Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

$640 seems a little high Steve. more like $580, but no doubt you're locked in by the voucher. They may offer better services, more boat dives etc...

I would advise against getting the Adv. OW straight up with your OW ticket. It's best to take things that can kill you slowly, get used to it (sorta like how AP can kill your fish) 'P'... it will cost you more, but hey, not now it wont, now it'll be cheaper, worry about your Adv next year... 18m is great for beginners anyhow.

Which Dive club are you doing it through? When are you gonna have your ticket so we can start doing shore dives????
I look forward to hearing from your younger bro.

It has been sooo many years since I last went diving But I was doing it for work, so the shine kinda wore off too. Daily diving in a great big reef tank and in the predator tank....

Hey KP

Id be with you on your opinion there! If you have the extra dollars I would suggest you sink it into your own kit regs bc wetsuite, can get the stuff from trading post on the cheap if you are keen, get the best you can afford tho, just get it all serviced.

May seem strange to a newbie but rented gear is far from tops or safe and once you have the freedom of your own kit your personal familiarity with your own unchanging set up can (in the event of a misadventure) save your but!

But all in all 18-24meters deep...you can ascend on one breath with little risk to your health and colour starts to fade out at about 10m but it is wonderful escapeism...

You have some top quality submarines and reefs down there that are great shallow diving....

yeh and never leave your tank in a hot car with the windows up...

loose a burst disk? did we???

Uhuh and 4 windows

that has to be some kind of record...very impressive tho I am sure at the time it wasnt... have been in a car when one went off. the noise and the presure increase was interesting

hmmm I was in the car once when a coke can exploded... so much wetness I wasn't sure what had happened. Sounded like a low power rifle. But as for tanks, so far they have all held their integrity.

Hmmm, was going to do it just because i know that i'll end up wanting to to the higher experience dives once i start and thought i might as well get worded up on it................

am doing it through melbourne dive school, www.melbournediving.com.au . did check out a couple of others but i felt that this was the best all rounder.

Another reason i'm thinking of combining the A open water is because you get a total of 6 (six) extra open water dives! that worth $400 extra to me, especially at the start.

new car too, figure if it was an oldie it might not have been so bad!
Front back and rear quarter seems the rubber seals let go...
Oh and blew the gromets out of the floor and firewall

i went to port philip bay EVERY easter and christmas from the ages of about 12 to 16 until i was thoroughly sick of it, with out knowing how many COOL dive sites there were under there! see the page on the link i posted.

Oh, and hows this for irony? dad just sold his boat...................

thats funny, C1 (only 'cause it wasn't my car..............)

C1 that is just exceptional!!! really wil have to share with other divers..

Steve- go for gold!

PADI in the industry is known as PUT ANOTHER DOLLAR IN, has nothing to do with the quality of their teaching more their business model structure and what you get for your money. If you get excited and beleive me entry and advanced may only serve to wet your curiosity look for other groups such as TDI BEEZAC NAUI FAUI blah.

As with most things tho it depends on the individual instructor and then the accredition body is unimportant if you get a legend.

Finding a good buddy and getting heaps of water time is key to it all and there is no such thing as a bad dive...not even if you are feeding the fish through your regulator

I'm not sure if this still holds true, but when I qualified, every instructor I met wore only tracky dacks while out of the water, and they all got really drunk on rum

thanks for the comments. agree 100% with

good to see lots of divers lots of resources for me