On my bucket list I have "go scuba diving." I decided I want to scuba at Epcot DiveQuest when I go on vacation. I have a few questions.

~How long does it take to get a certificate?
~Also I wear glasses so can you wear them with your goggles on?
~How hard is it to scuba dive 🙂

I would love any scuba diving advice to. Thanks 🙂

The time it takes to complete a certification course varies depending on how the dive center or instructor wants to schedule the class. A common way to schedule the course is over two weekends with the first weekend consisting of classroom & pool training and the second weekend consisting of open water dives. However, the dive center may choose to run the class during evenings and spread it out over several weeks, or may try to accelerate it through self-study. The average course typically includes somewhere around 30 hours of instruction, with the more hours the better.

You cannot wear glasses under your mask. If you are nearsighted and your vision isn’t terrible without glasses you may be able to get by without any correction while diving since there is a slight magnifying effect that occurs when light passes from water into the air space inside your mask. Another option would be to wear contact lenses instead of glasses while diving. A third option would be to get corrective lenses installed onto the mask itself, which means you need to purchase the mask and have the lenses installed before starting the course.

Scuba diving is not hard, but you do have to learn a number of things including some basic physics and physiology in order to be a safe diver. You should also be comfortable being in & under water, and need to possess basic swimming skills. A lot depends upon you…some students are very comfortable and relaxed underwater from the start while others may struggle and find it stressful or scary. Most people fall somewhere in between.

Before you even start learning how to dive you must be free of certain health conditions that can make scuba too risky for you to do safely. Healthy respiratory, cardiovascular, and nervous systems are all necessary to avoid injury underwater so conditions like asthma, heart disease, or epilepsy could prohibit you from being a diver. Before starting any water training you will need to fill out a medical history form that will help identify any potential problems which require a medical exam and doctor’s approval before continuing.

You may find the following link useful http://www.dtmag.com/faqs.html . It addresses a number of questions that potential dive students frequently ask.

The best thing for you to do is to locate dive centers near you and talk to some instructors about training. You can use this link http://www.dtmag.com/dcsearch.html to find the 7 dive centers nearest you by entering your zip code. If you can, shop around a little before selecting a dive center and/or instructor. This is a link to an article with some good tips on choosing an instructor that will be right for you: http://www.articlesbase.com/scuba-diving-articles/tips-and-advice-for-choosing-a-scuba-instructor-1156643.html

Good luck.

I love photography, and I really have an itch to get out and travel while I am young and free of commitment. I have money saved up for travel (money is not the most important factor here), and I’m very much into adventure (parasailing, mountain climbing, scuba diving, etc.).
What are the best places to travel if you simply want to see breath-taking views of nature?

Slovenia
Dive in the beautiful clear Adriatic Sea
http://www.nemo-divers.si/english/
Dive in rivers and crystal lakes and wiggle into holes for cave diving
http://www.sloveniaholidays.org/slovenia-holidays/slovenia-caves/cave-dive-cave-dive-in-slovenia
Speak in English and get replies in English in almost all of Slovenia.
Just as well too.
Here is the Slovenian Diving Federation
http://www.spz.si/portal/
Parasail on the beautiful blue or green or just grey and sometimes black when there’s no Moon at night but sparkling silver and all romantic and lovely when there’s a big Moon up but half Moons are OK too on the Adriatic Sea. Parasailing that was in case you forgot.
http://www.localyte.com/activity.php?st[]=1061&subTabID=subTabActivities
Paraglide in the Soca valley with the lovely Julian Alps all around
http://xtc-paragliding.com/
Climb the beautiful Julian Alps under a clear blue sky or another one sometimes cos you can’t have Paradise every single day even in Slovenia but you get lots of it most times cos you’ll still be in Slovenia and it’s magic in Slovenia
http://www.thetravelpuzzle.com/news/2011/12/slovenia-climbing/
Walk easy trails or harder ones or run them if you like if you get enough porridge for breakfast
http://www.slovenianretreats.com/sloveniawalking.php
Explore the spectacular caves of the Karst Region
( the region that gaves us the term karstic geology)
http://www.slovenia.info/?kraska_jama=450
Take zillions of pictures of trees and plants and flowers and animals and birds and rocks and mountains and lovely people and smiling goats and greengrocer shops and the old shopping streets in beautiful Ljubliana and the castles and the triple briddge and wonderful cakes and …and… it’s magic in Slovenia.
And it’s got a mountain on the national flag….yipppeeeee
I love mountains
It’s Triglav….the triple peak.
And it’s not very expensive in Slovenia either. In fact, it’s qute reasonable.
Three for Slovenia on the link and see Ike besi…she’s in the travel business. Old answer but Slovenia is even better now. It just had it’s 20th anniversary.
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ag0EvJ84fRfw.oD5nrFzrS0hBgx.;_ylv=3?qid=20081130030454AAWVR6Z&show=7
http://www.slovenia.info/

I want to take up scuba-Diving and Snorkeling and i want to buy a set of fins i was told i could get either-
1] Scuba Fins www.scuba?fins.jpg

2] MonoFins www.dk?blue?monofin.jpg

But i want to know which is easier to get use too????
to use the Links Paste to you web Page Browser and then Go to Images

Sorry about the Links
please i need some more help

Mono Fin= Looks like a mermaids tail the one you sometimes see free-diversusingg.

Normal fins= you have a fin for each foot

I want to know which one to buy…..
Please Help!!!

get scuba fins, mono fins are for people who swim the butterfly stroke competitively

I’m getting my certification soon and before I did I wanted to learn a bit about the equipment and what it does also any websites about scuba diving would be great!
I also have to do a 200m swim and tred water for 10 minutes, I’m a good swimmer but does anyone have any suggestions on how to train for this
Thanks! 🙂

You’ll learn all the basics re. equipment from your course manual/DVD. Your instructor will advise on what equipment is appropriate/needed for diving in the area where you’ll qualify.

One of the best websites I know for (relatively) unbiased reviews of divegear, tips and techniques, tour operators and dive courses is http://www.divernet.com . Admittedly it tends to be skewed towards the British/European market, but aside from the personal prejudices of its writing staff (all of whom are highly qualified, well-travelled and experienced divers) there is no editorial policy of promotion of any specific agencies, brands, etc.

Re. the swim test: If you are already a competent swimmer and comfortable in the water, no extra training should be needed: the 200 m non-stop swim is 8 lengths of a standard ‘short-course’ pool, which should be within the fitness capabilities of nearly everyone — there is no time limit. The 10-minute tread can also be a ‘float’ — if you know how to float on your back, then you should be able to maintain this position indefinitely with near-zero effort.

How old do you have to be to get your scuba diving license? Does anyone know where you could get one in or near Connecticut?

If you’re old enough to post in Y!A (according to the Y!A Terms & Conditions, anyway), you’re old enough to learn to scuba dive.

Contrary to what ‘Micheal’ said, no agency certifies 8 year olds to dive, as far as I know. PADI does offer a couple of confined-water programs for children aged 8-10 (the ‘Bubblemaker’ experience program, and the ‘SEAL Team’ training program), but both of these programs are restricted to a max. depth of 2 m (6 ft), and neither result in any kind of open-water diving certification.

PADI Instructors may certify students as young as 10 as ‘Junior Scuba Divers’ or ‘Junior Open Water Divers’, provided those students have completed the same theoretical and skillset requirements as the full adult ‘Scuba Diver’ and ‘Open Water Diver’ certs issued to students aged 15+. Also, PADI’s ‘Junior’ certs are hemmed about with additional restrictions on max. dive depth and eligible dive-buddy which (mostly) don’t apply to holders of the ‘adult’ versions. You can find full details of all PADI courses at http://www.padi.com

You can also find details of PADI shops in CT via the PADI website (click on the ‘Find a Dive Shop’ link, and enter your location in the search box). There is also another, non-partisan website which MovieBuff (another Y!A contributor) regularly recommends, but I can’t remember the URL offhand, sorry — you may be able to find it by searching MovieBuff’s previous answers, or through Google

(I just tried the search string "dive shop locator", and got this hit: http://www.free-diving.com/find-a-dive-shop . This wasn’t helpful in itself, but by following a couple of links from this page, I got a list of CT dive shops here: http://www.scuba-newengland.com/DiveCenterList.asp?StateID=CT ).

Hope this helps.