T&C is beautiful. Avoid PROVO divers though. We had a really bad experience with them when I took my son there a couple years ago to introduce him to diving.

So what are people thinking? I think there has been adequate interest shown in this thread to potentially move forward. Can we pull this off? I think it would be the first such DO in FT history, which would be pretty cool. :)

Something like T&C (or elsewhere) would be good, also, because it could be done in an extended weekend (Thur. to Tues. or something like that). Maybe we could start getting a headcount going with times people definitely can/cannot go and a top 2/3 destination choices, keeping in mind that we'd want the location accessable to most people.

T&C could work; mid July

Respectfully disagree.

New divers should get certified at home (unless you have no choice).

Why waste a wonderful dive in an exotic locale practicing flooding and clearing your mask or fretting about your gas consumption when you can get the basics under your belt in local surroudings?

If people are serious and most are from the continental U.S., why not dive in Key Largo and South Florida? @:-) Largo offers the Spiegel Grove -- which I can personally recommend as a very cool dive; much be even more so now that she has been uprighted by Hurricane Dennis -- the Duane, and the Bibb, among others. The Tenneco Towers and Ft. Lauderdale are a reasonable drive away. R&R and nightlife aplenty in South Beach.

Getting to South Florida is very affordable thanks to the Southwest and Spirit Effect. Plenty of good Priceline hotels. No international taxes. And an easy extended weekend, even accounting for no fly time.

I was thinking more mid to end of August . Alas the Americas are a bit too far for me for a "long weekend" of diving.

VERY VERY simple answer, around here in Chicago, many checkout dives are done in a horrid, cold, silty quarry which SUCKS.

So perhaps the correct answer to whether one should have their checkout dives is to find out where the checkout dives would be done locally.

As I had my choice between the Keys and this crappy quarry, I’m having my checkout dives in the Keys.

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That fits my personal schedule much better, but if people really wanted it to happen sooner, I could probably squeeze out a long weekend sometime earlier. Where will you be coming from?

Re: checkout dives, I agree, you just do it wherever the local shops do it. For us, it was indeed an old quarry, which was not the best place in the world with cold temps and 6-8 foot visability, but it builds character. ;) And it also keeps your mind focused on the tasks at hand because you really want to get out of there. :D

Doing your checkouts in a cold quarry in southern Illinois isn't very fun - I don't think adding the stress of dealing with cold water is a good way to do your checkout stuff. When I did mine the instructor just took us on a couple of shore dives outside of the dive shop in Cozumel. We just jumped off his dock and went perhaps 30' to the bottom and did our thing. Not much to look at but a lot more comfortable temperature wise.

To all of you who did your cert. dives in tropical/vacation places, did they have you do all the safety stuff, like the tired diver tow, out of air scenarios, diving with no mask, etc.? I'm just curious if they gave you the full certification process or just an abbreviated one.

I was certified in 1979 in the Keys while I was living there. It was through a dive group there and not really part of a resort group thing. I honestly couldn't tell you now what all we had to do but I do remember having to do a 60' dive as the final one in rather rough seas. None of the classes were held in pools ... all off beaches or dive boat.

Things have changed considerably since then. A couple years ago I was thinking of doing the course over again and found a guy in Bethesda, MD who would give me a break on the cost since I already held a certification. With his group, check-out dives are done in the Cayman's. I think he goes once a month. Very thorough class as you are YMCA certified in addition to PADI.

I am with the people here saying to do your check-out dives in a warm location.

I had the same instructor as tazi; he splits his time between the Caymans and the US. After the classroom course and some basics in a health club swimming pool, we flew down to GCM and did the finals checks there.

His pitch goes like this. You could cert in a quarry in Virginia, but the water would be cold, thus requiring a thick wetsuit. A thicker wetsuit limits mobility and adds buoyancy, requiring more weight, which will tire you out sooner. In addition to being cold, the water is murky—not that there's much to see besides old school buses, or a lot of space to move around. And a cold, dark, uncomfortable, stressful first time means you'll probably be less likely to become a regular diver. We certed off Grand Cayman with water and air about 85 degrees, visibility above 30 yards, in clean water with healthy coral; it certainly did not feel like time wasted. Indeed, as it was over Presidents' Day Weekend, you didn't even need to take a day off work.

We never felt uncomfortable, but of course all this was with our own instructor in a very wealthy place with strong regulations. A couple of former students along just for the trip had unnerving tales about Cozumel ("how long should we stay?" "just come up when you run out of air") and Indonesia ("since your BC is leaking, go in but stay shallow") so in those places I think a lot depends on the operator.

late aug could work

I recall doing most of that stuff in the pool at home. There are a certain set of skills you have to demonstrate to the instructor in the open water that you can perform (e.g. clearing a mask, retrieving lost regulator, etc). I did all of those.

Yeah my first dive in Cozumel I had to have been 16 or so and we decided to have a guy come along from the dive shop to hang back with me and a couple other people from my party since we were new and green. This guy decides to go down 100' on a wall - great views, not a great idea.