Scuba diving

I think quite a few of us go, on here! I've posted a lot of my favorite pics in my gallery, but i just threw on a bunch of photos from Southern California, Monterey Bay, The great barrier reef, Puerto Vallarta, and uhm.. I think that's it...lol...ONLY right?...into a photobucket album. We've been doing it a year now, and I am afraid i will have to write captions and tags later, as it's really late! But i wanted to start a thread.
So, who goes? Where have you gone? How long have you dove? Certifications? Best pics? Let's share!!!

http://s1143.photobucket.com/albums/n640/jaleely/scuba/

Advanced Diver with Nitrox Cert, No pictures handy at the moment but best place I dove was in the Bahamas. I have done a couple of shipwreck dives here in the NW but unfortunately having a family and work have kept me from diving for years.

Worst dive involved a jelly fish wrapping around my regulator near the Jettys in Puget Sound, horrible horrible dive.

Deepest dive would be 130ft.

I have never been but that is the first thing I plan on doing once i get my own house.

That is so cool! I hope to go scuba diving on our honey moon next year! I'm a little afraid of the ocean and all the creepy things in it, so hopefully I don't get too freaked out! :P

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Originally Posted by SlitherinSisters

That is so cool! I hope to go scuba diving on our honey moon next year! I'm a little afraid of the ocean and all the creepy things in it, so hopefully I don't get too freaked out! :P

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SlitherinSisters, you should totally go beforehand! Sports Chalet has free lessons, each third Saturday of the month, and if there's not one of those in your area maybe you can ask around and find something similar. PLUS it's way cheaper to do an open water class BEFORE going on vacation to do it. You can do classes, and get certified just about anywhere there's access, but it's much cheaper to do it "at home".

Okay so the very first time we went in the ocean it was a cold, murky day...the visibility was about FIVE feet. We went in the water...had to float out there, just the hubby and I, while we watched out instructor fix a BCD leak on the beach...for about half an hour...and i got totally seasick! But once we got in, i was scared for like .5 seconds, and then i hit the bottom and was like HEY cool i'm in the OCEAN! lol

Mexico, and Australia on a BAD day have about 130feet of visibility. Southern California on a GOOD day has about 30-50. We have had to hold hands under the water before, just to stay together and see each other, and only barely then!

Okay off on a tangent, but my point is, it's totally fun. There are ranging conditions and if you can learn before you go someplace really special, it will make it more fun to go off on your own together, or just be able to be more confident in a strange place.

We are once class away from master scuba diver...and so in Australia, we got to go and do what we wanted, even though they have strict rules. In Mexico, no matter what, they made us stay with a guide...and he was SO ANNOYING. We couldn't spend time looking at anything, and we had to stay with the group, or he would SQUAWK at us with his undewater squawker and wave us on.

The ONLY time it was okay that we had a guide was the two times we were the only ones WITH the guide, and so he just followed us along, after we told him what we were looking to see. Both times then we actually got to see the animals we wanted.
ANyway, try it out in a pool somewhere, if you can find a place! If you can go 14 feet down in a pool, you can go anywhere. I've been down to 114feet and it feels the same as the deep end of the pool to me, and my husband. (I guess some people say they feel the pressure difference, but we are so bundled up because it's so cold here, it all feels the same to us!)

Buy your own mask. Everything else you can rent and it should be fine!

Oh my gosh and if you love snakes, which i know ya do! You will LOVE the eels. They are ADORABLE.

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Originally Posted by Rat160

Advanced Diver with Nitrox Cert, No pictures handy at the moment but best place I dove was in the Bahamas. I have done a couple of shipwreck dives here in the NW but unfortunately having a family and work have kept me from diving for years.

Worst dive involved a jelly fish wrapping around my regulator near the Jettys in Puget Sound, horrible horrible dive.

Deepest dive would be 130ft.

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Okay so i have my wreck diving cert....but i don't know how i feel about it *lol* it's REALLY creepy. I would much rather go cave diving. I sneakally did a run through in a cave in Australia (bwaha) because i saw it had an exit! THat's not true, i went in and THEN saw it had an exit, so i went all the way through...hehehe
It was long though. I was a bad girl. Totally freaked my hubby out...now to my credit i DID think he saw me go in...i mean hello, the water was like 200 viz and i'm the other big giant PERSON in the water, but for some reason he didn't see me, so when i came out and went around to get him he was flipping out *lol* poor guy.

Oh did i get an ear-full, and i couldn't even hear him!

Okay anyway, so i'm adventurous....but wrecks are scary!

As for jellies, i have seen the small ones, and have turned around to see like a hundred long tentacled ones, which i was veeeeeery careful to avoid on the way back to the boat...but thank goodness i haven't had one on me yet!!!