Dive Against Debris at the Port Aransas Jetties

When shore diving in the Corpus Christi, Texas area, you will encounter dead or dying fish, turtles and other marine animals at local jetties. Bring multiple cutting tools and help animals if it safe to do so. Report the trapped animals and spread the word so that others will know the impact of ghost fishing gear. Learn to dive against debris.



FMI https://transformationscuba.com/dive-against-debris

Advanced Open Water Diver Certification at Stetson Bank, Gulf of Mexico,...

Open water certification was never intended to be the last scuba course you take. Strangely some folks stop at open water, resulting in poor dive skills and lack of confidence. To make scuba training more accessible and fun, it is broken up into 3 main chunks. Open water, advanced open water, and rescue diver. Usually enriched air nitrox is thrown in to extend bottom time. Non-medical professionals often need first aid and emergency oxygen provider when completing rescue diver. When you take your advanced course, it is simply a matter of doing five more dives with an instructor, reading the corresponding book chapters and answering some review questions. It is all about gaining experience and confidence. A good course will include a deep dive, navigation dive,  night dive, boat dive, and another dive of interest. Maybe you did open water dives in a lake and have no boat or ocean experience or maybe you want to experience drift diving. Maybe you want to learn why your underwater digital images look dark and blah while your instructor's videos look amazing. Take the underwater digital photography. maybe you want to start identifying reef inhabitants so you opt to take underwater naturalist. Choose the dives for your course that will enhance your skills. If your budget allows, choose an advanced course that will truly advance your skills and expose you to new environments and techniques. Don't stop at basic! Gain more confidence and skills. Most importantly, aim to achieve at least the rescue diver level of training so you can help yourself and others in the event of a problem. Above all have fun and go diving to keep your skills fresh!

Behind the scenes of your open water scuba course

New scuba students sometimes balk at the price of scuba lessons. Perhaps this is because they don't yet realize the expenses involved in running a dive business and the hard work of providing an open water scuba course.

The most costly item is a scuba compressor. Students are often shocked to find out that compressing a  closet full of air at 14.7 pounds per square inch into a tiny cylinder at a pressure of 3000 pounds per square inch, requires a multi-stage compressor and accessories costing as much as a family car!

Maintenance of the compressor is costly as well. Special breathing air filters costing hundreds of dollars must be replaced regularly to keep you safe. Air must be collected and sent to a lab for detailed analysis to ensure safety.

Gear must be washed after every dive and regulators sanitized which is wet messy work. Gear must be serviced annually, tanks hydrostatic tested every five years and visually inspected annually.

Liability insurance is extremely costly. Certification agency annual dues, class materials and certification fees are a significant portion of your class tuition.

Travel costs, pool fees, it all adds up.

If you think your scuba course is costly- please think again. 

Chances are your instructor truly loves to introduce students to the underwater world and is working very hard for very little, sometimes zero money.