cheap dive certification

[evm1024]

Shop around, Look for 2 for 1 and take a buddy. If you have family members consider a 4 person deal. Play one shop off the other.

As for the cheapest....

NASA awards bids to the lowest bidder. They just do not let everyone bid.

So the point is to stay with shops that have a good reputation and exceed their governing body requirements (PADI etc).

Also, take a look at college and research institutions. Sometimes there are staff divers who have to teach to keep their instructor certificates current. Our staff diver (and head of our field operations in Astoria) used to teach basically at cost to stay current.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by jwrsailing

Where can I find the least expensive courses in the keys ro get open water dive certified?

I was certified at Dive Key West, and have nothing but good things to say about them. Further up the keys, I like to dive with Conch Republic in Tavernier, and have heard nothing but good things about Rainbow Reef. There are other good operators.

You could also ask at scubaboard.

Prices tend to be similar among operators in the Keys. The less expensive operators will run larger classes that are more time consuming since you'll end up waiting while other students work on a skill. Contrary to the advice upthread, I don't think you'll find a relationship between price and safety in the keys. I am not aware of any dive op in the Keys, that offers entry-level dive classes, that has a reputation for unsafe practices.

[aquadreams]

I don't have any info on certification in the Keys but I love reading the scuba threads :-)

I must have had the best quality for the money certification ever. 13 week PE course at a junior college in Orange County (southern cal). Twice a week in the pool, twice a week lecture. Certification dives in Newport Beach and Catalina. Instructor was a VP of NAUI at the time (1979) and he was the author of the NAUI training book we were taught from. Course fee ... $29 I think I had to pay the boat operator separately for the dives at Catalina.

And silly me I didn't use it. Moved to Colorado and the mountains. Fast forward 10 years and I'm back in California, spot a beautiful woman my age while grocery shopping. She's wearing a scuba t-shirt so I use that topic to chat her up, next thing we're dating and I'm getting re-certified in her first class as a scuba instructor.

And for all this talk about air embolism, the rest of the folks in her course were physics and chemistry PhDs at Stanford so we covered embolisms in a bit of detail :-)

To the OP, take the training part about the bends and embolism seriously, and even more important learn to be a reliable buddy. I was on a boat trip where someone died from embolizing, ascending at the end of a night dive from 60'. Something panicked her, she knocked her buddy's mask and it flooded, he didn't maintain calm enough to assist and they got separated. He surfaced and said he needed help. I was floored - why was he on the surface and why wasn't he with his buddy?! My friend went back in, found her body down at 80' and brought her up. CPR until the helicopter arrived about 45 min later but she was gone.

Learn to be a good buddy. The part about not holding your breath is the easy part, and don't come up faster than your bubbles, it's pretty simple. But you need the skills and the right attitude to not put yourself or your buddy in danger and to assist when needed. I've seen so many divers not even look at their buddy during the entire dive and it's appalling (saw it again last month). I frankly wouldn't dive with someone like that, and if I was married to them I'd file for divorce. I was an assistant instructor for about four years and have about 3000 recreation dives, and I see poor buddy practices all the time. Don't be one of those.

Sorry for the lecture, please take it as me trying to be helpful.

Cheers,
Joe

[bletso]

Originally Posted by aquadreams

Learn to be a good buddy. The part about not holding your breath is the easy part, and don't come up faster than your bubbles, it's pretty simple. But you need the skills and the right attitude to not put yourself or your buddy in danger and to assist when needed. I've seen so many divers not even look at their buddy during the entire dive and it's appalling (saw it again last month). I frankly wouldn't dive with someone like that, and if I was married to them I'd file for divorce. I was an assistant instructor for about four years and have about 3000 recreation dives, and I see poor buddy practices all the time. Don't be one of those.

Sorry for the lecture, please take it as me trying to be helpful.

Cheers,
Joe

Actually, I would recommend the opposite. Learn to be a lousy buddy but be extremely self sufficient. There is nothing more annoying than having a 'dependent buddy'. A buddy is there to enjoy the dive with you, someone who is as 'independent and self sufficient as you. I was a technical instructor teaching trimix, (mixed gas diving much deeper than recreational dive parameters), and am a cave diver, closed circuit rebreather user, etc.
I would pick any organisation except PADI, and that is due to dive philosophy not quality of the education. As mentioned, NAUI, SDI in the states and BSAC or CMAS overseas would be on my list. All have high standards and good safety records.

AS already mentioned, SCUBA is generally a very safe sport. Equipment is very reliable. It is however very intolerant to breaking just a couple of rules. I can guarantee you that you will never experience a more visually intense sport. It is an alien world that we have to use life support equipment to survive in.

[valhalla360]

Make sure they are from one of the recognized training organizations and then talk to the instructor (not the checkout clerk) to get a feel for them. Ask to look over the equipment and training pool. Once you are comfortable with those things and you don't see anything odd looking (like equipment that is clearly not maintained), selecting the cheapest is fine.

As can be seen from the story of the instructor telling someone if you simply spin in the water, your lungs will explode, paying more doesn't guarantee better training. All the standard organizations go over the fact that holding your breath while ascending or descending is bad and they teach you how to ascend safely. These organizations wouldn't survive the lawsuits if they didn't cover the basic safety rules.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by jwrsailing

Where can I find the least expensive courses in the keys ro get open water dive certified?

I googled it the other day and here in Marathon a course was $550. I don't know if others are less but I bet you could google them in less time than it took to read all the "answers" your got here

[JPA Cate]

Bwahaha! Bob, I did my PADI cert. in the Whitsundays, and there was plenty of competition. You're right, an extensive effort was made to try and make me want to upgrade my gear, and sign up now for more discounted courses. I suppose that's pretty much normal for everyone, though. Most dive training is associated with dive shops, so it sorta follows.

Ann

[Peregrine1983]

You're looking at about $500 for a PADI cert in the Florida keys - give or take $50 or so. It will likely be only PADI shops you find there (and most of the US).

There are cheaper places in the world to get certified, but then you're paying to travel. PADI shops in Florida will likely all have good staff and good equipment.

undercurrent.org is a fantastic diving website where you'll find lots of information and answers to your questions.

Be safe.

[toddster8]

The "cheapest" is probably going to be something offered through a college. But then again, you have to matriculate. Dunno about the Keys specifically. Nobody makes a living teaching SCUBA classes - there's always a slightly unsavory evangelical cult-like angle to getting you to sign up for more cour$e$ and buy expensive equipment from their $hop, rather than for a fraction of the price on the internet. (Or "mail order," back in the day...)

In my region, most of the smaller shops have gone out of business and what's left is one or two large operations with very young (college student?) "instructors" pushing many cattle - uh, students - per day through lessons in an in-house pool. The two classes that I took, many years ago, have now been broken up into about eight, to extract the maximum cash and provide more sales opportunities.

Some might say that this is market efficiency at work. Certainly it's not an easy way to make a living. But I've found that if you walk in and don't immediately fit into their assembly-line model, they just walk away and stop talking to you. But hey, it may be just what a Noob needs.