Jen and I will have been married for five years as of June 14th, 2008 and decided to do something special for our anniversary.  We figured that learning how to SCUBA dive would be cool since both of us are mildly phobic about the ocean and had never done anything with it before (and the mountains were getting a bit old so we figured a new hobby might be in order).  We decided to get certified rather than just jump in with someone because we thought that proper introduction and training would take something that would otherwise be scary and might fail and turn it into something fantastic (turns out we were right).  

The basic certification requires a few tests, four pool dives, and four open water dives where you go over scenarios like losing your mask or needing to make an emergency ascent or needing to use a buddies air supply , etc.  We did our pool work and coursework at Weaver's Dive Shop in Boulder.  We finished our Open Water PADI certification in Cozumel with Scuba Tony during a ten day vacation that started with snorkeling in Akumal, seeing the ruins in Tulum, and ended with 4 days of diving in the beautiful reefs of Cozumel.

Tony especially is a great guy to work with, the groups are small, the attention is sincere and focused and he really is good at helping people work past the initial fears of learning how to become a diver.  His Divemaster Eric and ship captain Carlos are also great guys and we really appreciated the in between dive fruit, drinks, and pier pick ups/drop offs at our hotel.  As of June 24th, 2008 we have also comlpeted our Nitrox certification.

Ultimately I'd like to become a Dive Master although I envision the money and time this requires means it will take me five to ten years to do.


Jared - PADI Open Water, Nitrox
Jen - PADI Open Water, Nitrox

Jared
Cozumel 2008 - 9 dives ( max depth 80 feet, drift diving, 1 wreck dive, 1 solo dive)
Total  - 9 dives

Jen
Cozumel 2008 - 8 dives ( max depth 80 feet, drift diving, 1 wreck dive)
Total - 8 dives