PADI Open water training in Oahu

[labrys 0]

I'm going to be in Oahu at the end of the month and would really like to get certified while I'm there.

A lot of places offer 3 day courses and that sounds like a good fit for my trip.

Any jumper / divers who can recommend a place?

Owned by Remi #?

[Martini 0]

If you can swing it get certified at home. Then you can spend your time diving on Oahu instead of taking lessons. It will also set you up with your local dive shop at home for future diving. They probably can offer some advice about diving Oahu too.

Sometimes you eat the bear..............

[NWFlyer 2]

Yep, that's what I did before I went to New Zealand. I took Open Water at home... it's nice because you can get the classroom and pool stuff out of the way and not spend your vacation time doing that.

I ended up taking the Advanced Open Water course on my vacation in New Zealand ... was about the same cost as charter/gear rental so I figured I might as well get another PADI cert. (Isn't Put Another Dollar In what it stands for, anwyay? )

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[labrys 0]

Options for getting certified at home are really limited because I live in NE Ohio.

I'm taking the vacation in Hawaii primarily to visit my brother and his family and they're going to be working during the week so I'm looking at getting certified as something to do while I'm filling in time.

Owned by Remi #?

[NWFlyer 2]

Look into whether you can do the classroom/pool stuff at home then.

[labrys 0]

I'm pretty busy at work until I leave for vacation. I'm really not that worried about getting certified before I go...I thought it would be a fun thing to do while I'm on vacation

Owned by Remi #?

[kelpdiver 2]

Quote

I'm pretty busy at work until I leave for vacation. I'm really not that worried about getting certified before I go...I thought it would be a fun thing to do while I'm on vacation

the advantage is that it's probably 3 days for everything in Hawaii. You'd spend that much time on the class/pool alone at home. And the costs of doing OW minus the checkout dives at home and then the checkouts at the resort can be substantially higher, esp in Hawaii.

the disadvantage is that quality of training has a lot to do with time invested. I get friends to complete it somehow, then I start finishing school for them.

BTW, it doesn't have to be PADI. There are absolutely no advantages to it over NAUI or SSI. (if anything, the opposite on a couple minor points)

[namgrunt 0]

my PADI # IS 1096 INSTRUCTOR

1978 man that makes me feel OLD

..

59 YEARS,OVERWEIGHT,BALDIND,X-GRUNT
LAST MIL. JUMP VIET-NAM(QUAN-TRI)
www.dzmemories.com

[labrys 0]

I'm not familiar with the other options for certification so I'll check them out. Thanks for the input.

Most of the places around home charge about $300 for the training / pool dives plus the expense of travelling for a weekend to a quarry near Toledo for the open water part of the training.

Most of the classes I've found in Oahu run around $400 for everything. That seems like a wash to me.

Owned by Remi #?

[labrys 0]

Awesome...So do you have any recommendations?

Owned by Remi #?

[skydiverbrian 0]

labrys.... by reading all your posts on this subject, it seems you've already made up your mind.

In a world full of people, only some want to fly... isn't that crazy! --Seal

[labrys 0]

ummmm...no. i asked for recommendations about where to get training, not whether or not i should.

Owned by Remi #?

[SpeedRacer 1]

Lucky fucker. I got NAUI certified in fucking Gloucester, Massachusetts. In early March. It was snowing when we left the water. And the instructer had a dry suit, but we all had wetsuits.

the water was 31 degrees Fahrenheit, so if it was fresh water, it would've been frozen.

fuck! that leeched all the fun out of scuba diving for me. didn't scuba dive again til years later when I was in Hawaii, & fed a hotdog to a pufferfish.

Speed Racer
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[labrys 0]

lol...the thought of feeding a hotdog to a pufferfish is awesome....that isn't bad for them, is it?

Owned by Remi #?

[SpeedRacer 1]

fish are like a lot of us, or like shane mcqowan or , jimmy buffett. They're here to have a good time & they just don't give a fuck!

Speed Racer
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[labrys 0]

Owned by Remi #?

[adventurechick 0]

good call on the PADI by the way :o)

PMS #449 TPM #80 Muff Brother #3860
SCR #14705 Dirty Sanchez #233

[FlyingJarhead 0]

i got certified in la jolla in san diego during end of june, in 2002... talk about cold. once you get down 50 feet and you hit the thermocline, jebus! on our last dive we were going out to mexico from point loma via boat, we lost a propeller and had to make our boat dive in the kelp beds, we got 65 feet down. afterwards we surfaced and we were all blue... kinda sketchy..

[skydiverbrian 0]

Quote

i asked for recommendations about where to get training, not whether or not i should

That's precisely my point.

Most people have told you to train at home, then dive in HI, but you seem pretty set on training in HI.

It's a given that the water is warmer, clearer, and there are prettier fish in HI than in OH, but take it from those of us who have been where you are now.... all that stuff is a distraction when you're training. There are already enough idiot scuba divers in the world - don't add yourself to the list.

In a world full of people, only some want to fly... isn't that crazy! --Seal

[labrys 0]

And I've made it pretty clear that training at home isn't an option. You can't just "go get" training here. It has to be organized in advance with a group scheduling a trip way out of town for the open water stuff.

I asked for suggestions on places to train in Oahu, not whether or not I should get training somewhere else first. In that respect, yes, I have made up my mind. But that wasn't my question.

Is it your opinion that the quailty of training in Oahu is bad enough that I should just skip the whole thing? That kind of suggestion is one I can understand.

Owned by Remi #?

[skydiverbrian 0]

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Is it your opinion that the quailty of training in Oahu is bad enough that I should just skip the whole thing?

Not at all. But I did some training in a 'paradise' situation (Cozumel to be exact) and while it was fun and informative, it was also rushed and I was so caught up in the environment that I didn't really learn alot.

When I took classes back at home, and dove in a lake, I learned alot more. I attribute that extra learning to more than one condition, but most certainly the surroundings, as there are far fewer interesting distractions in a FL lake than there are in the Caribbean.

I'm guessing that you'd find far fewer interesting distractions in an OH quarry than in the Hawaiian Pacific. For your own benefit, learn breathing off the regulator, clearing your mask, doffing and donning, and buoyancy control when there's nothing else to look at. Then when you get to 'paradise', you'll have all your time to look around, take pictures, and soak up the scenery (pun intended).

There are at least three PADI dive centers less than an hour from Rittman. But PADI is not the only certifying agency. Try NAUI or SSI or even YMCA. Check out this directory.

In a world full of people, only some want to fly... isn't that crazy! --Seal