8 replies to this topic

[Capn Jack]

Now that I have your attention - I wanted to learn about that first dive on your own following certification. Where did you go? What was it like? How did you decide you were ready for the experience? Were you ready?

If you haven't certified yet, or just finished, what do you expect? What do you want from that first dive?

[Blackhawk]

Now that I have your attention - I wanted to learn about that first dive on your own following certification. Where did you go? What was it like? How did you decide you were ready for the experience? Were you ready?

If you haven't certified yet, or just finished, what do you expect? What do you want from that first dive?

The weekend after I got certified. I jumped onto chum and asked for a buddy to head on down to twinlakes and put my c-card to use... No was able to make it that weekend but 2 or 3 weekends later people got interested. 8 of us headed down to twin lakes. I buddied up with reefhound and slipped into the murky water. I stayed by him and we remained above 30ft due to the thermalcline. It was fun and still controlled as we couldn't go below 40 ft. Visibility was ok but at times I could barely see Reef's fins. I believe these low vis (4-15 ft) dives that I've done will make my first deep ocean dive in roatan alot easier.

[drbill]

First dive post certification? Hmmm... I dove for eight years before certification.

First dive after official certification was in the waters of Toyon Bay, Catalina Island, as I led my high school class of advanced marine biologists on their first underwater lab exercise. We weren't aware enough to even think about the liability and other issues, but I never lost a single student (well, except while I was lecturing!).

[Desert_Diver]

Molokini Crater, Maui. Did 3 dives on it 'cos the rest of the island was trashed from a tropical storm w/ massive run-off.

First two were inside the crater, the third dive was a slow drift around the back side at 60 to 80' down, with a *huge* gray? bull? shark another 40-60' below us. The first two were group dives, so I hung with the crowd. The third I'd pre-paid for 2 spots and my brother couldn't dive, so I gave the second spot to my instructor. Turns out he'd NEVER dove Molokini yet!

Ahhhhh, yes, I'll always remember my 'first time'.

[BubbleBoy]

I was sixteen years old, and wanted to try out the used equipment I had just bought from a student at the local college for $25. Two tanks, a backplate and regulator.

I went to the lake where we usually went water skiing and dove solo on the first tank at about 30ft. The next day I got stupid and decided to burn the second tank seeing how deep I could go. I calculated I could make a pop dive to a turnaround point of 170ft without deco. At the time we were taught that a PPO limit of 2.0 was reasonable. We didn't do safety stops in those days either. I had no lights and remember how cold and dark it got as I descended below 100ft. When I got to 150ft. this old snag tree sitting on the bottom started to loom into view. I could barely make it out in the dim light. It was really creepy.

After about 30 seconds on the bottom, I started my ascent. I remember trying to do a free ascent without inhaling. We never practiced that in basic class and I wanted to see if it really worked. I didn't make it the entire way, but I did only take about 4 breaths getting back to the surface. And, I'm still alive - AMAZING!

When I told my parents what I had done they got POed. I remember my Mother kept asking, "I thought you weren't supposed to dive by yourself?". She didn't buy it either when I tried to convince her that rule was only for diving in the ocean.

Edited by BubbleBoy, 12 August 2006 - 11:25 AM.

[Dive_Girl]

I don't really recall the first dive after certification - it was so many years ago, aaack! And I was fortunate that all of my friends were dive professionals, so I never really had to work hard at diving, dive site selecting, dive planning...etc.

So for me the first real dive as a certified diver was the one where I got booted out of the safety of the next. I recall the day my good friend Melanie said,

Mel: "Hey I have to stay on the boat so you are going to dive with that guy."
Me: "What!? Who!? Why!? But I don't know him!"
Mel: "You'll be fine."
Me: "But what if I don't want to dive with that guy?"
Mel:

Needless to say I dove with the guy. He dove like a crazy bumblebee and touched EVERYTHING. I hadn't really been exposed to divers like that, so it was very eye opening for me in many different respects. From that point on I challenged myself to stay out of the nest and dive with different people. That dive challenged me to really think about my previous diving complacency and the personal responsibility regarding diving I needed to start exhibiting going forward. And that dive is the one I truly consider as my "first" real dive after certification.

It was a pivotal learning day for me and one we can crack up about now.

[ScubaDadMiami]

My "buddy" ran out of air on my last certification dive. I didn't have much choice about being paired up with him. So, we did the drill, and made our way back to the bank of the lake. Welcome to the world of diving!

[piscesgirl]

My instructor freaked out about a shark on my last certification dive. Nice way to react in front of a student you are certifying, huh? Basically hauled butt back to the boat and left the students alone. Fortunately, he is no longer teaching scuba.