D.C. Area Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
if you are Scuba certified come in
we are still exploring a beach adventure for May.
some places are good for scuba but we have only done snorkeling. (we got snorkel "sets" as a wedding present!) i know you have to get certified/trained for Scuba. frankly it freaks me out a little.
is it hard to learn? the idea of being that far underwater is a little creepy to me but some of the photos of reefs/sealife we have seen looks like it is a cool experience. how long does it take to get certified?
Re: if you are Scuba certified come in
I'm not PADI certified, but there are resort courses that you can try it in water that's not too deep. I know you start off in a pool, and graduate to water that's generally less than 20 ft.
Belize is known for great snorkeling AND diving, as it has one of the world's best barrier reefs and an atoll to explore. I've only done snorkeling there, but it's amazing!
I got certified 15 years ago in college (it was a gym class) so I am not going to be any help on the length of time, but I am pretty confident I've seen day long classes that end with certification.
It's not hard to learn at all - learning to regulate your breathing and controlling your breath was the hardest part for me. If you do yoga, you probably already have this down. I loved diving, you really felt like you were exploring a whole new world that was closed off to you before.
There is a Living Social Families offer today for a scuba class. It says 10 and up. I don't know if the up has an upper limit - it might be worth asking.
I started my suba certification in college- it was a class and you could get certified at the end, but for whatever reason (laziness) I didn't. You start in a pool, then graduate to other water (ie: a pond or a lake) and then eventually to the ocean.
It isn't hard or scary- you just have to learn to breathe a certain way and to know what the signs of complications are with the dives and what to do.
There's a dive certification place on Duke St. in Alexandria, which is far from you, but depending on how long you have until the trip it could be worth it to get the certification.
My uncle is a serious diver and he loves it. His whole house is decorated with pictures he took while diving and sailing and some of those things are simply breathtaking.
Stand up for something you believe in.
I am PADI certified and honestely it wasn't hard at all. I took the "class" part over the weekend and call it busyness on my part (and cold weather) but I didn't take the "pool/lake dive" until a few months after. This was a couple years ago and unfortunately I haven't kept up with my dives so I need to recertify which is far easier.
It wasn't hard to learn - I have a few of anything covering my nose and mouth where I feel like I can't breath so I expected to have problems but I didn't. The instuctors give you so much information and so many tips that I was comfortable. After I finished my certification I took a trip with work to the Bahama's and did my first dive there. I enjoyed it but had my most fun dive in Turks and Caico's - the reefs there was amazing, wish I would have taken my camera. I have a fascination with sharks which is part of the reason for getting certified - I did actually see 1 when I was on the dive in Turks. It was a group of 5 of us that went down.
The biggest tip I can pass on that was given to me is to NOT freak out when you're underwater especially if you lose your mask or get water in it. You'll go through your oxygen so much faster. I did this my first time and had to go up sooner than the rest of my group.
DH and I are both certified. He got certified 20 years ago and I got certified about 9 years ago so we could dive together. We did a weekend classroom thing, then went right into the pool afterwards and then I did the open water portion about a week or two later. You can do the classroom portions online now. http://www.padi.com/scuba/padi-courses/online-courses/default.aspx
It is totally worth it and we had some amazing experiences together. I'm a bit claustrophobic and was a little freaked out when we started doing it in the pool, but I got used to it and now I'm totally comfortable. I've even gone cave diving, which I thought I would hate, but it was an incredible experience. Do it!!
DH taught SCUBA for many years on Guam and is certified to teach other people to become instructors, so he's been into it for years. His one qualification for us to get married is that I had to try diving, so I got certified about 6 years ago (and DH proceeded to propose under water, but that's another story). DH taught me and did the pool work with me here, and then we did the open water stuff in Grand Cayman.
I thought I would hate diving, but it's so much fun. I was SCARED out of my mind about it, but once you get under there and relax, it's so neat. Like PP said, the key is relaxing and not freaking out. The thing that really helped me relax was seeing other people dive who were way older and more out of shape than me (think 70-year old grandma's). I figure if they can do it and survive, I can too.
DH has gone diving all over the world. I've gone in Grand Cayman, Barbados, Tahiti, Bora Bora, Moorea, and Raiatea. Nothing compares to French Polynesia, but Barbados was decent. Grand Cayman was very easy diving. DH said it was some of the easiest diving/calmest water he's ever seen. The Bahamas also has some good diving and is easy to go get to.
We ended up taking a cruise about 3 years ago and this one of the ports we stopped out. We had ALL day there though (from like 8am until maybe 10pm) so I was able to scuba dive in the am while DH did who knows what and then we went snorkling later in the afternoon. I want to go back to T and C for a vacation and stay there because it was so pretty. The scuba was wonderful (as was the shopping)! Our group found a lot of baracuda which was cool and the fish were amazing. This is also where I saw my first shark so I was super excited.
now i am confused. i saw this post on travel
http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/63906288.aspx
so you don't have to get a full certification to dive? i don't think i would want to "waste" time on vacation doing a class but i didn't even know this was an option.
You can take the vacation certifications which are often easier but you're much more limited on the dive. I think you can only go down about 30 or 40 feet but I could be wrong. If you like the the course and the dive you take on vacation that open water dive can go towards your certification when you get back.