Discover Scuba Diving...positive or negative experience?

[LaCroix42]

Took my wife to Scuba Toys for her Discovery class. She was EXTREMELY hesitant about it, and just about started crying pool-side. I came along with my gear to some some water time, and the instructor doing the class was fine with that. He kept her in the shallow end of the pool, did not allow fins on her, and went over reg replace (first, which she aced), mask remove/replace and just plain sit on the bottom of the pool.

Once those drills were done, he let us play around for about 30 minutes. As I said, she was terrified at first thinking claustrophobia would kick in. I told her three times "If you don't want to take the class, tell me now before we drop $1500 on gear and classes for you, but you will most likely enjoy this and not doing the discovery at least for a minute would be a tragedy."

We walked out with a class scheduled and another $300 towards Joe, Larry and their over-head.

[Vercingetorix]

I got a Discover SCUBA session for my nephew for his birthday. He thoroughly enjoyed it. The instructor, international underwater photographer and writer, was very patient with him. My nephew enjoyed it and wants to continue.

[Tully Mars]

I go out on the discovery dive boat all the time at three different dive shops up and down the Costa Maya. It's a cheap or free dive for me. I think the experience is highly dependent on a couple factors. First some people just don't like the water and aren't ever going to. Two some instructors are more patient then others.

Most of the time I think it's a decent way to check it out and see if it's something you'd like to do. I did it years and several hundred dives ago.

[paperdesk]

My wife and I took a discover dive to see if we wanted to continue on to the Open Water course. We were hooked!

It was a fantastic experience for us. Not so for my dad who took it another time. The instructor (same one we used) literally pulled him down, even with my dad signing he was having trouble with his ears. I don't know what went wrong, but we had a hard time convincing my dad to try it again. Maybe the instructor was having a hard day or something.

A friend took a Discover "course" in Mexico, then they let her dive just like any certified diver, only she had to pay more. No instructor was on the dives, and the DM didn't even stay close to her or watch her. We quickly figured out we had to act as DM's for her or no one would. Of course she thought she was a "diver" though she had basicly no training. It was really scary. She did well with what she knew, but what she knew amounted to almost nothing. They didn't even teach her how to adjust the bouyancy in her BCD.

Some discover dives are great and others terrible. I've seen it go both ways, even from the same instructor.

[Tully Mars]

Originally Posted by paperdesk

A friend took a Discover "course" in Mexico, then they let her dive just like any certified diver, only she had to pay more. No instructor was on the dives, and the DM didn't even stay close to her or watch her. We quickly figured out we had to act as DM's for her or no one would. Of course she thought she was a "diver" though she had basicly no training. It was really scary. She did well with what she knew, but what she knew amounted to almost nothing. They didn't even teach her how to adjust the bouyancy in her BCD.

This can be a problem down here in Mexico. I think most of the time, not always but most of the time, it's with large dive ops where the goal is to push as many divers through as possible. I was reading another thread and someone mentioned a father/son discover diver team going down to 80ft with all the other divers. That's not how it's suppose to be done. The max on that course is, I think, 40ft.

Like anything do a little research and find a good shop/instructor to do it and I think it's a fine way to find out if scuba is for you.

BTW- When I did my discover course years ago a friend joined me. He hated it and has never don a BC since. I loved it and signed up for a full course a soon as I got home. Been diving ever since.

[Lulubelle]

I took a Discover Scuba course with my friend when we were at the JW Marriott in Cancun for an award trip. The instructor was fantastic and very thorough. He was working with 4 of us, my friend and I and a father/son pair from the midwest. My friend could not equalize and did not go out to the ocean dives. The other 3 of us did.

The instructors/DMs on the ocean dives were different. We went to 35 feet. They babysat us and would not let us touch the air in our BCs. The son of the man in our class got spooked and did not make it down. Because the dive went well I was able to go out the next day and went on 2 50 foot dives. I was hooked.

I returned to Cancun for a meeting the following year and did my certification with the same instructor who worked with me one on one and was terrific.

I'd recommend these classes to anyone who is curious. Perhaps not to someone who isn't completely ocean comfortable to start though, at least not in this setting.

[Tully Mars]

Originally Posted by Lulubelle

I took a Discover Scuba course with my friend when we were at the JW Marriott in Cancun for an award trip. The instructor was fantastic and very thorough. He was working with 4 of us, my friend and I and a father/son pair from the midwest. My friend could not equalize and did not go out to the ocean dives. The other 3 of us did.

The instructors/DMs on the ocean dives were different. We went to 35 feet. They babysat us and would not let us touch the air in our BCs. The son of the man in our class got spooked and did not make it down. Because the dive went well I was able to go out the next day and went on 2 50 foot dives. I was hooked.

I returned to Cancun for a meeting the following year and did my certification with the same instructor who worked with me one on one and was terrific.

I'd recommend these classes to anyone who is curious. Perhaps not to someone who isn't completely ocean comfortable to start though, at least not in this setting.

Was that through dive shop at the Marriott?

[Lulubelle]

Originally Posted by Tully Mars

Was that through dive shop at the Marriott?

Yes Tully, the JW Marriott though, not the Magna Casa. They have a cool training pool with a thirty foot depth and fake coral. Fernando was the instructor. I was less impressed with the folks on the OW dives, but they were good enough, some were terrific as well. If you know those folks, tell Fernando he made a real diver out of me and that I'm diving with the sharks in NC now!

[Cougar Diver]

Positive. I took my family on an adventure. We did the discovery scuba class at a local dive shop. Cost was $25 per person. Instructor was awesome! I worried about my son who was 14. He was the first one at the deep end of the pool. (upsidedown!)

[bennerman]

Originally Posted by Vercingetorix

I got a Discover SCUBA session for my nephew for his birthday. He thoroughly enjoyed it. The instructor, international underwater photographer and writer, was very patient with him. My nephew enjoyed it and wants to continue.

Nice job... "Mommy, Uncle Vercingetorix paid $30 for discover scuba, if you don't pay $400 for lessons, I am going to make a scene." They must have hated you :P. BTW, love your Avatar