Scuba LEssons

[Mikie]

Looking to get scuba certified. I found this http://www.finnsuit.fi/html/kurssit.html, but wasn't sure if it was the only option around. Has anybody done so? Have any experiences with it? Are the prices listed standard?

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Upphew]

http://www.sukeltaja.fi/content.php?t1=eng&t2=eng_index

[zax]

Go abroad and learn somewhere sunny!

Whilst diving in Finland has many attractions, you'll more often than not end up in a bulky drysuit looking at brown water, brown rocks and if you're lucky some brown fish.

If you're interested in the technical side of diving then this may suit you, but if you're more inclined to relax and enjoy the wonders of nature then it may not.

Just my 2 cents worth, based on learning in a Scottish loch, spoiling myself in various exotic locations abroad, and then freezing below the Baltic.

Cue a bunch of outraged Finnish divers

[Bubba Elvis XIV]

Sorry to hijack (no, I am not!) but this is Interesting...

I've messed around with the idea of learning scuba diving. I love swimming & snorkeling and spent a good few years in Cyprus messing around in the sea. my brother scuba dived there. But doing it here doesn't seem like fun...(I'll add it to the list). I heard Hanko is ok.

Where would you recommend for learning it abroad?...Thailand seems like the new Canary Islands so I'll give that a miss.

[Pursuivant]

Dunno, I got a.... PDIC license back in the day at Ft Lauderdale. Lost the license card itself after a cultural enrichment downtown besides which it was too old, and couldn't get renewals as they mainly do 90% PADI here - some NAUI maybe... (and its too f*n cold for me). Lot of people go Hurghada / Israel to battle with the sharks in the Red Sea. I'd need ac specially made mask so I'm waiting for a lottery win...

[Mikie]

Sorry, didn't specify properly above. Next summer for our honeymoon, we are planning on going somewhere sunny with water you can actually see through. I was hoping to get certified beforehand, so when we arrive at our destination we can just jump in, so to speak. So really, I was looking for indoor scuba lessons done in a pool.

[Pursuivant]

They do "resort dives" anyplace

[zax]

Sorry, didn't specify properly above. Next summer for our honeymoon, we are planning on going somewhere sunny with water you can actually see through. I was hoping to get certified beforehand, so when we arrive at our destination we can just jump in, so to speak. So really, I was looking for indoor scuba lessons done in a pool.

You'll have to go in the real water to become certified (PADI OWD for example). So you'll do theory, pool dives and then open water dives. You can always do the theory and pool dives here and then finish off with the open water dives in a nice warm location.

That said, if you do the whole thing in Finland you'll then find diving in warm clear water unencumbered by a drysuit a blessed relief And you'll gain "tough guy" points when the divemaster asks everybody when their last dive was. "Helsinki, Finland, last winter"

[karel]

Do your certification in Finland, you get to dive EVERYwhere, do it in some sort of resort where you can look underwater from Bonaire to Hawaii, you get to dive only in the clear waters.