~~01/20/07 PSAS Meeting on diving in the PNW~~

[jesshimom]

Our first meeting of the new year will be held at Bellevue Community College; Room B-104 (Our normal digs) and we will have Aaron (uwscotch here on RF) give a presentation on diving in the Northwest.

His presentation will consist of four parts:

:exclaim: Discussion as well as question and answer about the history, training, and requirements to become a certified SCUBA diver.

:exclaim: The second part will consist of diving in the NorthWest, considerations, and what we see.

:exclaim: The third part will be a slide show of diving in the bathtub of the world, the caribbean.

:exclaim: Finally, the fourth part will consist with an informal discussion of diving equipment and the opportunity to breath from SCUBA equipment.

There will likely have deals for people to sign up for Open Water Certification with Underwater Sports out of any of their 6 locations in the Puget Sound as well as hopefully Equipment purchase deals.

The Earth is only 30% Terra Firma. Come explore the other 70%.

 

[jnarowe]

What a great topic.

 

[jesshimom]

Evite is out. Let me know if you haven't been added OR if you did not receive.

 

[jesshimom]

Anyone want to get together before the meeitng?

What's near BCC within five or ten minutes?

 

[jetaero]

There is the diner right around the corner.

 

[reedman]

For those that are at all interested in diving either here in the NW or anywhere else (like the clear warm waters of the carribean) Aaron is a wealth of knowledge. My wife and I did our cert in June and Aaron was a great help to us both. We have enjoyed diving several times at Alki with Aaron...Should be a great night of fun.

 

[Blazer88]

How much does it cost to get certified? After visiting Jamaica last summer and planning a trip to Belize right now, I would love to dive and see these reefs up close. Snorkeling has been a blast but seeing the second largest reef in the world would be great.

 

[reedman]

It was about $140-150 per person for the class (though you may get a deal at the meeting...not sure). You then need mask, snorkel, fins (boots & gloves here in the NW) for the class. That's it for cert. If you like it you can quickly drop a lot of money on gear, but it is not necessary as you can rent until you are ready. Also, if you only plan to dive warm there is much less gear than diving cold.

I'm sure Aaron will expand on this a lot in the presentation and can answer the questions much better than I can.

 

[RockyHeap]

UW sports also puts their open water certification on sale during their divers fair last weekend of July every year. If you wait for signing up then it is only $89 or 99.

$200 in equipment and a $40 book later, you do classroom work, 4 pool dives, 4 open water dives.

I just passed my 100 dive mark this last christmas over 2 weeks in Fiji.

I've got a ton of dive pictures to share.

 

[Blazer88]

Is UW sports through the University or something? How did you like Belize?

 

[RockyHeap]

PM me for belize info, but getting certified for diving makes every vacation a dive trip, and no regrets. Awesome incredible things to see and experience underwater.

Belize Rocks. Hard Core Indiana Jones jungle plus killer diving.

www.Hamanasi.com
www.cavesbranch.com

 

[Wolfesbane]

UW Sports is short for Underwater Sports, it's a chain of dive stores.

~ Steve

 

[jesshimom]

Correction on the BCC address - typo it is 3000 Landerholm Circle not 2000. I think most everyone knows where it is by now, but I dont want anyone lost driving around that is new to the area.

Colleen

 

[class clown]

Colleen -- I think there is a burger king nearby.. I'd fit right in.. he he...

Rick - dude, I got my certification a couple years ago from underwater sports. Although it is pricey for everything, it is sooooooo worth it.Every new place I dive, I'm amazed at the different types of life. With you being so into photography it would probably open up a whole new world of creatures and animals to photograph that we'd never see in the home aquatics industry.

If your thinking about it, I wouldn't hesitate a second. I'd do it!

 

[Blazer88]

Doh, don't mention the photography thing to me! That's all I need to do is drop a $500 on an underwater case for my Canon, lol. My wife was getting her certification a while back (like 10 years ago) and she had ear decompression issues which wouldn't allow her to dive. So if I got my certification, it would be without her which has been the only thing holding me back.

 

[reedman]

Doh, don't mention the photography thing to me! That's all I need to do is drop a $500 on an underwater case for my Canon, lol. My wife was getting her certification a while back (like 10 years ago) and she had ear decompression issues which wouldn't allow her to dive. So if I got my certification, it would be without her which has been the only thing holding me back.

Oh that's funny....$500 for an underwater photography setup....keep going. If you thought reef keeping was expensive...you aint seen nothing.

 

[Blazer88]

I was just taking a guess at how much an underwater case would cost, looks like they are more like $1500+.

 

[RockyHeap]

For underwater photography gear, I've gone through several $300 cameras and $200 housings, flooded them, lost them, broke them.

I got tired of the "cheap gear" and just dropped $2K on a new photo set-up that I simply love.

All depends on how much you want to spend, but same thing as reef tank gear.......how many $100-200 dollar protien skimmers are out collecting dust in my garage before I dropped real money on a real skimmer?

Same thing applies. Heck my new underwater Strobe alone cost $800 (Ikelite DS-125) Housing $500, strobe arms $200, wide angle lens $300, olympus SP-350 8 meg pixel camera. But here are the results.

At one of the club meetings, I'd like to put on a slide show of my various dive adventures 'round the world. Maybe there will be time at the end of the Jan 20th meeting. I'll bring my laptop if I can make it to the meeting.

 

[Blazer88]

I am really going to do my best to attend this meeting since I've wanted to get certified even before I had an aquarium. I doubt I'll get into underwater photography as I don't think I would ever be able to match the quality in photos that I get above water. It's a little hard to turn off the oceans pumps so things stay still, lol.

 

[hooked82]

I am really going to do my best to attend this meeting since I've wanted to get certified even before I had an aquarium. I doubt I'll get into underwater photography as I don't think I would ever be able to match the quality in photos that I get above water. It's a little hard to turn off the oceans pumps so things stay still, lol.

You just need to ask very polite. I'd say 1 out of 3 times it will cut you some slack, hehe.

I'm still debating on whether or not I will be coming. I would love to learn more as my dad used to dive all the time and it would be cool to take my dad out one day. We'll see.