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How many Tug Scuba Divers are out there?

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If I remember, I'll ask about the prescription. I use to take dramamine. I think another reason why I don't dive more often is that (1) I have a hard time carrying a bag of golf clubs, lugguage and scuba equipment, (2) I don't recognize any marine life nor do I know where to look for them. If there's no dive master around, then I'll just stare straight ahead or straight down like an idiot.
 

suzanne

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Hi Cat, everyone. Its great to see how many Tuggers are divers. Hubby and I have dove Nassua & Freeport several times. Snorkeled in Jamaica-we were't divers 20 years ago.LOL The Florida Keys, Oregon Coast, Aruba, Barbados, St Thomas and South East Florida. Lauderdale by the Sea has some good beach dives as does Pompano and Deerfield Beaches. Also Hollywood/Dania Pier area is supposed to be good beach diving. SE Florida has some wonderful wreck dives. We have also snorkeled at all the above spots, plus Crystal River with the Manatees. This is totally awesome if you ever get the chance to do it, take advantage of the opportunity. These gentle giants are truly amazing. Living Seas Dive at Disney is supposed to be excellent and I hope to be able to try it on our next trip to Orlando.

Sorry, I got carried away on diving spots.lol But since we dive and snorkel our exchange choices are almost always based on what type of diving & snorkeling is available. All of the above spots have timeshares onsite or close by. I think a divers TS site would be terrific.

Suzanne
 

elaine

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re. diving alone---fine , esp.in tourist places

hubby dives, I don't. We do a little quick research and find a good (web) recommended diver operator--then call or email and book trips ahead of time. esp. to location like carib., belize, and hawaii--this works fine.
 

Judy

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Eric in McLean said:
(2) I don't recognize any marine life nor do I know where to look for them. If there's no dive master around, then I'll just stare straight ahead or straight down like an idiot.
I recommend Reef Creature Identification: Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas (Reef Set) (Paperback)
by Paul Humann, Ned Deloach
 

Shellfish

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The hubby & I are divers. We primarily use TS for diving recently. We've mostly been to FL for diving in Jupiter, Key West, & some natural springs. Love the idea of a separate forum!
 

ebroady

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I have been diving for 5 years. I plan some of my timeshare trips to do some diving. I have been on many trips alone and plan a few days or just the day before for a dive trip and always have a good time and meet many nice people. I have dove in Key West, Maui, Kona, Grand Caymen, Cozumel and Cancun. Next dive trip is Grand Caymen in June.
 

JROBIN

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I was certified in 1999 and we have dove at Bonaire, Curacao, Cancun, Florida Keys, La Paz, Maui, Kaui and the Big Island. We are getting set for our trip to the Cayman Islands for our next diving fix.

I have the books that were recommend by Judy and I think they were one of the best purchases that I made because it is nice to review the photos in the books after a dive so that you can list the various species that you saw on that dive.
 

KevinRS

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My wife, 16 yr old son, 13 yr old daughter and I dive

My wife and I were certified before we were married, and dove, then the kids came and took a 15 year break.... then 2 years ago we got certified in Cozumel, then a trip to Cayman 1.5 years ago, and now we are the proud owners of 3 weeks at the Royal Reef.....
 

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JROBIN - a little unrequested suggestion! DON'T miss Stingray City when you go to Grand Cayman. You can dive at one site - or if you have non-divers in the group you can snorkle at another spot. Either way you have a fabulous experience. The giant southern rays are very gentle, :) friendly and eager to eat out of your hand. Absolutely the most fun diving we've experienced. We actually booked a cruise vacation that include Grand Cayman so that we could take our (non-diving) kids to see it.
 

JROBIN

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Judy said:
JROBIN, I haven't been to Curacao yet. What's the diving like there? Did you stay in a timeshare?

The first time I went to Curacao was in 2000 and we stayed at Habitat Curacao. This is a specialty dive resort with one of the best shore diving locations on the island right at the dock. The tanks are out for use 24/7, so you can dive to your hearts content. The resort is rather remote (20-30 minute drive into Willemstad), so unless you have a vehicle, the on-site restaurant can get rather old. Breakfast is usually included in the stay and is a very good buffet. The hotel units at Habitat do have a small fridge and cooktop, so we would get food for lunches at the local supermarkets and then just eat dinners in town.

The second, third and fourth times that we visited Curacao were combination trips where we stayed at the Royal Resorts Seaquarium timeshares for 1 week and at Habitat Curacao for the first week. We would dive alot more when we stayed at Habitat and then relax more the second week at the Seaquarium.

The Seaquarium units are basically the same layout as the Royal Sands in Cancun, but the buildings are only 3 stories high. This is a small complex (30 units), so there is not as much activity taking place. The Seaquarium is located much closer to the main city (Willemstad) than Habitat. The diving is arranged through Lions Dive Resort, which is located across the lagoon from the Seaquarium. It is not nearly as convienent as Habitat, where the tanks are always available for use. If you do decide to dive at Habitat and are not staying there, Habitat requires that you rent tanks from them.

Shore diving in Curacao is similar to the diving in Bonaire, but because Curacao is much larger island, the sites are more spread out. There are some very nice dive sites all along the island, with most of the more pristine sites located further away (towards Westpunt) from Willemstad, so you would have a 40-60 minute drive to a dive site. It is also harder (and more expensive) to rent the 4 door pickups in Curacao (we almost always are diving with another couple) than in Bonaire, where all the vehicles rented seem to be the trucks. Some of the more famous Curacao dives are boat dives only (Mushroom Forest) or have quire a long swim (wreck dive Superior Producer), so you may want to book some boat dives in addition to the shore dives.
 

JROBIN

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brockville said:
JROBIN - a little unrequested suggestion! DON'T miss Stingray City when you go to Grand Cayman. You can dive at one site - or if you have non-divers in the group you can snorkle at another spot. Either way you have a fabulous experience. The giant southern rays are very gentle, :) friendly and eager to eat out of your hand. Absolutely the most fun diving we've experienced. We actually booked a cruise vacation that include Grand Cayman so that we could take our (non-diving) kids to see it.

Thank you for your recommendations. My significant other is a volunteer diver at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago and she gets to feed the Southern stingrays and cow nose rays almost every Monday morning, so we are definitely planning on booking this trip.
 

mas

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I've been a certified NASDS diver since '76. My wife tried it once but found it a little claustrophobic(sp?). I usually get out once or twice during my winter vacations.
 

brockville

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Divers Section on Tug

haygos01 said:
I was wondering if there is enough Tuggers who are also Divers where it might make sense to have a Diving Vacation section on Tug. I wonder because I have been to many TS resorts, and as a diver I usually see other divers on the boat who are staying at other TS properties. I was just thinking it might be nice to be able to discuss and pass on info relevent to the best resorts and dive shops when on vacation. I would imagine some resorts are more diver friendly than others, and it would seem Tuggers would know best.

Any divers out there?
YES!!! Please do a Divers site on TUG. Don't know how you start a new section - but I'm sure the diving members of Tug would be delighted to support one. Any feedback from Admin people?
 

Babs from UK

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Sudafed

In reply to a previous post, I also use Sudafed the night before and the morning of diving. It takes me a long time to equalise my ears and I have to take the dive slowly. My husband does not dive but I am always teamed up with experienced diver as my buddy or with one of the divemasters in any case. It is actually a great way of making new friends and I prefer the smaller operations that only take out 4-8 divers. Going for my certificate this year - just trying to find the time to do it!
 

Skinsfan1311

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I dive! Going to Grand Cayman Morritt's Tortuga Club this summer. I can't wait!
 

Cat

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Skinsfan1311 said:
I dive! Going to Grand Cayman Morritt's Tortuga Club this summer. I can't wait!

Do yourself a favor, and book with Ocean Frontiers - the absolute BEST operation we have ever gone out with in the world in our 16 years of diving. They'll pick you up and take you back to Morritt's if you don't get a car.

www.oceanfrontiers.com.
 

jfjfbf

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A diving section might be interesting. Diving can certainly be found in diverse locations, not just the tropical,warm water locations we usually think of.

My first dives were along the Northern California coast. My friends figured that if you could dive there you could dive anywhere. We would carry our equipment 1/4 mile or better for a shore dive (of course with a full wetsuit because of the 50ish degree water), kick out through the waves and surge, hope for a day of -excellent- vis of about 30 ft max, then kick back in and crawl out on all fours with you regulator in your mouth to keep you from drowning in case you got slammed by the waves and pulled back in.

Well....I don't dive there anymore. However, I did catch the warm water diving craze for awhile and have had some wonderful dives in Hawaii, Australia, Tahiti, Grand Caymen, etc. I have also dove in Lake Tahoe, which few people think of for scuba diving. That was more for the unique experience, but there really wasn't much to see. The vis is good, but there is not much more that a few fish and crawdads. The interesting thing about that dive is that due to the elevation, your depth gauge doesn't work right and the dive table aren't applicable so you must be very conserative to avoid getting bent.

I don't dive very often anymore since my wife doesn't dive and I don't feel comfortable having a new and unknown 'buddy' with every dive. However, I still injoy reading about different areas and find that snorkeling is often good at many dive sights as well so that could provide for a broader base for a diving forum, especially if it were also to possibly include snorkeling.
 

daventrina

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Re: Tuggers Diving Site

brockville said:
I think this is a great idea!!
We do to....
We're both PADI Advanced certified in Monterey.
Our kids were both certified on Montery when they were 12.
 
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azsunluvr

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My husband's an experienced diver and is on a boat somewhere in the Caymans right now diving to his heart's content. I'm a newbie...only been once since my certification in 2003. Going diving when we go to Maui in a couple of weeks. Thanks, Dave, for the info on the dive shop. We're planning on an intro dive so I'll be comfortable and the kids (19 & 15) will be thrilled to try it for the first time.
 

Sandy VDH

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I have been diving for 21 years now. I have finally hit the age where I have been diving for 1/2 my life. Soon I will be diving longer than half. Trying to take a positive spin at aging. To date I am just at 300 dives.

My husband also dives, but did not get certified until 1995. However he worked on a live aboard dive boat for a year and has over 500 dives.

I try to take at least 1 or 2 dive vacations a year. Some timeshare. I also own at Tradewinds and they include diving for free for owners, which was one reason we purchased with them. We try to take at least 1 Tradewinds cruise a year, if not more.

Sandy Lovell
 

TomCayman

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As exchanging in to The Reef with II is incredibly tough.... we offer a 10% discount on prevailing rental rates to all TUG members.. thought the divers might be interested :)
 

honeybunney

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Places to Scuba Dive

I was trying to see if I can get a clue on some diving places. It looks like the Admin. haven't created a diving forum. My husband and I got PADI certified in Guam about 8 years ago and haven't dive since I had kids about 6 years ago. Diving was fun, but I'm not as passionate about it as my husband. He loves the water. So I was trying to figure out how the Microniasia (sp?) diving was since my husband was interested in seeing those stingless jellyfish and mantas. Any recommendations on good scuba tours to those places? I won't be able to accompany him since someone has to stay home and watch the kids. Thought it would be a great 40th birthday present for him. Thanks.
 

Sandy VDH

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We might want to try to start logging where we have been diving, and whether we would recommend a certain dive operate or timeshare/resort.

Our trip last year took us to Dominica on one of our stops, and we saw the largest reddest sea horse that I have ever seen.

Some of the less traveled locations have more micro sea life, but not always large fish. It seems that substance fishing cuts down on the larger fish population.

We are doing Belize with Tradewinds in April next year and am really looking forward to diving is some of the less traveled areas.
 
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