r/diving

Hey everyone! I'm finally looking to get my Open Water cert this summer and could use some advice.
I live in NYC, but I'm traveling to Punta Mita, Mexico in August.

What's the best way to approach certification? Would you recommend:
Doing the eLearning + pool sessions in NYC, then finishing the open water dives on vacation?

Or just doing the entire certification minus elearning while I'm in Mexico?

I'm mainly looking for the best balance of cost and making the most of my vacation.

If anyone has recommendations for good shops in NYC or in Punta Mita (or tips you wish you knew before getting certified), I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

I’ve started looking for a birthday gift for my boyfriend and am considering getting him a freediving watch. He goes about once a week for two to three hours for spearfishing, and he doesn’t dive very deep, so he doesn’t need anything too advanced. A smartwatch that can handle moderate depths would be ideal. My budget is around $450–$500. I’ve been looking at the Garmin G1, but I’m not sure if it’s outdated now. I’d love to get him something nice that he can also wear daily.

Anyone have any recs?

Hi everyone,
I have an Open Water certification but I haven’t been diving much since getting certified, so I’m definitely rusty.

I’m planning to dive from Phuket (November) and would appreciate some recommendations:

Which dive center would you recommend for a refresher pool course?

What’s a reasonable price to expect for a refresher?

Which dive sites are worth doing as day trips from Phuket after a refresher? Also any dive center recommended?

I’m mainly looking for enjoyable marine life, good visibility, and beginner-friendly sites rather than challenging deep dives.

Also, if you’ve had a particularly good experience with any dive shop or instructor, I’d love to hear about it.
Thanks in advance!

Are you tired of diving?

Like, putting on my wetsuit sucks. I mean once I get in the water I'm fine, but getting there I'm dragging my feet.

I was thinking about this recently. Over the years, it was never a regulator failure or a blown BCD that nearly stopped one of my dives. It was always something ridiculously simple like a set of cylinders with York fitting or a broken mask strap. Those little incidents eventually led me to put together what I called a "Save the Dive" box whenever I dived. It wasn't a commercial kit.

It was just a waterproof lock box that gradually filled with bits and pieces.

Mine eventually contained: •Spare mask strap •Two spare fin straps •Regulator mouthpiece •Assorted O-rings •DIN-to-Yoke (A-clamp) adapter °A handful of zip ties °Multi-tool °Allen key for convertible cylinder °valves (where applicable) °Spare batteries for °user-replaceable equipment °Universal travel adapter °A strip of paracetamol and a card of IMODIUM. possibly the most used in the kit.

Spare Air2 inflator hose was in the bag

My backup prescription mask didn't live in the box. it stayed in my technical diving pocket

Few years ago I stepped away from regular diving to concentrate on building a dive travel business in Sri Lanka, and I ended up giving most of the contents away to divers I used to dive with.

Looking back, that little box probably saved more dives than any other piece of equipment I owned.

So I'm curious...

Do divers still have a Save The Dive Kit?

What's the smallest or most unexpected item that's ever rescued one of your dives?

I'm not looking for catastrophic failures. just those little things that most of us don't think about until they let us down.

So as the title states I’m looking for any advice on where to find good dive weights. My local shop is sold out and they said they won’t have any in for a bit. I tried looking on amazon but everything I found cost like $30 for a single 4 lb weight. Is that kind of a standard price for are there better sites to look for lead? I’m brand new to diving and just got my first wet suite. I was hoping to get an assortment of weights and sizes to try out. I’ll mostly be using them for free diving and spear fishing but I plan on getting my scuba license next month so I want to get enough that I can use them for diving too. Any advice is appreciated.

Hi , I would like to know if there are any recommendations for OW + AOW certification course in Phuket. It looks like there is but my schedule may not be able to.

Day 1: Phuket mainland
Day 2-4: Phi Phi
Day 4-7 : Kata
Day 7-8: Patong

Hey everyone! I recently earned my Open Water certification and I’m looking to connect with a reliable dive buddy in Northern New Jersey.

I’m still a newer diver, so I’m looking for someone who takes safety seriously, is dependable, communicates well, and enjoys planning dives the right way. I’d love to get more experience at places like Lake Hydra and other local dive sites while continuing to build my skills and confidence.

If you’re interested in having a consistent dive partner and don’t mind diving with someone who’s eager to learn, send me a message.

I am planing to go Koh Tao for scuba diving in August. I am 30m certified scuba diver. Anybody planning to do the same?

I am flexible with dates.

I research reef ecosystems and dive the same sites regularly over months at a time. Something I keep noticing is that fish behavior shifts noticeably after a site gets consistent diver traffic, and not always in the direction you might expect.

Some species habituate quickly and become almost indifferent to divers. Others, particularly larger pelagics and certain sharks, seem to adjust their patrol patterns entirely, showing up at different times or depths than baseline observations would predict. A few sites I monitor have seen measurable changes in cleaning station activity, apparently because diver presence disrupts the timing rhythms between cleaner wrasse and their clients.

What I'm less sure about is how much of this gets documented outside formal research contexts. Recreational divers who hit the same wall or pinnacle repeatedly probably have years of observational data sitting in dive logs that never gets analyzed.

Has anyone here noticed consistent behavioral shifts in specific species at sites you dive regularly? Particularly interested in whether anyone has seen changes in shark behavior, schooling patterns, or cleaning station dynamics. Anecdotal field observations are genuinely useful here, not just formal study citations. Curious what longterm site familiarity has taught people that a oneoff dive never would.

Hallo,

Habe im Internet mittlerweile viel verschiedenes gelesen.
Es geht um meinen Bruder. Dieser würde gerne einen tauchschein mit mir zusammen machen. Dieser hat jedoch einen Herzschrittmacher.

Nun steht in knapp 10 Tagen der Termin beim Arzt und er macht sich Sorgen, dass es nicht klappt.

Wisst ihr was dazu? Kann es klappen?
Sein Herzarzt hat es nicht komplett durchgewunken, aber gemeint, dass es möglich ist, wenn er es unbedingt will. Diese Mail würden wir mal mit zum Taucharzt nehmen.

Ansonsten kann ich mir leider auch gut vorstellen, dass es nicht klappt.

Kennt ihr vielleicht jemanden, bei dem es geklappt, oder nicht geklappt hat?

Danke euch!

Hello guys few days ago i was freediving and i was kinda deep(not sure how deep but not more than 10m),i was trying to reach the floor but couldn't, and i dived a few times very fast. And since then i am getting winded,breathe very shallow and sometimes need to gasp for air mid sentence. Also yesterday my chest started to hurt too.