Hello Water

[TerryUSA]

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[Norris]

Well you found the right place. Keep your eyes open for weekly dives and glad to have ya!

[Penopolypants]

Welcome to diving, and welcome to the board!

[TerryUSA]

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[seattlepaul1975]

Welcome to the board!

[Goodt_godiving]

Welcome to both you and your wife! My hubby is kneedeep on this board and we both dive locally! You will love it once you explore the "down under" or the Puget Sound and other local sites like Victoria etc. As for gear we all have our own configurations and ideas on that. You are right however that GUE divers all gear up the same way. They do a weekly dive on Wed that you can find under dive planning - wacky wed - and feel free to come to any of those dives and talk to them about gear. There is also a weekly dive open to anyone on Thursdays and same thing feel free to show up and ask any questions about gear you may have. You can also post questions under the topic "Gear Central" and ask anything about gear configs there. Personally I dive a Whites drysuit, have a HOGS wing, HOGS regs (w/out the GUE and UTD suggested long 7' hose), dive steel 100 tanks, have an AWESOME hood from Waterproof that is a 5/10 mil (and I highly suggest that hood), I dive wet gloves right now cause my dry gloves keep leaking (long story), have Cressi Reaction fins and a light made by a local diver that is on the board by the name of Rich but his lights are called Dusty Lights. There are a ton of options out there in the world of gear and it can be VERY daunting at first. I would suggest you rent a few different drysuits. I wish I had done that prior to purchasing cause I think I could have a different one that might keep me warmer. I am still pretty new diver with around 85 dives. I JUST ordered a heated shirt which I have only dove 3 times but so far I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. It is from www.heatedwetsuits.com and I got the wireless yellow grade tank top shirt which I can dive wet or dry.

Anyway join a few local dives or just come to talk gear. Call several dive shops to get their suggestions as well and just go diving to find out what works best for you and your wife. Most of all have fun! Hope that helps a bit.

[TerryUSA]

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[LCF]

I think most folks who dive regularly in Puget Sound end up going dry. You can be pretty comfortable for one dive in a wetsuit, but it's a lot of wetsuit and kind of a PITA to get in and out of. But if you want to do multiple dive days or dive off boats, that second dive is going to be a challenge, because it's hard to really warm between dives when you're wet.

You are right that the GUE folks all dive a standardized gear setup. You should know, however, that that's kind of unique to GUE (and fairly widespread, actually, among technical divers). There are a lot of advantages, in terms of being able to lend and borrow equipment easily, and help one another out, and the gear works awfully well in Puget Sound's cold water. By all means come join a Wednesday night get-together and ask us to explain why we use the gear we use! You might also enjoy going to gue.com and clicking on GUE Equipment -- there's a pretty good pictorial essay there.

[Goodt_godiving]

You will find the Wed and Thurs dives each week posted in the Dive Planning section. The Thurs dive we typically Cal Th Th Th and something ayer that About location and date. I missed this week's I'm afraid add I'm diving in the AM tomorrow

[TerryUSA]

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[olalladiver]

Welcome to the board -- Have a great time at WWW and hope to catch you in the water soon...