“The happiness of the bee and the dolphin is to exist. For man it is to know that and to wonder at it” 

― Jacques Cousteau

Part I | Before I started:

         Since I was a child, I dreamed of bigger things from the world. I didn’t always know how, when, or why, but I knew I wanted something more. Fast forward a few decades, a different life, a new part of the country, meeting new friends, and I find myself wanting to get certified to go scuba diving. To be fair, it wasn’t my idea in totality. My girlfriend, Nikki, has been diving many times and, in fact, has an unhealthy obsession with sharks. Her brothers are also certified. John got his in Hawaii and Shane used his G.I. Bill to get his cert. I was still on the fence still due to bills, life, savings, a job I wasn’t happy with, and a fear of the unknown. That is until my Aunt Cathi invited me to go scuba diving for shark teeth in Florida. How could I say no to that? As it turns out, I couldn’t, so I grabbed my wallet and looked up the nearest diving center.

         I’ll give you three chances to guess how many scuba diving centers there are in Colorado Springs… Did you guess exactly one? Then you would be correct! The good news is, I didn’t have to DIVE into reviews and such. I could just go to the center’s website and sign up for classes right away. The diving center I went to is called Underwater Connection. They partner with Scuba Schools International (SSI) and I would give them 4.5/5 stars.

         To start all you have to do is go to the website, click the “I want to become certified” button, and then choose the pricing option for your Open Water Diver cert that works best for you. You can choose to just do the pool sessions and get what is called a referral cert for around $350, or if you want to do the pool sessions AND get open water certified, you can choose the ~$575 option. Referral meaning you studied the materials before class, attended in person classes, partook in the pool sessions, and passed the final exam, but you did not complete the final certification process of having what you learned be tested in deep water. Open Water Certified is everything the referral cert offers, as well as scuba diving at an open source of water to complete 4 actual dives.

         The pricing is where I start to deduct stars from what was a spectacular experience of getting scuba diving certified. $575 wasn’t too bad for me because I am lucky enough to have a decent job as well as a good travel rewards credit card. It was a little uncomfortable but nothing I couldn’t handle. Here’s where things deviate a bit though because what they don’t tell you is that the $575 covers the pool sessions and the ability to have an instructor test you in open water. Perhaps it was a little naïve for me to think that it may cover rentals for the dives, or possibly help with lodging if you had to leave the State for your open water dives, alas, this was not the case. What they also do not tell you is they will be adamant that you get your own gear because it fits better. Which to be fair, having your own gear does make a world of difference, but that means you will want to budget another $400+ for your mask, snorkel, fins, and booties. I say $400 because I tried to get the cheapest of those items in their pro shop and it was just over $400. If I had gotten some of the more expensive items, then that number would have been much higher. I do feel bad for one of my classmates who did the class with his wife meaning they had at least an $800 surprise bill. This was completely optional, but your other choice is to scuba dive with poorly fitted and well used equipment. Food for thought.

         Shortly after booking and paying for the scuba diving class, I was sent a medical questionnaire to determine my health and if scuba was a good fit for me. It’s a simple form that asks normal questions like:

-Problems with lungs, breathing, or heart affecting performance

-Being over 45 years of age

-Struggling to perform moderate exercise

-Surgery within the last 12 months

-Problems with eyes, ears, or sinuses

-Losing consciousness 

-Undergoing treatment for psychological disorders

-Back problems, ulcers, diabetes, hernias

-Stomach or intestine problems

-Taking prescription medications

If you say no to all these items on the medical questionnaire, you’re good to go. I wasn’t so lucky unfortunately as I recently developed frequent heartburn, which falls under the stomach problems category. If you say yes to any of these items, you will be required to get a doctor’s sign off before you can start. I got the doctors note after a short office visit and agreeing to start taking Omeprazole.

Then I began reading my pre class materials. After creating an SSI account, you can either access the material online or through the app. It is not very difficult to read and there are videos, but there is quite a bit of it! I do not recommend procrastinating like yours truly! I would say give yourself at least a week to get through the material and that should be plenty of time to get you ready for the class and pool sessions. Although it was a bit frustrating, I am glad that I was able to speak to a doctor about the issues I was ignoring. Don’t skip the doctor folks!

Next I will go over the 2 days of pool diving in this following post.