Discover Scuba Questions

[Kryssa]

Hello!

 

My husband and I are certified divers and are going on a trip with my family to Roatan, Belize, Cozumel, and Costa Maya.

 

My brother and sister are interested in diving. Both are good swimmers and are very comfortable in the water. My sister has done Discover Scuba before but never certified.

 

If they sign up for Discover Scuba, maybe we could join them on their dives? I am guessing we would probably arrange this separate from the cruise-sponsored excursions. Ideally we would join them for their lesson and confined water practice and then go on 2 dives with them (with the instructor). I understand they can only go to 40 ft.

 

What do you think? We are hoping to do this in Costa Maya.

 

Thanks for any suggestions you can give :)

[Dive Master]

Hello!

 

My husband and I are certified divers and are going on a trip with my family to Roatan, Belize, Cozumel, and Costa Maya.

 

My brother and sister are interested in diving. Both are good swimmers and are very comfortable in the water. My sister has done Discover Scuba before but never certified.

 

If they sign up for Discover Scuba, maybe we could join them on their dives? I am guessing we would probably arrange this separate from the cruise-sponsored excursions. Ideally we would join them for their lesson and confined water practice and then go on 2 dives with them (with the instructor). I understand they can only go to 40 ft.

 

What do you think? We are hoping to do this in Costa Maya.

 

Thanks for any suggestions you can give :)

 

 

Eagle Ray Divers in Cozumel could probably do something like this for you.I would give Chellie or Antonio a call and see if they can do it. They are a small "mom and pop" dive operator with older boats but their service and attitude can't be beat.They always come through for me.

[BWDscotty]

Do them the favor of getting them certified before you go. 2 or 3 cruise DSD's and an Open Water course is easily paid for. Certification opens up the potential for much better diving. Of course, this all depends on where they are and how much time is available.

[Capt_BJ]

I have done what you want to do

 

with dau and a friend of her's - twice

 

that's the good news

 

the bad news is that IMHO this works best at a shore dive site you are familiar with and I'm not familair with shore dive aspects of any of your sites

 

In Cayman I talked with Sunset House, a place I've visited many times, and arranged for the girls to do their first dd knowing I could easily watch. Sunset has a pool steps from their shore dive entry so I just rented gear and tagged along when the instructor took them on their dive. Note I DID pre-arrange this just so he knew who this was.

 

Subseqently dau and I took another cruise and as an unplanned event I took her diving in Cozumel on another dd, and to go along w/out pre arrangement I just booked the full disc dive for me too. As the class began they asked if anyone was already certified and I said yes, they asked how many dives, I answered, last dive - two weeks ago . . . and other than giving me rental gear that was the last the instructor looked my way (I stopped logging dives at ... well way more than most people do in their lives)

 

But I digess . . . this can be done. IMHE it is best done at a place with good shore diving but it CAN be arranged other places. But YOU are gonna have to do the leg work. I'll share that I was in Costa Maya in March and there was yet to be a diving facility I'd be comfortable recommending for something like this. I didn't even want to dive or snorkel there.

 

Your experience may vary. However my work area was the Carib' for over 20 years and I've hit a bunch of islands and dove most of those. Carried my dive gear on my ship and guess how I spent my occasional down time? Call it a job perk!

[Kryssa]

Do them the favor of getting them certified before you go. 2 or 3 cruise DSD's and an Open Water course is easily paid for. Certification opens up the potential for much better diving. Of course, this all depends on where they are and how much time is available.

 

Unfortunately, time and location are both issues. My sister is not interested in diving in our Nor Cal 45-55F waters and my brother is a college student in Ithaca, NY. I'm hoping some day they will get certified :)

[divemedic]

I'm a certified diver and my DW and DS's did their discover scuba in a pool with Ambassador Divers in Grand Cayman. We then went to Stingray city to scuba in 10-15' of water for 1 hour with lots of stingrays. No crowds and way better (IMHO) than the snorkel/cattle drive to stingray city. Being able to watch their gracefulness underwater while you sit on the bottom was amazing. It was so nice to see my whole family scuba together and be safe. Now my eldest son is certified and we are doing a western caribbean cruise next feb. Wasn't cheap for the 3 discover scuba and 1 certified but may family still talks about it frequently.. No regrets!!! Make sure you bring an underwater camera!! :)

 

Divemedic

[dacook]

Eagle Ray Divers is hands down the best in Discover Scuba! Antonio and Chellie run the first class business which is only a short 3 minute cab ride from the docks.

 

We just got off of the Allure and did the Discover Scuba again. We'd done this previously on the Carnival Victory.

 

You will have a wonderful "dreamlike experience"!

 

Dan

[scubadiver888]

Kryssa,

 

I think you have two options which might work for you.

 

Option #1 is what you are asking about. Join your friends as they do a discover scuba dive. If you go for this option there is no reason you cannot do it. You can let them know you are certified divers and they can focus on the real DSD students.

 

Option #2 is get your friends to take the class room and pool work at home. They can do this from their separate locations. Then ask the shop for a referral for the open water dives. They then have 12 months to find someone to complete their certification. If the shop who did the class and pool work is PADI then any PADI shop can finish the certification. My shop does this all the time. We have the student do the class work online. When they finish the class work then come in and we do the pool work. We then give them a referral letter. They go to the Caribbean and finish their certification.

[CaribKng]

Unfortunately, time and location are both issues. My sister is not interested in diving in our Nor Cal 45-55F waters and my brother is a college student in Ithaca, NY. I'm hoping some day they will get certified :)

 

They could easily do the coursework beforehand and then do the check out dives with a dive master while on the cruise. There are pros and cons to this, but is another option since they are wanting to do the discover anyway. Good luck.

[SailawayKC]

I did a Discover course with NCL in Roatan and they used Anthony Keys. One of the students was a certified diver with his DD. After class and check out they let him go by himself. They also let him stay down with his DD when I ran out of air and they brought me up. I had so much fun I'm thinking about getting certified for my next cruise in November.

[jt_83]

PADI is offering the classroom information online through their website. Just need to meet up with a local dive shop to do the pool time/open water dives. One near here does it over two weekends (pool 1st weekend, open water 2nd) and I'm in Ohio. I'm sure you'll have more options in California or Ithaca. I know a lot of colleges offer scuba as a phys ed course as well (for your brother whom you said is in school).

[Scuba55]

PADI is offering the classroom information online through their website. Just need to meet up with a local dive shop to do the pool time/open water dives. One near here does it over two weekends (pool 1st weekend, open water 2nd) and I'm in Ohio. I'm sure you'll have more options in California or Ithaca. I know a lot of colleges offer scuba as a phys ed course as well (for your brother whom you said is in school).

 

AND the padi certs have been approved for College credits, check it out,

 

1 credit hour for OW 1 for AOW

 

Dan