Beginners Scuba in St. Thomas

[chicka31]

Can anyone tell me how much swimming experience one needs to do the beginners scuba excursion in St. Thomas. is it waist deep or do you actually go out on a boat?:)

[WilliamK99]

Can anyone tell me how much swimming experience one needs to do the beginners scuba excursion in St. Thomas. is it waist deep or do you actually go out on a boat?:)

 

I have scuba dived before and although they don't advertise this... No swimming experience is really necesarry when it comes to scuba diving, although it does effect you mentally if you are an inexperienced swimmer. With scuba diving, your suit helps keep you afloat, and you can put more/less air in your suit to "sink" yourself... Once underwater, you can move with ease even if you can't swim.

 

When I went Scuba Diving the first time it was with a group of people, some non swimmers, and after the initial fear was conquered, they went just as deep as the swimmers.

[room010]

I don't know about St Thomas specifically but generally speaking while you don't need to be a super strong swimmer in order to scuba dive, you do need to be reasonably comfortable and confident in and under the water to get the most from the experience.

[wasiii]

.....you don't need to know how to swim, but it probably would help.

 

My personal experience was that at first, I felt a little claustrophobic under the water. After about 10 minutes or so I got used to it. The one thing you have to remember is that you have to exhale as much as you inhale. Your lungs act like balloons, so if you fill them up and don't exhale, you will start to rise in the water. It's weird listening to the Darth Vader breathing under water, but after getting used to it, I just kept on thinking to myself, "Luke, I am you father" and everything was Okay.

 

;)

 

wasiii

[zqvol]

Can anyone tell me how much swimming experience one needs to do the beginners scuba excursion in St. Thomas. is it waist deep or do you actually go out on a boat?:)

 

If you are not a strong swimmer don't even think about it. You end up going down between 25 and 35 feet.

 

If you have to ask this question this is not an activity you should engage in, but hey, it's your life.

[WilliamK99]

If you are not a strong swimmer don't even think about it. You end up going down between 25 and 35 feet.

 

If you have to ask this question this is not an activity you should engage in, but hey, it's your life.

 

I disagree, sure it's probably more dangerous if you lack swimming experience, but there are riskier things you can do, such as parasailing or zip lining. With scuba diving, you have a "buddy", and can baically "sink" at your own pace.

 

The first time I went scuba diving, I got down about 6 feet, had problems breathing and resurfaced. Each time I went further and further down until I was comfortable with breathing underwater. I am far from a strong swimmer and once I got fully accustomed to the depth, I was swimming better than I ever had before...

[chicka31]

Thanks for all the responses.:)

[ukdave0]

I just got back from a certified dive with Blue Water Divers out of St Thomas. The boat also had along 2 introductory divers being trained. They took them down to the top of a Navy barge (25 feet) on the 1st dive. The second dive spot was about 50 feet deep, the intro divers were allowed to go down to about 25 feet.

[loveboater99]

I did my first dive with Coki Beach Dive Club. They have a good beginners dive right off of the beach. The class is easy to follow and the dive starts off in the shallows and gradually gets deeper over the reef. We had a great time with the dive staff. I'm going back in March to get certified.

 

Here's a video clip I posted here before and also a website of the folks who shoot video at Coki. You can see the reef and all of the wildlife there on their Youtube Channel.

 

Beginner Dive Clip

http://www.youtube.com/user/loveboater99

 

DiveHDV Youtube Channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/DiveHDV