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| - I had gone on two discover scuba dives in Cabo and Maui and was excited to explore the beauty of aquatic life in depth. Literally. I decided to embark on the mission of getting scuba certified. So living in Arizona, how does one even get certified here!? You think that it's all desert, but it's possible because of the lakes! I did some research and found a nearby scuba company called Saguaro Scuba on Groupon. For just $209 you can get SDI certified for up to 60 feet anywhere in the world! The package included a 16 chapter independent online course, a short day of classroom review/demonstration, rental equipment, a full day learning scuba skills in a pool, and 2 days of open water diving at Lake Pleasant. We just needed to provide our own mask, snorkel, fins, boots, (hood and gloves if it's the cold season which it was for me-December).
It took me about 2 weeks to finish the 16 chapters. It covered topics like aquatic life, nitrogen narcosis, breathing air underwater, currents, equipment assembly, diving skills, and emergency situations just to name a few. There was a quiz at the end of each chapter and a final exam which required at least a 80% to pass. Upon completion, I could then sign up for the diving skills portion. **Important: You must have the first two weekends of the month completely available when signing up for this portion. I picked December.
Mark, my awesome instructor was really knowledgeable and helpful throughout the entire process. There were two other friendly dive masters, Sean and Chris who assisted us.
The first Saturday of December was comprised of 3 hours of classwork (10-1pm) where we went over missed final exam questions. Then we practiced assembly and disassembly of our equipment. The staff at Saguaro were really awesome and set me up with all the rental equipment I needed for Sunday's water skills class. This included my 3mm wetsuit, BCD, weights, regulators, and 2 oxygen tanks. Casey helped me with my personal equipment purchase. It could get pretty pricey, but he showed me a package which was about $120 and it included scuba-appropriate fins, boots, mask, and snorkel. I also ended up buying a hood $35 and gloves $60. I also recommend this spit spray $3 which was a lifesaver for defogging the mask.
The following day, Sunday (9am-4pm. Lunch break 12:30-1) we learned all our skills in a nearby heated outdoor school pool. We started off with a 200 meter swim and 10 minutes treading water. We then learned the scuba skills including underwater mask removal, retrieval of regulator, Cesa, buoyancy control, snorkel to regulator exchange, out of air receive air from buddy, large boat entry, small boat entry, free flowing oxygen, removal of BCD above and below water, & leg cramp release to name a few. Mark, Sean, and Chris were really patient with us. I felt lucky because we had a small class size of 5, so we got a lot of individual attention. Some of the other months had class sizes up to 14+. Once we finished up our skills for the day, we returned to Saguaro Scuba to return our tanks, wetsuits, BCD, regulators, and weights.
Now for the second weekend. We all went to Saguaro Scuba on Friday to pick up the rental equipment for the weekend. It was projected to be about 55 degrees in the water at Lake Pleasant. We got our 7mm wetsuit, 2 tanks, BCD, weights and regulators. We were to meet at Lake Pleasant at 8:30AM and the day would last til 12:30ish. I brought a tarp which was so helpful in setting up all the equipment because the terrain by the lake was really rocky and there were a ton of burrs (stickies) that cling onto everything! This Saturday we just had to demonstrate all the skills we learned the Sunday before. It was a total blast! We returned to Saguaro Scuba to exchange our 2 tanks for 2 new ones. The following day (Sunday), we continued to demonstrate our remaining skills. We also did a compass dive which can be difficult, but fun at the same time! I had the best scuba buddy and we helped each other constantly. Mark signed us off and sent in the paperwork for our certification!
It was a remarkable and memorable experience. Going through the process was extremely rewarding and I am proud to say that I am now scuba certified! I dove in Cabo a few weeks ago and saw some cool reef sharks, tropical fish, a cave and a ship wreck. I'll be diving in Thailand/Bali in April. Thank you to everyone at Saguaro Scuba for making this a reality! :)
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