Pia?-St. John Julie? Scuba info-

[mahojim]

For "Our Christmas Present", I have My Sweet Amy & I enrolled in Scuba certification classes for up here in Jersey.
I was told that after the classroom/pool lessons that we have here in Jersey, we can get "officially certified" with a referral on STJ. It's pretty expensive. Any suggestions?
Thanks, and always
Smiles
Jimmy

[captainjay]

I'am not Pia or Julie but I have slept in a Holiday Inn Express before. I even occasionally dive. I would think that Collete at Six Pak Scuba would be a good choice. She will do it on her smaller boat with personal service. Low Key would be adequat as well but the level of service won't be as personal on a bigger boat.
Jay

[Connie]

Hey Jim...I'm not taking the classes up here, but I am taking my first introduction to diving with Homer at Hull Bay on STT. He's suppose to be great.

He does night snorkeling, but that freaks me out.

[jayseadee]

Check out low key's site - http://www.divelowkey.com/basic.html

It gives several options for certification - sounds like you would be in the Open Water referral group - $250.

I'm pretty sure that Mr. & Mrs. jimg20 did their full certification with Low Key and gave them high marks. You could PM him if he doesn't catch this post.

Sorry that we'll miss you again - we get to STJ after sailing on 5/1.

[Bigcheeze]

I'm not Pia or Julie either but I played them on TV.

My wife and I both did our pool/course work in Michigan and did the open water with Low Key in '04...we liked them alot and it was me and not my wife that had to surface once real quickly...lol

Dave

[jimg20]

As is usually the case, Jayseadee is correct. We took all of our dive lessons over three half days in '08 at Low Key. We studied before we got there so that we were a little closer to being up to speed. Half of our "classroom time" was on the deck of the boat off one of the cays between STT & STJ. You can learn as much or more about a regulator in that setting as you can in a New Jersey building. We considered taking the classroom and confined water segments at home and doing the referral in STJ for the open water segment. The reasons we didn't do it was the cost and the need for continuity. We did not start out as relaxed divers. It was important that we got the individual attention that we needed. It worked.

Before we left I was asked, "you're going to spend your vacation in dive school?" It wasn't like that at all. We were able to take the classes in the morning three days in a row and hit a beach after lunch. We took our first certified dives the fourth day. Whether you go to Low Key or any of the other qualified shops, you will enjoy taking all of it on STJ.

I asked a diver how I would know if I was going to a good dive shop. She told me to go to PADI.com and select a 5 Star shop and you can't go wrong.


JIM

[mahojim]

Thanks all. The rate from Cruz Bay was $385.00 pp. New to all of this, but it seems a little steep. I'll DEFINATELY poke around a bit.
Dave- you kill me, man!
Smiles
MJ

[stjohnjulie]

Hmm...I am Julie, but I'm no help! I don't dive... BUT am anxious to hear how this turns out, so let us know!