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SCUBA Diving


johnoburns

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I've never taken classes here in Austin and IMO, I'd get certified @ a resort/place on the beach. It might cost you a little more, but when I got certified, we would go into the ocean, sit on the sand bed and do skills for 15 mins, then cruise the reef for 20. By the end of the trip, I had like 12 dives in and was really comfy underwater.

Pool diving is about as boring as it gets and plus you get to see all the dead skin and hair that is floating around pools...yuk!

All that being said, getting certified locally is the most cost effective way to go. There are places in town that will certify you for around $200 I think and then you can hit the ocean.

At the very least, plan an ocean trip right after you get done w/your certification.

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I've been diving for a bunch of years and have spent a lot of time in Travis and San Marcos. I would recommend getting certified here and getting 40 or 50 dives under your belt here where at the worst if anything happens you loose a weekend. There is a level of comfort that only comes with experience and in my mind I prefer to invest some time in the lake here so I can make the most of my salt water dives.

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Thanks for the input. Seems like two different ways of looking at it. Both have their merits. It is probably better for me to do it in town as I'm trying to keep costs somewhat down right now.

Any thoughts on some of the local dive shops? Is there a website like ARC for Austin divers?

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Thanks for the input. Seems like two different ways of looking at it. Both have their merits. It is probably better for me to do it in town as I'm trying to keep costs somewhat down right now.

Any thoughts on some of the local dive shops? Is there a website like ARC for Austin divers?

There is a "meetup" group. I think they meet every first week of the month.

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I certified the hard way: in Michigan! It sucked. Lots of pool training, and them my initial open water experience was in old stone quarries that had been flooded. They were cold!!

When I did my advanced certification, I remember passing through 2 thermal clines on the way to be bottom :blink: At the end of the dive, I had red rings around my wrists were my wet suit and gloves didn't quite meet.

Needless to say I didn't do any further diving up there (though I hear the Great Lakes are the best place to see shipwrecks, as the fresh water preserves them). All the rest of my dives have been logged in Florida an the Caribbean.

So on the plus side, you are looking at training in a warmer location :)

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Yeah, or you can take a short cruise or vacation that has a dive option. We did that at the Barrier Reef, it was $70 for first 30 min dive, $30 for the 2nd 30 mins. It doesn't get you a certification, but it lets you get a feel for diving and the equipment to see if it's worth putting more time and money into. I had a buddy that got certified, and after doing all the dives and buying equipment ending up rupturing an eardrum and wasn't able to dive again. Some people just have issues, so like any other hobby, invest slowly.

Oh, and diving was one of the coolest things I've ever done. Snorkeling doesn't even compare!

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:drool: You went on a resort dive at the Great Barrier!

Very nice ... I am somewhat disappointed that I didn't make it over to Australia when I was in New Zealand for a month on our honeymoon :blink:

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My partner and I got certified through Scubaland here in Austin... We have enjoyed both of our classes through them... Open Water and Advanced Open Water...

I would take another class with them in the future.

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:drool: You went on a resort dive at the Great Barrier!

Very nice ... I am somewhat disappointed that I didn't make it over to Australia when I was in New Zealand for a month on our honeymoon :blink:

We were originally taking a 14 day cruise starting in Auckland, NZ, going all the way around the east coast, then up to Melbourne and Sydney. Two days before we flew out the cruise was canceled so we had to re-book everything ourselves. I decided to use it as a chance to go the barrier reef, so we skipped south NZ and flew from Wellington to Brisbane and then up to Cairns. We spent a week there snorkeling and diving on the Great Barrier Reef and it was amazing. I can honestly say, however, that without the reef dive portion I could have spent the entire 14 days in NZ and been happy. It is by far the prettier, more comfortable, and more inexpensive place to visit. We've actually begun looking strongly at moving there sometime in the next five years.

Can you imagine being that close to Fiji and the Reef and having an aquarium?

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We were originally taking a 14 day cruise starting in Auckland, NZ, going all the way around the east coast, then up to Melbourne and Sydney. Two days before we flew out the cruise was canceled so we had to re-book everything ourselves. I decided to use it as a chance to go the barrier reef, so we skipped south NZ and flew from Wellington to Brisbane and then up to Cairns. We spent a week there snorkeling and diving on the Great Barrier Reef and it was amazing. I can honestly say, however, that without the reef dive portion I could have spent the entire 14 days in NZ and been happy. It is by far the prettier, more comfortable, and more inexpensive place to visit. We've actually begun looking strongly at moving there sometime in the next five years.

Can you imagine being that close to Fiji and the Reef and having an aquarium?

Moving there? We are considering that too!

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Moving there? We are considering that too!

Yeah, they have a point system to qualify for immigrating in. IT workers are in high demand, so you get points if you're in that field, more if you have BS or MS degrees, etc. My wife is a licensed school psychologist which is another "in demand" job. Only issue we're having right now is that all our family would be here. However, both sets of parents are near retirement and live in Texas so I'm sure we could convince them to spend summers there. :angry:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just a suggestion to think about.

I got my Open Water PADI certification at Sandals Resort in Jamacia on our vaction back in 2007. You will absolutly love diving. The complete course cost me around 350 bucks, and that included everything (to borrow) and 4 dives on the coral reef. The deepest dive I took during the course was 65ft. Anything over 40 ft and you start loosing color you can see. I have some amature pics if you're interested.

I've also dived here locally here within the past two weeks, it's fun, but you really can't see more than 6-8ft away and it's a green tint. In the ocean, you can see 30-40 ft out.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

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