Where do I start?

Pipz

Hey guys,
I went on holiday about two years ago to a place called Majaca in Spain. I was quite bored, and found a Scuba Diving centre, and decided to give it a go. I booked in for two dives, which went really well. I completely fell in love with it. I stayed in the shop for a couple of hours a day, finding out how all the equipment worked etc, and because of my interest in it, the guy who ran the shop let me go out with other groups every day for the rest of the two weeks, for no extra cost. I just had to make sure I learned, and was able to get my own gear ready for the dives, and to help put things away after we got back. I did the first P.A.D.I exam, and passed it. When I got home I was disappointed I had to stop.

I only found out recently that there are places around Ireland which let you dive. I can't get any of my own gear, as I dont have a job, and rely on money from my parents at the moment.

I was just wondering if you guys could give me some tips on where to get started etc. It would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
~Pipz,

Dunner190

I was the same, I tried diving in Spain back in 2000 and loved it. While on hols in Tenerife in 2002 I did my scuba diver course. Did very little until this summer when I just got my act together and continued my training with oceandivers in Dublin. Admittedly it is a quite expensive sport/hobby. But just like in Spain you can rent everything until you feel the need or can buy your own gear. Now I'm a padi advanced open water diver with all of my own kit but I worked very hard to get the funds to get here. Its the winter so save your money and wait till the summer... You could also look into joining a c.f.t. club. I'm not a member of one but I;m sure some people on here are and could tell you more about it.

joeKel73

Pipz wrote: »

I can't get any of my own gear, as I dont have a job, and rely on money from my parents at the moment.

CFT is definately the cheapest option for you so.

I see from your previous posts that you're in IT Tallaght, who do not have a SubAqua Club. It might sound like a lot of effort .... but have you considered finding a few like-minded people together and approaching the college to setup a SubAqua Club. Most of the big colleges have very healthy clubs now and you'll leave a great legacy in your college! :-) The best way to go about this is to try team up with another CFT club as they will have qualified trainers. You will rely heavily on them initially but over time you can become more independent as your members get trained up.

You would need to convince the college to buy a compressor, a way of transporting it (trailor or van), set of club regs, BCDs and tanks (maybe 10x each to get started). Members would then be expected to buy their own semi-dry, fins, weightbelt, mark and snorkel.... but you'll find as a wave of new members come in every year this can be got much cheaper in a bulk order. There'll also be running costs of servicing gear, fuel for compressor, swimming pool rental etc. Other colleges do it so no reason you can't!

As that would be a very big initial cost to get the club running, another option is to team up with another college club. Contact say UCD SAC and see if you can twin up... see if ITT will contribute a couple of thousand towards the annual funding and have the UCD/ITT Sub Aqua Club. If enough members get involved and trained up, ITT could form their own independent club over time.

I'm in the NUIG/GMIT SubAqua Club.... funded both by NUIG and GMIT. The funding is pretty proportional to the relative numbers of members from each college. We're also joined up with Galway SubAqua club for doing lectures and training... makes sense to share knowledge and costs!

Anyway try get a group together and see what ye come up with! If you've any questions ask away!

loctite

Hey... Joining or setting up a club is still gonna leave you with the same problem... you will have to buy gear at some stage.

Why don't you approach one your local dive centres. They may be interested in taking you on to work in exchange for courses/ Dives?? I know others have done it in the past.

Check out the PADI website and search for centres there...

Its worth a shot.

joeKel73

In college clubs the college owns the gear (BCDs, Regs and Tanks) so all you need to get is a semi-dry with hood and booties, snorkel kit and weightbelt.

locum-motion

Wow!
When someone comes on the the Diving forum and asks "Where do I start?", you tell them "Start a club from scratch!"
Do you honestly think that's the best answer to the question?

foto joe wrote: »

CFT is definately the cheapest option for you so.

I see from your previous posts that you're in IT Tallaght, who do not have a SubAqua Club. It might sound like a lot of effort .... but have you considered finding a few like-minded people together and approaching the college to setup a SubAqua Club. Most of the big colleges have very healthy clubs now and you'll leave a great legacy in your college! :-) The best way to go about this is to try team up with another CFT club as they will have qualified trainers. You will rely heavily on them initially but over time you can become more independent as your members get trained up.

You would need to convince the college to buy a compressor, a way of transporting it (trailor or van), set of club regs, BCDs and tanks (maybe 10x each to get started). Members would then be expected to buy their own semi-dry, fins, weightbelt, mark and snorkel.... but you'll find as a wave of new members come in every year this can be got much cheaper in a bulk order. There'll also be running costs of servicing gear, fuel for compressor, swimming pool rental etc. Other colleges do it so no reason you can't!

As that would be a very big initial cost to get the club running, another option is to team up with another college club. Contact say UCD SAC and see if you can twin up... see if ITT will contribute a couple of thousand towards the annual funding and have the UCD/ITT Sub Aqua Club. If enough members get involved and trained up, ITT could form their own independent club over time.

I'm in the NUIG/GMIT SubAqua Club.... funded both by NUIG and GMIT. The funding is pretty proportional to the relative numbers of members from each college. We're also joined up with Galway SubAqua club for doing lectures and training... makes sense to share knowledge and costs!

Anyway try get a group together and see what ye come up with! If you've any questions ask away!

joeKel73

Every club had to be started at some point! It's not as hard a task setting up in a college as it would be outside college, not something they would do on their own either, after getting a good group of interested people together it is very possible! Eh, I was only giving a possible option under the OP's circumstances!

truebluesac

depends on were your based . cft is the cheapest optrion by far , and most clubs have club sets for use by trainees and people in your position ,

i am the diving officer of my club and we have 1 set of trainees gear that is not in use at the mo . your more than welcome to come up and have a look and see if its more financially vesable for you and what you want to do . we are based in dublin . we hav 5 instructors and soon to be 7 . we have many senior qualifed divers and have trainees just like u .we cover all aspects of diving from bginner to instructor and on to technicall diving

the only thing that i will say is that scuba divin can be and is an expensive sport .

for cheap second hand equipment go to "divegear.ie" great bargins there if you know what to look for . if you are goin to join any club there will be people to advise you on this

truebluesac

to set up a club u will need an instructor who will be there all of the time . or some1 from another club who will over see the training untill you hav suitably qualified people to take over the rains .

this is a very hard slog . and not a move to be taken lightly .

as said we are based in dublin and there are any clubs up your way . my advice would be to join a cft club like ours . if you want to know clubs in your area look on "irish underwater council" this is the cft web site

hope this helps

joeKel73

truebluesac wrote: »

if you want to know clubs in your area look on "irish underwater council" this is the cft web site

http://cft.ie/clubs.htm

locum-motion

foto joe wrote: »

Every club had to be started at some point!

True, but would you care to have a guess as to how many of them were started by someone who had never dived before?
I'd hazard a guess that's it's zero.

So, I ask again:
"Do you honestly think that's the best answer to the question?"

joeKel73

Of course that'd be daft. The OP has dived before though! But the important point is that they'd get a group together first... put up a few posters then any experienced divers in the college... and maybe a few with CFT certs would come out of the woodwork and get involved from the start. Get a group of 15-20 together and you'd get the ball rolling. And as I said before you'd need to team up with another club for a few years. Simply setting up the cross-college club arrangement with the likes of UCD that I mentioned wouldn't be that difficult at all, the likes of UCD will have the experience, trainers in place... I'm sure they'd welcome the addidional college funding from being a joint-club.

It might not be "the best answer to the question" but I'm just suggesting a possible low-cost alternative!! :rolleyes: Thinking outside the box a bit I admit, but possible. No need to bash genuine suggestions without coming forward with better alternatives.

truebluesac

i would have to disagree with the cross college aspect . ucd hav a few active instructors , and every year hav lots and lots of trainees . they can bearly cope with their own .

they regularly ask for other instructors to help out , and this is what CFT are all about . helping out

join a club is the best and eaiser option for the first year or 2 get to know the system and people within cft and then contimplate starting your own club would be my advice .

truebluesac

foto joe wrote: »

http://cft.ie/clubs.htm

ya cant make it TOOOOOOOO easy for them

mugs

Hi Pipz,

you didn't mention what PADI test you did but If it was the Open Water Course then there are PADI Dive clubs and centres around the country that you could Dive with. All of the clubs below have full sets of gear that you can rent for dives Im sure if you contacted one of them they would be happy to help and get you back in the water.

Good Luck

http://www.first4scuba.com/

http://www.scubadivewest.com/index.php

http://www.oceandivers.ie/

http://www.oceanlife.ie/index.php

Pipz

Wow thanks for all the replys!

Because I'm only in my first year of college, and only just starting out diving really, I think I'll leave setting up a club for the time being. Maybe it'll be a good idea in a year or two though.

It was indeed the Open Water Diver course that I did, and I'll definitely check out the websites you guys linked me to. Thanks again for all the advice, it's much appreciated.

mugs

I think alot of PADI Dive Centres take on Interns so you could work at the centre in exchange for courses and free dives on weekends and summer break both in Ireland and abroad.

Happy Diving.

locum-motion

mugs wrote: »

I think alot of PADI Dive Centres take on Interns so you could work at the centre in exchange for courses and free dives on weekends and summer break both in Ireland and abroad.

Happy Diving.

Correct on the interns thing, but usually (AFAIK) the internship is a PADI Divemaster course, which of course you have to pay for. That said, of course, once you've done it, you can then work in the dive industry, so after the initial outlay then it's a source of free diving or even some income from diving.
Plus, if you're doing a bit of work for a PADI Centre you would probably get a staff discount on your gear, possibly get first dibs on any ex-hire gear that was for sale, and (although I'm not really 100% sure about this one, you'd need to confirm it with an accountant) you could tax-deduct the gear you buy!

mugs

locum-motion wrote: »

Correct on the interns thing, but usually (AFAIK) the internship is a PADI Divemaster course, which of course you have to pay for. That said, of course, once you've done it, you can then work in the dive industry, so after the initial outlay then it's a source of free diving or even some income from diving.
Plus, if you're doing a bit of work for a PADI Centre you would probably get a staff discount on your gear, possibly get first dibs on any ex-hire gear that was for sale, and (although I'm not really 100% sure about this one, you'd need to confirm it with an accountant) you could tax-deduct the gear you buy!

Cool!! I Stand Corrected