* got over an infection.

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.
Well, in less than a week, we're going to start our road trip to Miami, and our flight to Belize is in 12 days!

I made our dive reservations yesterday--we're doing South Water Caye (3 tank) through Avadon Divers out of Placencia. They had Blue Hole but 1) it would be a 3 hour boat ride each way and 2) my husband doesn't have AOW yet so, yeah.

l also ordered my camera with housing. I can't wait to take/share pictures. :)

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.
Sorry for the double post, but, I didn't want to edit my last post with all this:

I emailed Avadon Divers previously to try to reserve the South Water Caye trip and also to book another non-diving excursion through them. I got an email back saying call the shop to make reservations with dates they would be doing the stuff we were interested in. Yesterday I called the shop to do so. Some guy answered the phone who really didn't know what he was doing. Like I was actually prompting him to take down our names and such. I wound up getting a call later yesterday from a different guy apologizing and he actually took my credit card number and stuff. He confirmed me for the dive on July 5 and a different excursion on July 6.

Then a couple hours later he called back and said "is it OK if we move the other excursion to July 7?" I said that was fine because I'd rather have a day to recover between a long dive day and something else anyway.

But now, today, I got an email asking if they could move our dive from July 5 to July 4. We arrive July 3 and I don't really want to have something scheduled the first full day we're there because on the 3rd we have a long day of travel to get there, etc. I replied and said no, the 4th doesn't work for us but we can switch from South Water Caye to another dive if necessary so that we don't have to dive the day after traveling.

I'm starting to be less than impressed with them, even though on TripAdvisor they have rave reviews.

What do you guys think? Are dive operators always this disorganized/flaky? :(

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.
OK, update on my last post:

After I wrote back and said that we didn't want to dive on the 4th, they said they were going to another location for diving on the 5th at a more expensive price (like $50 more per person). I replied and said that was out of our price range and asked if maybe there were other 2 tank dives the week we'd be there at the same price as South Water Caye or cheaper.

She ended up replying and saying, "never mind, we will just do South Water Caye on the 5th."

I guess they were trying to bait and switch to see if they could make more money. I'm glad I stood firm. I'm going to include this whole ordeal on my TripAdvisor review of them after the fact. I mean, I can be flexible to a degree on vacation, but I don't want to dive within 24 hours of a flight, and I have to stay within our budget. :colbert:

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.

TLG James posted:

I know in the far south Caribbean, they're loving everywhere. They went from a somewhat rare sight about 4 years ago, to be in literally every single hole you look in, and at night they're everywhere.

A little late but I'm in Belize with the husband, and we spotted like 823592378598 of them on our 3 tank dive on Friday. However, because all the waters around here are conservation zones, we weren't allowed to kill any. It was a drat shame because my husband was really hoping to do some spear fishing!

I will post pics when we get back to the states. We did South Water Caye, at three different sites within that area. It was beautiful. We didn't even need wet suits because the water was so warm. :3:

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.

jackyl posted:

Oh poo poo, tell me about Belize. We will be there in December for 10 days on Skymiles tickets, but haven't picked a place to stay or a dive shop yet. We are doing the Blue Hole of course, thats why we did our AOW last month, but that is all we know so far. Please give us recommendations!

OK, we didn't do the Blue Hole because we are staying in Placencia (it is a 3 hour boat ride from here, so...umm, yeah). However, I am dying to come back but stay in Caye Caulker maybe, and head out to Blue Hole from there since the boat ride would be much shorter. Only thing is, my husband is terrified of Blue Hole and he doesn't have AOW yet. He might not ever get AOW. Who knows! But I don't think boats go very often to Blue Hole from here, maybe a couple times a month. You'd have to contact different shops here and ask.

Anyway, Placencia is a really cute village. There are a lot of good restaurants and several good resorts to choose from. We are staying at Robert's Grove, but some of the other divers on our boat were at Paradise Beach Resort and were enjoying it. We did our diving with Avadon Divers. They were top notch in their operations and safety, served fresh fruit during surface intervals and fed us BBQ chicken, mac and cheese, and red beans for lunch. Their rental gear was all ScubaPro and in great shape (I didn't pack my own gear--didn't feel like risking it with the airlines).

Some of the other dive shops here are:
-Splash Dive Shop
-Seahorse Dive Shop
-Robert's Grove Dive Center (this was attached to our resort but we opted against them because on TripAdvisor people slammed them for safety hazards and other issues)

But if you're really dead set on Blue Hole, I recommend staying at Caye Caulker, or even at San Pedro. That way you don't have an endless boat ride to get out there. But we have been loving Placencia. I am trying to figure out how we can expat to Belize.

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.

micron posted:

Has anyone here been off the Wilmington NC coast? I've scheduled a dive to the Hyde wreck and apparently there are some pretty big sand tigers. I hope the visibility isn't as bad I think it's gonna be.

I haven't been to the Hyde wreck but I've been to the Charleston (sunk tug boat to create an artificial reef). That was off Little River, SC last September--not that far from Wilmington. We were supposed to go to the Sherman wreck, but didn't due to visibility problems. That dive was with Coastal Scuba out of Myrtle Beach, SC.

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.
Has anyone in this thread been to Utila, Honduras? My internet research today seems to tell me that the island's entire economy is based on scuba diving and divers coming there to stay. I am really interested in going down there semi-long term to finish my divemaster and instructor certifications, once I have enough logged dives (I don't log as much as I should). I figure a few weeks one summer would let me get it all done.

Also, kinda related question--if all the cards I have gotten come from NAUI, would a PADI shop accept those for prerequisite completion?

Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.

helpy posted:

You are correct, Utila is all about scuba diving; there is pretty much fuckall else to do there except drink a lot of booze, get bit by the sand fleas and deep sea fishing I guess (but if I am on a boat, my plan is to be diving). I did my OW with the Utila Dive Center there about 4 years ago and looking back on my experience I can offer the following information: UDC is most definitely a PADI dive mill so they are built for processing a LOT of students through their system. I stayed at the Mango Inn and remember them being in some sort of arrangement with the UDC where students of the UDC were able to get a special rate and an included breakfast plus a free van ride to the dive center in the morning.

It did seem like there were a fair amount of transient backpacker types moving through central america who chose to stop in Utila and stay for a few months to move up the certification chain; so if that is similar to your plan there are probably worse places to act on it than Utila. That being said it is a Caribbean island so the hurricane season can really ruin your day(s). If you are planning to stay there for a longer term of 3-4 months you probably want and will be able to find an apartment or room for let in town once you got settled in.

There is no real airport of which to speak on the island (it is just a paved air strip with a hut) so flights are pretty expensive to get there. I remember the cheapest option to get there was to fly into La Ceiba and take the once (or maybe twice?) daily ferry across, but if the weather looks dodgy I would stay off the ferry unless you have a super strong stomach. There is one guy who runs a 'ferry' from Roatan but I don't recommend Capt Vern and his catamaran. Since you said you are from NC I will add this: there are a fair number of US expats who reside on the island and it receives regular consular support visits from the embassy in Tegucigalpa. I would dive Utila again, but there really is nothing else to do there aside from the diving and it is kind of a pain to get to.

Thank you for all the info. This was more than I expected to get!

I don't think I'd stay longer than a month--maybe a week of fun dives and then the other three weeks doing divemaster/instructor and some more fun dives. Being there longer than that would be financially constraining, and I'm only off in the summer (day job is teaching) so at most, I could stay two months. I also don't want to get bored, with diving and drinking being the only things to do. I would have to save for quite awhile to do an entire summer there. However, I think going all the way to get certified as an instructor would be worth it, because me and my husband are going to be moving to Florida in the intermediate future. It would be fun to instruct or DM as a side job once we are permanently resettled.

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Hip Hoptimus Prime
Jul 7, 2009

Ask me how I gained back all the weight I lost by eating your pets.
Hi diver Goons! Have any of you gone to Caye Caulker, Belize and used that as a base for diving? I'm going to be there for about a week in June. I'm thinking of doing a night dive, a 2 tank trip and a 3 tank trip. I don't want to do Blue Hole this time around though (I haven't dove since last July, so I want to take it easy on this go around and make sure I'm still comfortable).

Any non-Blue Hole recommendations?

I'm open to any and all suggestions. I probably will be heading back there within 12 months of this first trip, if not sooner, so I will have plenty of chances to try different dive sites.

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