every time i'm on vacation and see scuba tours i want to go. problem is that i am not certified and don't want to devote my entire trip to getting certified. i live in a rural area and scuba lessons are sparse. i did a web search and came up with a one day certification for open water diver in nyc. i think this option can work for me. i am still searching for other schools that offer one day certification. nyc is doable but is not the cheapest plane ticket for me.

do any of you know if there are similar courses offered in chicago, dallas, seattle, los angelas, or las vegas? that way i can fly to the cheapest destination.

I would check the closest diving shop and ask them for options. You can sometimes get certified in two trips - if you visit the same place twice in a year check that out.

Why not try discover scuba next time? couple hours instruction and a dive typically. Will give you an idea of what it is like and whether you want to invest the time in it. If you are not willing to spend two days getting certified I'd be very hesitant as there is a real risk.

One day doesn't sound right.

Any OW certification gained in a day will be worthless. You'll be taking a risk with your own life, and that of others.

The best solution for you might be a visit to New York to do part of a certification, but you will then need to pay for instructor time on your holiday for 1-4 dives until you become certified.

There are 3 ways you can dive (similar across different organisations subject to a few differences in words):
OW certified: Means you can dive with any other certified diver and you basically have the skills to look after yourself. This is the traditional "diving certification" It will take 4 dives in real water, a couple in a pool and most of a day of theory. This might take 3-4 days all in, or you could probably squeeze the theory and pool work into 2 days in New York before your trip
Scuba diver: This might be a viable option for you. You'll do half a day of theory and a bit of pool work before you go in the water. You're able to dive with qualified instructors/ other diving staff from then on and can probably roughly get around underwater and enjoy yourself. I'd recommend going full Open Water if you can, but if you just want to be able to get your head under water and go diving with local guides this could be enough
Discover Scuba Diving: This is the basic get some theory, practice in a pool and hop into the water as soon as you can. This is just a once-off experience and would be something like academic and pool work and then you're on a real dive a few hours later. You will be able to get underwater but unless you're in beautiful water you'll have your instructor holding onto you at all times and you won't have the same kind of experience as a qualified diver.

Or you can just jump in the water and go for it, but you stand an unreasonable chance of getting killed in an accident if you do. I'm a PADI Open Water Instructor and there are no shortage of stories out there of people who have cut corners and suffered the consequences.

As a master scuba diver, I agree that a one day certification to get your open water dive card is surely something to avoid. Diving is no joke and should be entered into very seriously. Find a reputable dive shop at the location where you plan to vacation and talk to them. They likely can do a discovery dive with you. With an organization like PADI you can probably do the book portions either in the evenings or self study before the trip. The certification dives themselves can be quite wonderful and I for one love to keep getting certified higher as a way to keep my skills at a high level.

Never fly with a pilot who flys only once a year. The same advice goes for diving.

This +100. Take you time. Enjoy it. Treat the sea with respect; it will pay off in the end. As a diver and an occasional flyer of planes, I maintain that it's prudent to err on the side of caution.

Getting your OpenWater is just enough to hopefully make sure you dont kill yourself or risk anyone else diving with you. Took me about ~15 more dives with my own equipment before I got my buoyancy nailed and air consumption to a "respectable level" to really enjoy the diving.

One day certification? No way..

it was a long time ago, but as i recall, we did the initial stuff in a pool. probably 5 or so lessons. then we flew to key largo, and got open water certs. it was Quiescence, and they had just started up.

The open water certificate consists of a series a dives starting with a confined water then a couple open water dives. You may as well get the two open water dives at an interesting sites. You can do them in New York but why bother?

It can be worth doing the confined water dives in a pool to save a day of your vacation and get an extra real dive in when you're there.

Take the course somewhere good where they really put you through the exercises including the emergency ascent.

One day certification can be done but why? A Discover Scuba is a smarter choice.

Some scuba day trip operators include lessons, and then you dive with the instructor. No certification needed. I did exactly that on a trip out of Cairns when in Australia. Of course, this doesn't allow you a very deep dive.

Also don't forget to plan time between your drive and flight. That can certainly risks lives, your own.

What is your rural area? Have you looked for dive shops in the area?

Scuba diving is way cool; I have 300+ dives now in 13 countries, and I often bring my gear along and sneak in a few dives on work trips. But as others have said, you want to treat it with respect; if you dive with awareness and training, you can dive quite safely but you can also get into trouble if you don't treat being underwater with respect.

Certification in a day is a bad idea. There's a lot of info to digest, and you want to practice skills in a pool before you venture to open water.

I got certified in New York (Long Island) but it was with four evening classes, two pool sessions, and then four open water dives.

As others have said, you can do the classes and pool sessions locally and then do the checkout dives in a warm spot over two days. That's what my wife did.

I also took the Rescue Diver course by making a three-day-weekend trip to Florida (well, I flew home on the afternoon of the fourth day because of the 24 hours no-fly-after-diving rule).

Do the Open Water course, and have fun diving!

I'd recommend you go somewhere and get proper certification. The certification dives can be quite fun. I did a fair amount of diving without any certification and thought it was fine, but after getting certified and becoming a bit more knowledgeable, I think it was probably not a good idea in hindsight to dive without proper training.

The problem with having certification course in beautiful tropical locations is if you are planning on being a regular diver, it's smarter to do your courses in your local area/where you dive.

We've had quite a few divers show up with their Thailand OW cert and they are out of their element in Sydney diving that has surge, walking on rocks/shoreline and no one puts their fins on here.