Scuba divers among us?

[FreyZI]

The interweb is a sketchy place to find information.  Whether you all are a trustworthy lot is another question, but you haven't led me astray, yet...

Before I had children, I dove as often as I could (from Colorado).  Kids impaired travel time, budget, and destination choices.  Now -- finally -- looking into a family scuba (certification) trip.

Any ideas?  @p6x, you must be a diver.  Places you all like in the Caribbean (reasonably accessible from the northeast US).  Trusted dive operators?

Cheers,

Frey

[p6x]

56 minutes ago, FreyZI said:

The interweb is a sketchy place to find information.  Whether you all are a trustworthy lot is another question, but you haven't led me astray, yet...

Before I had children, I dove as often as I could (from Colorado).  Kids impaired travel time, budget, and destination choices.  Now -- finally -- looking into a family scuba (certification) trip.

Any ideas?  @p6x, you must be a diver.  Places you all like in the Caribbean (reasonably accessible from the northeast US).  Trusted dive operators?

Cheers,

Frey

I used to dive a lot, and trained up to Rescue Diver, but never completed the course as I got transferred for work.

I actually have here, in Houston, my BDC and my Suunto Computer. I probably used them one season.

The best place that I recommend doing diving is Egypt! Sharm El Sheikh is completely geared for diving. The Red Sea is extremely warm, no need for a full suit, and they have something called "Ras Mohamed" dive park where fishing is completely prohibited. This is like paradise under the sea! https://www.circledivers.com/diving-in-sharm-el-sheikh/dive-sites/ras-mohammed

You can get the entire family (Padi) certified easily, and they car really enjoy their time there, even if they don't come with you on the boat. You can snorkel and be surrounded by fishes.

There are some more technical dives. For example I did the Thistlegorm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Thistlegorm which can be challenging if you venture inside the holds. However, there are way too many tourists now. Even when I dove on it, there were plenty of tours around us, and we were kind of being too many in cramped spaces.

Close to Sharm el Sheikh, there is the Blue Hole in Dahab. It is a one day trip. There too, some serious dives. https://www.weseektravel.com/blue-hole-dahab/

Sharm used to be all US Dollars... so you did not need to care about local currency. But after the creation of the EURO, they changed to EUR, because it was 20% higher, and they kept the same rates. So 20USD became 20EUR.

Sharm used to be all Italian, then switched to all Russian tourists. I was the only non-Russian on my diving boat, and I had a few issues with my buddy.

The entire family would love Egypt.

However, because of the events that we know about, you will have to put Egypt on the back burner; I think.

I did a lot of diving in the Mediterranean Sea, France, Spain. Ionian Sea Sicily. Those would be more accessible in the current context. But not as much fun as Egypt....

As far as exotic destinations, I did Mauritius; again, not as much fun as Egypt for a family, and very expensive.

Unfortunately, I did not dive in the USA, because my days in a dry diving suit are over. Probably why I like the Red Sea so much. It is like diving in your bath tub. I have dived in Brittany, the estuary between UK and France, and this really a poor experience. You can't see anything, it is cold.

My last recommendation would be Puerto Madryn in Argentina. The USD is hard currency there. https://www.madrynbuceo.com/

You can fly any of the US major airline to Buenos Aires. If you choose Argentina, I can help you more as I still have an anchor in Buenos Aires myself.

Ideally, you would want to go there in December/January/February, during summer.

 

[mikev]

I've heard good things about Cozumel, although I didn't dive when I was there.   I did do some nice dives in Saint Martin (before kids).  I would not recommend southern Florida unless you drive 40+ miles west into the Gulf.  Viz is not great closer to shore.  

[FreyZI]

4 hours ago, mikev said:

I've heard good things about Cozumel,

Coz was great -- hopefully still is.  I got certified there 25 years ago and went back several times in the noughties.  It is my default at the moment.  Same dive shop is still operating.

[p6x]

By the way, I was getting into rebreathers before I stopped diving. I learned on Dräger, at the time. The school was in Spain.

This is a lot better than diving with Nitrox which I suppose is the standard nowadays, correct?

I got into diving early, because on offshore assignments, in the 80's, I got to spend time with saturation divers on platforms. All these divers worked for COMEX. But then I witnessed an incident, when one of the divers was sick, and they did not want to bring back the other divers in the same saturation dive.

[Gmc28]

interesting topic!  i'll only add that i drug my kids to hawaii to certify, since i just wanted it to be easy and fun, and we scored on both counts (but more than a decade ago).   I certified in Alaska, and loved it, but it was in fact a goat-rope if comparing it to warm water, and I'm just glad I did that when i was younger and had the ignorance to think "why not?"  lots of good diving up there by the way, but its more of a "when in Rome" thing.  though look up "gods pocket" down near Vancouver Island (BC canada) if you want motivation to get into dry suit diving.

Maui and the big island both have multiple reputable shops/schools (padi, etc), and they go to warm, usually clear-viz sites, where the whole thing is easy and enjoyable.  Bring or rent a shorty, but thats all thats needed unless somethign odd is going on with water temps.  Big island had some real nice, clear water dive sites with plenty of coral and fish to gape at while they're learning.

But i'd consider bringing my own regulators, as its seems like as often as not when i rent gear when traveling it's safe enough, but crappy/worn-out enough to be finicky, and less "smooth" for me and certainly for a learner.  like skiing, crappy gear can make it a worse experience for the learner.  For most of the gear who cares, but a mask that fits and you like, and a good regulator setup is stuff you can keep pretty much forever, easily fits in luggage, and you can assure its dialed in before you go.

[FreyZI]

Thanks for the posts.  Hawai'i would be wonderful, but this trip has to be closer, quicker, and cheaper.  Looks like it will be Coz.

One of the kids wears glasses, not contacts, yet, and no desire to wear contacts.  Any of yinz nearsighted?  Because of magnification, he might be okay without any correction.

[audiomick]

It is possible to get diving masks with prescription lenses. May be a bit too much for one trip, though.

[p6x]

1 hour ago, FreyZI said:

Any of yinz nearsighted?

I am.

I used to dive with contact lenses; I don't recommend. You need to be able to remove your mask underwater, put it back on, and expel the water. You can do it wearing contact lenses by closing your eyes until your mask is dry again. Unless someone knocks your mask off, and then you lose the contact.

Later on, they made contacts that you wear and throw away. So it wasn't as big of a deal.

As Audiomick correctly said, you can get prescription masks, but they are not as practical. Because the correction is only localized. Also, when you have younger kids, their shortsighted vision evolves a lot.

 

[FreyZI]

20 hours ago, p6x said:

you can get prescription masks

I looked into this for the kid that doesn't want contacts.  Not as expensive as I'd imagined; they can be had for ~$120 for a TUSA.  I'm sure one could spend many times that for higher end stuff.

[p6x]

3 hours ago, FreyZI said:

I looked into this for the kid that doesn't want contacts.  Not as expensive as I'd imagined; they can be had for ~$120 for a TUSA.  I'm sure one could spend many times that for higher end stuff.

The only issue that prevented me from getting one, is that the correction area is really in front of the eyes. The rest is normal glass. So you need to learn not to move your eyes, but your entire head to look at something not directly in front of you.

I found the contact lenses more practical, until I was no longer able to wear them.