Scuba Diving

[purbeast]

Hey so does anyone have any places in the DMV they recommend going to get SCUBA certified?  I just got back from the Keys and didn't have time to dive or even snorkel since I was with my family and the seas didn't cooperate the day I was going to snorkel, but now I'm going to finally get certified for SCUBA.  My plan is to do the pool and class work around here, and then do the checkout dives either in Grand Cayman in September or take a trip to the Keys over winter time and do them there.

 

I did a bit of research and SPE Dive School (https://www.scubaedu.com/) had good reviews from yelp so for now that is my plan.  I'm going to their free orientation tonight since that is a requirement anyways, plus it will help me get some questions answered.  I've gone back/forth of doing the eLearning versus classroom setting, however I think for the way I learn best a classroom setting where I can ask questions and interact will be the best for it.  I'd be curious though if anyone has any other recommendations for companies.

 

And there's no chance I'm doing my checkout dives at the quarry in VA so no need to even mention those!

Edited July 27, 2018 by purbeast

[nonniey]

Damn another example of the great DMVs you have in the Mid Atlantic . Mulch sales and now diver certifications. Wish Arizona DMVs did as much.

[UKskins]

7 hours ago, purbeast said:

 My plan is to do the pool and class work around here, and then do the checkout dives either in Grand Cayman in September or take a trip to the Keys over winter time and do them there.

 

 I'm going to their free orientation tonight since that is a requirement anyways, plus it will help me get some questions answered.  I've gone back/forth of doing the eLearning versus classroom setting, however I think for the way I learn best a classroom setting where I can ask questions and interact will be the best for it.  I'd be curious though if anyone has any other recommendations for companies.

 

And there's no chance I'm doing my checkout dives at the quarry in VA so no need to even mention those!

 

I chose to do my certification in a classroom setting for all the reasons you outline - can't overstate how glad I am that I did so. E-learning just doesn't give you the same preparation. Can't recommend any companies as I'm not in the DMV.

 

Definitely do your checkout dives somewhere memorable. 

 

I certified in Egypt, so I did all the skills learning in the ocean rather than a pool and that was amazing, but it did sacrifice 3/4 days of my vacation (although we did skills in the morning and then did one or two of the checkout dives in the afternoon so that broke it up a bit.

 

Good luck dude, you won't regret it!

[purbeast]

3 hours ago, UKskins said:

 

I chose to do my certification in a classroom setting for all the reasons you outline - can't overstate how glad I am that I did so. E-learning just doesn't give you the same preparation. Can't recommend any companies as I'm not in the DMV.

 

Definitely do your checkout dives somewhere memorable. 

 

I certified in Egypt, so I did all the skills learning in the ocean rather than a pool and that was amazing, but it did sacrifice 3/4 days of my vacation (although we did skills in the morning and then did one or two of the checkout dives in the afternoon so that broke it up a bit.

 

Good luck dude, you won't regret it!

I went to the orientation thing tonight and I'm pretty convinced that I'd like to do the dive trip they do to Grand Cayman but with the class.  That's where I would do my referral dive anyways, but it would be during a vacation with my wife and kid in September, so it would take up time together.  But with the class trip, it's basically a dive trip where that's the focus.  And they also do an advanced certification if you want too that is a couple hundred bucks more, which I'd maybe do.

 

At this point though my main concern is the 10 minutes of treading you have to do in the pool lol.  I suck at treading and am just a dense dude who doesn't float as I'm like 200lbs but a fit/athletic 200lbs.  

[UKskins]

Haha, you will manage it I'm sure bro. Yeah, sounds like it would be worth it to do it as a separate trip - that way you get to meet people who dive and you're not feeling guilty the whole time for missing out on family time!

 

My advice would be to leave the Advanced certification until you have some dive experience. I'm on around 50 dives logged so far and haven't done my advanced yet. My partner has about the same amount of dives logged and she is still not feeling that she is ready to do her advanced certification. I feel like I'm ready to do it, but I think some of the certification makes more sense to do after you have some dive experience - Open Water will give you access to everything you need to dive, and you can dive without a guide, go down to 30 metres etc.  It's a case of running before you can walk to do advanced without any dive experience imo.

 

Advanced will allow you to dive some of the more tricky sites, and do a couple of specialisms but to be honest until you've logged 20+ dives generic dives I wouldn't consider doing any sites that require Advanced certification anyway, and the specialisms won't have as much value because you'll be focussing on getting the basics right - buoyancy, monitoring gauges/dive computer/pressurising correctly etc. I found my first 10 dives were really concentrated on that stuff and then I started to relax and it became a bit more natural and I could enjoy it more. That's just my 2 cents though mate.

 

One thing that is worth doing before you head out to Cayman is to check what kind of fish they get there and try to learn some of them, otherwise you don't know what you're looking at, and it won't make sense when they try to tell you! The divemaster will have hand signals for pointing out different types of fish, and if you don't know what you're looking for when they do it, then you can miss some cool stuff which is gone in the blink of an eye. So it's worth getting an idea of what the fish look like so when they show you the symbols for them, you know what to look out for,

[purbeast]

Good info on the advanced stuff and it makes total sense.  I've done SCUBA 2 times before (one 1 tank dive, and then two 1 tank dives another time) and I'm somewhat comfortable already however I'm doing the certification so that I can get really comfortable doing it but you're right, I don't know if I'd be that comfortable that quickly to do some of those.  The 5 extra dives included a wall dive, a wreck dive, a buoyancy control, navigation, and one other type.

 

I'm a big time snorkeler so I'm pretty familiar with the different types of fish that are in the Caribbean already so when they point out fish I should be pretty familiar with what they are looking at.  I do have one of the more popular fish ID books already though so I could definitely brush up on that as well for the more uncommon fish that are down there.

[TheGreatBuzz]

Just my opinion but I would wait a bit for the awesome trips until you get more experience.  It will make them a lot more enjoyable.  My wife and I went to Palau after about 20 logged dives.  Don't get me wrong, it was awesome.  But we weren't as graceful and struggled with things like buoyancy when we could have been focusing on the environment.  We then went to Roatan when we had several hundred dives logged.  The act of diving itself is second nature by that point.  All those skills you do without even thinking.  It made the trip much better.

 

Just my $.02

[UKskins]

4 hours ago, purbeast said:

Good info on the advanced stuff and it makes total sense.  I've done SCUBA 2 times before (one 1 tank dive, and then two 1 tank dives another time) and I'm somewhat comfortable already however I'm doing the certification so that I can get really comfortable doing it but you're right, I don't know if I'd be that comfortable that quickly to do some of those.  The 5 extra dives included a wall dive, a wreck dive, a buoyancy control, navigation, and one other type.

 

I'm a big time snorkeler so I'm pretty familiar with the different types of fish that are in the Caribbean already so when they point out fish I should be pretty familiar with what they are looking at.  I do have one of the more popular fish ID books already though so I could definitely brush up on that as well for the more uncommon fish that are down there.

 

That's a nice array for the 5 dives. We were fortunate due to doing it in the Red Sea, our 4th dives ever were on a reef voted 3rd best in the world by Sportdiver magazine. The main wreck dives there are too deep for Open Water certification though,

 

Definitely sounds like you have a good grounding, and Fish ID books are always a plus. I started as a complete novice so spent the first week trying to get to grips IDing fish as well as the scuba basics.... Good luck anyway mate - let us know how you get on.

[purbeast]

Will do!

 

The plan right now is to do the weekend course August 18th and 19th, and then when I go to Grand Cayman with my wife and son in September to do the checkout dives.  My wife is cool with me taking 2 mornings to go do the dives.  If I could find a friend to go with I'd try to weasel my wife into being cool with me going with a buddy on the class trip to Grand Cayman that they do every month strictly to dive.

 

But I am not signing up just yet.  

 

In the orientation the instructor said that with the medical waiver form, regardless of you answering NO to every question, that for the checkout dives, you still need a medical release form signed by your doctor.  Well I have asthma and have had it my whole life, but for the past 10-15 years it's been EXTREMELY mild, to the point that I haven't used my inhaler in years and I use Advair not even every day.  I really just use it before I workout, and it's more preventitive and in my gym bag all the time so I use it.  I'll go 3 days on the weekend without even using it though and be fine.  Additionally I have not had an "asthma attack" in probably 2 decades.

 

All that said, I did a dive physical with someone at Hopkins like 7 years ago when I wanted to do this.  It involved a lot of tests and had to get xray's of my chest and like a checklist of 8 things.  After doing all of that he basically concluded that with how I treat my asthma I don't clinically even have asthma.  That said, he still would not sign my waiver for some reason, probably just to cover his ass IN CASE something happened.  But he did tell me that I can answer NO to that question on the form since I don't have it based on those tests.  Lookin back I really wish I still had that form signed by him because I wouldn't even have this problem right now, but whatever, he was a one off doctor I see.

 

So I'm hoping at my appointment next Tuesday (my asthma doc) that I can get a pass on the waiver and they can sign it for me.  If they can't sign it for me, I'm going to try and go to my general physician, which I don't even have one right now, so I'll have to do get one.  But I'm really hoping that my asthma doc will sign it for me after I go over this with them in details.  I'm even going to bring my divers log book that I have that shows I've dove twice last year, just so they see I've already dove and was fine.  

 

Also looking at the waiver, the "risk" level is "relative" which to me means that the risk is really only there just based on how severe the asthma is and how it's being treated.

[UKskins]

You should be fine with Asthma I would think if it is mild. Like you say, if not then try a different doctor! We never had to get a medical release signed by a doctor, so you still have the option of doing the certification outside of the US where that wouldn't be a requirement, even if you can't find a doctor willing to sign it - you know your limits better than anyone - I would think that Cayman is probably more relaxed on that one so if you went with a company out there I doubt you'd need a signed letter from doc, but obviously that would leave you having to spend more time out there doing the skills etc of your certification so may have to arrange a trip to do it where it wouldn't ruin your family vacation.

 

The diving in Cayman looks pretty spectacular from what I've seen online - we're thinking about a Caribbean trip next year - We were thinking about going to Trinidad or Cuba or somewhere but maybe we'll have a look at Cayman too before we make a decision!

[purbeast]

@UKskins well the instructor said that regardless where you do the final dives you need the medical waiver signed.  He organizes a class trip to Grand Cayman so that is his normal spot he goes to which I'm guessing requires it.  You mentioned you got certified a while back I think so maybe things have just changed since then?  I know back in the mid 90's that if you had asthma at all they would NOT let you dive, but things have changed the past 2 decades so they've changed their thought process on that.

 

While I've never dove in Grand Cayman the snorkeling there was fantastic.  It's probably the clearest water I've ever been in my entire life too and I've been to a decent variety of places.  From all accounts I've heard as well, it's one of the best places to SCUBA in the Caribbean.

[Skinsfan1311]

1 hour ago, purbeast said:

@UKskins well the instructor said that regardless where you do the final dives you need the medical waiver signed.  He organizes a class trip to Grand Cayman so that is his normal spot he goes to which I'm guessing requires it.  You mentioned you got certified a while back I think so maybe things have just changed since then?  I know back in the mid 90's that if you had asthma at all they would NOT let you dive, but things have changed the past 2 decades so they've changed their thought process on that.

 

While I've never dove in Grand Cayman the snorkeling there was fantastic.  It's probably the clearest water I've ever been in my entire life too and I've been to a decent variety of places.  From all accounts I've heard as well, it's one of the best places to SCUBA in the Caribbean.

We love Grand Cayman. Been there a few times, for week-long trips. We always stay on the East End, which has the best dive spots, IMHO. Our favorite dive outfit is Ocean Frontiers.   

[purbeast]

4 minutes ago, Skinsfan1311 said:

We love Grand Cayman. Been there a few times, for week-long trips. We always stay on the East End, which has the best dive spots, IMHO. Our favorite dive outfit is Ocean Frontiers.   

Cool thanks for the info.  We're going back for our 2nd time in September and staying on SMB again.  But we're there for a week this time and plan on venturing out around the island more this time, including the east side as well as up north at Rum Point.

[Skinsfan1311]

2 minutes ago, purbeast said:

Cool thanks for the info.  We're going back for our 2nd time in September and staying on SMB again.  But we're there for a week this time and plan on venturing out around the island more this time, including the east side as well as up north at Rum Point.

Avoid Rum Pointe on cruise ship days. There's a cruise ship calendar out there, (Google it), that tells you what days, and which ships, are in port.   Rent a car, it's an easy island to get around in, and explore. I cannot reccomend Ocean Frontiers highly enough, they're the best dive-op on the island.

[purbeast]

3 minutes ago, Skinsfan1311 said:

Avoid Rum Pointe on cruise ship days. There's a cruise ship calendar out there, (Google it), that tells you what days, and which ships, are in port.   Rent a car, it's an easy island to get around in, and explore. I cannot reccomend Ocean Frontiers highly enough, they're the best dive-op on the island.

Cool I will look into them when doing my 4 certification dives.  

 

And yeah we rented a car last time and loved driving around to different beaches with no crowds.  We also loved the food and did not have 1 bad meal and they were all pretty much fantastic.  I've been hearing that Rum Point has had some sea weed issues recently too so I'm going to be on the lookout for that too.  We were going to go on our last day there when we were there last year but the weather looked a bit iffy up there, and I also read we can't bring our own coolers and food/drinks there so that turned me off a bit.

[Skinsfan1311]

38 minutes ago, purbeast said:

Cool I will look into them when doing my 4 certification dives.  

 

And yeah we rented a car last time and loved driving around to different beaches with no crowds.  We also loved the food and did not have 1 bad meal and they were all pretty much fantastic.  I've been hearing that Rum Point has had some sea weed issues recently too so I'm going to be on the lookout for that too.  We were going to go on our last day there when we were there last year but the weather looked a bit iffy up there, and I also read we can't bring our own coolers and food/drinks there so that turned me off a bit.

If you go with Ocean Frontiers,  I suggest booking soon, as they're a popular dive-op. That, and the dives have to be booked early enough in your trip to avoid flying too soon after the last dive.  Food is good at Rum Pointe, especially the fried grouper sandwich. I brought a small, collapsible cooler, and snacks, and had no issues, but you should at least buy a few drinks there. If you dive every day, watch the alcohol. It dehydrates, and dehydration is big factor in getting bent. 

Edited August 1, 2018 by Skinsfan1311

[purbeast]

20 minutes ago, Skinsfan1311 said:

If you go with Ocean Frontiers,  I suggest booking soon, as they're a popular dive-op. That, and the dives have to be booked early enough in your trip to avoid flying too soon after the last dive.  Food is good at Rum Pointe, especially the fried grouper sandwich. I brought a small, collapsible cooler, and snacks, and had no issues, but you should at least buy a few drinks there. If you dive every day, watch the alcohol. It dehydrates, and dehydration is big factor in getting bent. 

We are going Saturday to Saturday so I plan on doing my dives most likely on Sunday and Monday.  Monday we are planning on getting professional pictures taken for our 10 year anniversary so I'll have to make sure it's a morning dive.  I'm still waiting on booking anything until I get my medical waiver signed and my appointment isn't until next Tuesday so hopefully they sign it.  I also (as of now) don't plan on doing more dives other than the 4 certification dives while on this trip, unless I did one more at Stingray City or something.

 

That's good to know that you can bring a small cooler into Rum Point, that was my plan but I read you can't.  Maybe they have signs but don't enforce it, kind of like how beaches in the US say no alcohol but everyone does it anyways.

[Skinsfan1311]

34 minutes ago, purbeast said:

We are going Saturday to Saturday so I plan on doing my dives most likely on Sunday and Monday.  Monday we are planning on getting professional pictures taken for our 10 year anniversary so I'll have to make sure it's a morning dive.  I'm still waiting on booking anything until I get my medical waiver signed and my appointment isn't until next Tuesday so hopefully they sign it.  I also (as of now) don't plan on doing more dives other than the 4 certification dives while on this trip, unless I did one more at Stingray City or something.

 

That's good to know that you can bring a small cooler into Rum Point, that was my plan but I read you can't.  Maybe they have signs but don't enforce it, kind of like how beaches in the US say no alcohol but everyone does it anyways.

Congratulations on 10 years!

[UKskins]

Congrats on the anniversary purbeast! And Rick, I didn't know you were a diver?! Maybe we need to change our vacation plans from a DMV trip to a scuba meet up! ??

[purbeast]

I went to my current asthma/allergy doc and did the PFT and other stuff, and she wasn't really aware of this medical waiver so she would not immediately sign it. She said she could recommend me to a pulmonary specialist though and that I could also do an exercise challenge (where you do PFT before and after treadmill running) and that she would do a bit more research on the subject.

 

Well the next day (yesterday) she called me and said that even if I was fine on the exercise test she wouldn't clear me simply because she doesn't fully understand and know the risks involved. Rather she said she'd give a note or something saying that my asthma symptoms do not affect exercise and that I'm fit in that sense, so that if I go to a pulmonary specialist and do some tests there that it would kind of just be more evidence. She did recommend a pulmonary doctor to see though and I now have an appointment next Wednesday with them, and I explained to them that I want to get SCUBA certified and they have some tests they will run.

 

I actually even found my old post on the SCUBA boards from 2011 when I got my initial dive physical, which was an interested read with details I did not remember, if anyone is interested in reading lol.

 

https://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/asthmatic-looking-to-scuba-dive-had-a-dive-physical-today.366381/

 

Looking back on that it pisses me off even more that the doc didn't medically clear me, and it pisses me off that I never went back after my first successful SCUBA dive.

 

I believe the methadone test is the one that I'm going to have next week though, or at least part of it.

[purbeast]

Well I went to the pulmonoligist yesterday  but unfortunately he didn't sign the waiver (yet) because he is requiring me to get 3 different PFT's at the hospital as well as chest X-rays. I did this 6 minute walking test which I easily passed but he needs more. I am pretty confident that as long as my tests come back good he will sign off, he seemed very reasonable about it all and printed this sheet out for me (which I had read before):

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25666876

 

He said that his goal is to get me a signed waiver with verbal promises by me that - 1, I don't SCUBA having used my inhaler less than 48 hours prior (which shouldn't be a problem since I haven't used it in 10 years) and 2, to not use a hookah less than 48 hours prior (which I do maybe once or twice a month with friends) so that won't be an issue.

 

That said, I unfortunately will not be able to sign up to the class this weekend, which means I won't be able to do my checkout dives when in Grand Cayman next month, so it's a bit disappointing, but I'm thinking I will take the class in October and maybe go with the class on a trip to Grand Cayman in December, if my wife is okay with that lol.

[UKskins]

That's frustrating but at least things are still progressing. What a pain in the neck though, hopefully you'll get it sorted reasonably soon!! 

 

I'm determined to get diving again next year - thinking maybe somewhere in Caribbean for Easter holidays (I'm a teacher). Need to have a proper look though to see where would be good at that time of year.

[Skinsfan1311]

3 hours ago, purbeast said:

Well I went to the pulmonoligist yesterday  but unfortunately he didn't sign the waiver (yet) because he is requiring me to get 3 different PFT's at the hospital as well as chest X-rays. I did this 6 minute walking test which I easily passed but he needs more. I am pretty confident that as long as my tests come back good he will sign off, he seemed very reasonable about it all and printed this sheet out for me (which I had read before):

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25666876

 

He said that his goal is to get me a signed waiver with verbal promises by me that - 1, I don't SCUBA having used my inhaler less than 48 hours prior (which shouldn't be a problem since I haven't used it in 10 years) and 2, to not use a hookah less than 48 hours prior (which I do maybe once or twice a month with friends) so that won't be an issue.

 

That said, I unfortunately will not be able to sign up to the class this weekend, which means I won't be able to do my checkout dives when in Grand Cayman next month, so it's a bit disappointing, but I'm thinking I will take the class in October and maybe go with the class on a trip to Grand Cayman in December, if my wife is okay with that lol.

Better safe than sorry

[purbeast]

5 hours ago, Skinsfan1311 said:

Better safe than sorry

Yeah I'm not really too concerned about it at this point considering the doctor I talked to 7 years ago and my asthma is the same if not better now.  As mentioned I've done SCUBA already and was fine and I probably will do 1 dive while in Grand Cayman even without my certification.  I'm just trying to look at the schedule for the classes and they are all on weekends that the Redskins play on Sunday except on September 29th/30th.  That is their bye week so I may try to take it that weekend, which is the weekend after I get back from Grand Cayman so that will be a few busy weeks for me.

 

Then I may try to take the trip to Grand Cayman with the class in mid October to get certified, IF my wife is cool with that, but I don't know how she'll like that if I did that lol.

 

I just got my chest X-ray and my PFT tests at the Shady Grove hostpital are schedule for next Wednesday which was the earliest they could get me in.  

Edited August 16, 2018 by purbeast

[purbeast]

I did my PFT and blood tests today at Shady Grove.  The only thing I couldn't do was the exercise PFT because they don't have equipment for it, so I'm waiting to see what my doctor says about my results before we decide if he wants me to do one.  

 

The guy who did my tests said that my results are higher (good in this case) than the average person who doesn't have asthma.  He said that if I didn't tell him, he never would have guessed I had asthma.  

 

I just hope I don't have to go to Holy Cross to get the exercise PFT done, this has been a huge hassle.