Finally about to go on my first post cert dive this weekend sans dive buddy. Apparently the dive boat pairs people up. Hopefully I don’t ruin a trip for someone.
I just got wet for the first time in over 10 years. We’re going to Hawaii (Oahu) in a few weeks, and I convinced my 14 yr old son to go through open water cert (he did wonderful), so while I was up there in Hoodsport, WA, one of my friends, who just happens to be a certified dive master, came up and dove with me yesterday.
He was really impressed as I went toe-to-toe with him on air consumption and I haven’t dove in so long. I guess it was like riding a bicycle. I really enjoyed it. Saw 3 wolf eels on each dive for a total of 6 (we dove two different spots, so not the same ones), which is more wolf eels than I’ve seen total in all my years (over 100 dives) of diving before I hung up the wetsuit.
It will be nice to go to Hawaii and dive some warm water!
EDIT: I will add that I took the PADI refresher course in prep for this because it was so long since my last dive, so I wasn’t as unprepared as you might guess ;-)
A week from today we’re heading down to the keys for a family reunion. Dad’s a big diver and got me and my sisters certified while in high school, and I did the same with my kids.
I haven’t actually done a dive in neigh on 20 years, but one of my sisters really got into the sport and became a dive master and then a dive instructor… so she is going to re-certify us all while we’re down there.
I’m actually impressed that a lot of my gear from way back sis still in working shape. Though for some reason, the “shorty” wetsuit that I bought 31 years ago shrunk a lot, so I had to buy a new one.
That’s great your sister can re-certify you.
They keys are awesome, we rented a pontoon boat and loaded up the whole family, a few coolers and had a great time snorkeling once.
On other occasions, I’ve dove it - the only real problem is that air consumption is really low since most of the depths are < 30ft, and I’m one of those divers that likes to get all my value and come up with 500lbs of air, so that equates to 1.5hrs of diving per tank which is a LONG dive. Also, with the shallow depths, maintaining buoyancy for me is really hard at about 10-15 ft for some reason. I kept bobbing to the surface.