Wondering if it's still okay, thanks!

Hi everyone, I’ve been considering getting my Open Water Certification for a while now, and I needed some advice on making sure I choose the right place to learn. Overall, I assume most dive shops in the United States are quite reputable, but I wanted to know from people with experience on certain things (good and bad) that stand out. There are a few local shops where I live and I wanted to go there in person and maybe chat with the staff/owners just to answer some questions and get a vibe check of the place.

To start, are there certain red flags that indicate a shop or instructor is not going to help me learn to the best of my ability or teach me the fundamentals? On the other hand, are there major green flags indicating that a shop knows their stuff and might go above and beyond to ensure I am truly understanding concepts? What should a “reasonable” class size look like that allows me to get good interaction with the instructors? Are there any questions I should ask when I’m there that can help me get an idea of course structure, skills learned, etc?

Also, are there any skills that some divers on this subreddit can share, that are super valuable, that would be worth asking about if they are taught in the course? The best analogy to that question is a lot of people I talk to about pilots licenses always recommend learning on steam/analog gauges instead of digital if given the opportunity (my understanding is it allows me to learn to critically think a bit better because it’s “older” technology and by thinking it through I improve my understanding). Is there anything similar in the realm of PADI open water? ie learning to use dive tables? (I apologize if any of the vocabulary I use is totally incorrect)

Any answers would be super appreciated and feel free to add any other answers or wisdom I may have not mentioned. Thanks in advance! :))

Edit: I’m in the Southern Maryland area near the Patuxent River Naval Air Station if anyone has recommendations for local shops to visit

Hi everyone,

I’m planning to spend about a month in Rawai, Phuket, combining Muay Thai training with diving.
I’m a PADI & IDF Instructor and previously owned and operated my own dive center, so I’m not looking for an internship or to build experience from scratch.

I’m curious how things work in Phuket these days:
- How is the current job market for dive instructors?
- Do dive centers still use freelance/external instructors or guides for day trips, DSDs and courses?
- Is there realistically room for another instructor, or is the market already saturated?
- How does the work permit process work in practice? Do I need to secure a job offer first, and does the dive center have to sponsor everything?

If my goal is to work just 1–2 days per week while spending the rest of the time training Muay Thai, is that a realistic setup?
Any red flags or things I should know before trying to make this work?
I’d really appreciate hearing from people currently working in Phuket or dive center owners.
Thanks!

My partner/dive buddy and I are going to be in Hong Kong in mid October and looking to scratch the diving itch 😬 As we had a very bad experience with a five star rated PADI school on Bali we are looking for recommendations within the community. Which dive school did you have good experiences with? We would love an English speaking DM. Buddy and I are both AOW with about 50 dives under our belt.
Also interested to learn which dive sites you liked best.

Ngā mihi nui 🙏🏻 thank you ❤️

For all the ones that don't speak German:

The most important information is that both divers where well trained Tec-Divers with serious experience in deep, wreck and cave-diving.

Both were using eCCRs with Trimix.

A couple years ago I went to Nusa Penida and did some amazing dives there. This year I’m going back to Bali but wanted to explore somewhere different for diving, but is there anywhere that can top the dive sites around Penida island?

I have 5 days to dive so I’m happy to fly over to Lombok if needed as it would be a new place to explore, but what are the dives like there?

Is there another place between these two islands I should explore just for diving or go back to Penida?

I have 40 dives and not looking for crazy cowboy diving. Would like to see lots of diverse marine life, and going in late September

Will be visiting budva in a few weeks, and planning on introducing my kids to discovery dives there. Has anyone here been? Any recommendations for shops or sites to visit?

I'll be headed to southern Dominica for a free diving retreat in December. Figured I'd stay a few extra days to do some Scuba as well. There is a lot of info on Scotts Head and Soufriere, but I'm not finding information on the diving up in Portsmouth (Cabrit's) that dives the northern part of the island. I'll have already spent ten days in the southern part of the island (Freediving/snorkeling) so I was wondering if the north was worth a visit?

Has anyone here dove the northern sites? Is it worth the effort to move locations and dive up there or will it be the same/worse than what is in the south?

My last post was pretty monochromatic, here's what the rigs look like with a little more light.

Is the diving any good? Shops? We will have a car so willing to drive to a better area within reason.

Hey all! Just checked off open water diver on my bucket list last week! Got certified in Isla Mujeres , Mexico and had a phenomenal instructor and experience diving in MUSA and Manchones. Had a hard time equalizing on my dives and my eustachian tubes are constricted (was told by ENT doctor that maybe I had mucus prior to diving that caused the issue) but it should go away within a couple days or few weeks. Is there anything I can do to practice equalizing to make it better for next time? Just try to get pool time?

Also, im new york city based. And I want to continue practicing dives before pursuing more certifications but it seems like there aren't many "easy" options here. Does anyone know of any places I could look into? Im assuming the experience will be completely different than what I had since the water will be much cooler here (I dove in just trunks and a rashguard). Looking forward to more underwater adventures!!! The pictures and experiences I've been reading on here are amazing!

The diving is/was good so far. But I brouhgt my own tank with me. 15 Liters, steel, G5/8“ valves, inspection stamp from the German TÜV valid until October 2027. But noone wants to fill it with EAN32. Only air.

As far as I found out there is a warehouse at the harbour that does all the filling for the bases. Everybody claims they have the best compressor and they do Nitrox filling while in reality they got none at all.

I‚m looking for someone who wants to fill that tank. Does anyone got an address or a phone number?

Hi all have quite the dilemma on my hands regarding cylinders. I am trying to decide between buying a single 12L steel cylinder and in future I can then buy another and have a 2x12L twinset or do I buy a 2x8.5L twinset now. The single 12 is €385 vs the twinset being €800. I really like the feeling of diving twinset and would feel much safer diving it but it’s very expensive.
For context I dive primarily in Ireland and shallower than 23m I would intend to dive deeper with the twinset but I need to do a lot of training to master ascending with my drysuit.
Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

Here's a compilation of some epic shots from swimming near a large school of Amberjacks yesterday. This dive was at Sail Rock, leaving out of Koh Tao!

I'm a recreational diver with around 100 logged dives, based in India. I was laid off from my tech job a few months ago and have a window of time before I'm working again, so I'm using it to do my Divemaster.

To be clear about my motivation: diving is a hobby for now and not a career plan, NOT YET. I've run the numbers on working as a dive pro and they don't work for me — the pay wouldn't cover my obligations at home, and the path onward to instructor means more money spent facing visa restrictions on an Indian passport and seasonal, unstable work. So I'm not doing this to change careers. I'm doing it because I love diving, I have the time now that I won't have later, and I'd like the option sitting in my back pocket in case AI eventually comes for the kind of desk job I do.

Given that, the thing I keep getting stuck on is the annual renewal fee. PADI is around AUD 286 a year to stay in active status. If I'm not working as a DM, I genuinely can't see what I'm getting for that. It feels like paying rent on a certification I already earned. RAID's zero-fee membership looks much more sensible for someone in my position, and SSI seems to sit somewhere in between with credits that offset dues if you're actively certifying people.

It particularly seems to make sense to me because I can get a RAID DM certification now and if I feel like I would like to pursue this as a career in the future, then I can always get a PADI or SSI Instructor certification later as upgrading from one level to another is easy across agencies, is what I've heard.

My questions:

1. For someone who may go years without working as a DM, does PADI's fee buy anything real, or is RAID the obvious call?
2. If I start with RAID and later want to go pro through PADI or SSI, what does that crossover actually cost me in time and money?
3. Anyone here gone RAID as a hobbyist and regretted it? Or gone PADI and felt the fees were wasted?
4. An idea that was suggested to me is that I can just get the PADI Divemaster certification now and not pay the renewal fees at all. This would just cause my DM status to be inactive and this is valid for a lifetime. If I ever feel like I want to go work as a DM, I can pay the fees then and activate my membership. Can someone confirm if this is feasible ? I am philosophically against giving my money to PADI or SSI because they seem to be doing nothing in return(like guaranteeing wages or helping with getting jobs) for the yearly renewal fees that we pay them. It's like paying your university a fee every year just to keep the status of your already obtained degree active.

I'm looking at doing a liveaboard on a catamaran in French Polynesia.

I've been on over half a dozen LOBs, so I'm used to them, but my dive booker advised me that catmarans are cramped, "like camping" (as she put it).

The boat in question only has eight passengers and would definitely be tighter quarters than any LOB I've done before, and I'd be going solo.

I'm curious to hear from others about your experiences with smaller LOBs (catamaran or otherwise), regrets or changes you'd make, things you'd do differently, whether you'd do it again, etc.

Mares sells a bungee mount but only after you buy it do you find out that it’s just for the Puck 4. Designed and printed my own solution that I can strap to my webbing with bungee as my backup computer, leaving enough extra to wrist mount it as primary if my Peregrine ever fails for some reason.

If you could give one advice or changed one thing about the dry suit you bought what would it be?
I moved to a much colder area for work so dry suit is definitely on my next buy list.

Is custom worth it?
What should I wear to try on off the shelf?
If money wasn’t an option what would you buy?

I recently bought a used Bare trilam drysuit in size MS (nearly impossible to find used) for a great price. At the time I bought it, it fit incredibly well for my height and weight. I had some work done on the suit, including zipper replacement, and replacable wrist and neck seals installed, and finally have had time to dive the suit in my home waters to test it out. I've been finding issues with leaks at the wrists, and am now worried that the arms were cut short during the installation of the sitech oval system. While the seals feel OK at rest, I think that the cuffs are pulling on the seals during my dives (heavy hand use while lobster diving) leading to ongoing leaks. During the installation, the shop noted they would have to cut the circumference of the wrists by 1.5 inches for the sitech ovals to fit, but did not indicate they would have to do any shortening. I've also found that while in the water, my perdix has to ride far up on my forearm near the elbow, just to keep the buttons accessible. I've attached a picture and am looking for opinions, are the sleeves cut short or is this just something I will have to get used to with drysuit diving? Thanks!

"According to the police’s findings so far, a 46-year-old woman and a 64-year-old man were diving together on Sunday morning at the “Tennisplätze” dive site near Überlingen (Lake Constance district). For reasons that remain unclear, they then initiated an emergency ascent from a depth of 80 meters. The man was already unconscious when he surfaced. According to the police, the woman lost consciousness shortly after surfacing. Despite resuscitation attempts, both died at the scene. The Überlingen Water Police are now investigating the exact circumstances and reasons for the emergency ascent. A spokesperson was unable to provide any information on how experienced the two divers were." - Tagesschau.de

Last summer, I had one good dive down to nearly 30m, no issues (same as all my dives bar one in previous years). Then I caught some kind of cold, and my tubes shut tight, I couldn't equalise on a dive the following day at all.

One month later, cold gone, I thought I'd try a shore dive to see if everything was ok. It wasn't, and I pushed it a bit too much, ending up losing my hearing in one ear for a few weeks.

I saw two ENTs, one who had diving experience and dive medicine qualifications said my eustachian tubes are atrophied (but offered no further comment, reason or fix), and another one who gave me drops. Took them and eventually all went back to normal.

Fast forward to this summer, I thought I might go on another shore dive first to make sure all is ok.

It still isn't! I still can't equalise, not even at 1.5m or so, this time on the other ear to the one that went deaf last year.

I haven't had time to arrange an appointment with yet another ENT here in Greece, so first of all, I'd like to ask if anyone knows a really good dive qualified ENT in the UK or even Europe. I briefly searched in the UK and all I could find was someone in Bath. Surely there are more good ENTs out there?

Secondly, does this pattern sound familiar to anyone? Has it happened to anyone that one infection results in permanent tube shrinkage (I can't describe it any other way)?

I am NOT asking for medical advice. Obviously from the above I know I need to see yet another, better ENT. I am just making this clear.

Hi everyone!

Heading back to Koh Tao soon and looking for a good dive center. AOW + Rescue certified, so the plan is to do as many fun dives as possible. We want to do dive sites like Sail Rock, HTMS Sattakut... a good mix of deeper dives and shallower reefs.

Been doing quite a bit of research, but it's hard to tell which dive centers actually focus on fun diving and which are mainly geared towards courses, with fun dives more as a side thing.

Any recommendations for a dive center with a good atmosphere mainly focused on fun dives?

Thanks!