scuba diving lessons -- what do you think reasonable prices are?

Just wanted to get a second opinion from my WATMM bros.

Is more than $300 too much for beginner scuba diving lessons? Or what do you think is the cutoff/threshold where I should decide "no I'm not spending that much, that's ridiculous"?

i can ask a friend of mine who took them through his college, are you jsut trying to go through a dive shop? where do you live?

on any of the hawaiian islands they offer beginner scuba lessons for around $150 , it includes a full day beginner boat dive and a full day swimming pool instruction.

I made the mistake of not getting lessons before i took my first dive and really fucked up my ear

  On 8/13/2009 at 11:07 PM, Awepittance said:

i can ask a friend of mine who took them through his college, are you jsut trying to go through a dive shop? where do you live?

I want to get some experience in scuba diving because I miss being in the water all the time like when I was a kid. That was what I loved before I became a full-time bedroom computer hermit -- swimming, being in water. And after almost a year of sending my resume to software companies and being ignored or rejected, I'm considering a line of work for something else that I think I'd enjoy. Even if it doesn't pay much. Or maybe it does. I just think scuba diving would be neat, too.

I live near Seattle, so a large body of water is always within walking distance.

  Quote

I made the mistake of not getting lessons before i took my first dive and really fucked up my ear

How?

I paid $200 to get fully certified in the Philippines, it was a week and a half long course. I've heard it costs more than that per session in the states which is why I took the course while I was there. Was a bit of a waste for me though, I've never gone scuba diving since my last visit there.

The ear thing, yea I did that too even with lessons. The way scuba works you wear a vest with air in it that lets you control what depth you float at. In order for that to work your breathing has to remain constant and consistent, hold your breath a second too long and you float up to the surface or if you exhale and don't take a breath for a moment you sink. My problem was any time I'd stop to examine some coral or a school of fish I'd naturally hold my breath for a moment and float up to the surface. When your over twelve feet deep doing this will murder your ears and leave you wishing you'd never tried scuba for a week.

My parents used to go diving quite a bit, I'll ask my mum tomorrow if this thread is still about.

I never did it, I have an Ulillillia-esque aversion to 'blue water'.

Join the RAF, you can learn and get equipment for free. What my dad did during his time there anyway.

He can't cause he's American. Maybe he could join the American air navy.