Checkout dives this weekend at Battleground Lake

[QM3Bass]

Hello, my son and I just finished our SSI classes through Aquatic Sports and we are doing our checkout dives this weekend at Battleground Lake. We will be looking to get our next level done ASAP so we can start volunteering at the Oregon Aquarium. We bought 7mm wetsuits, a hooded vest, boots, gloves, along with everything else except an air tank. $5K later...I hope we are on the right track for NW diving. I’ll take suggestions and would love to find some people to start diving with.

[Tom Nic]

Welcome to the joy!

And congratulations on your intention to volunteer. It has been my observation that many folks get certified for whatever reason, but if they don't find a passion that KEEPS them diving (critters, photography, REEF, volunteering, hunting, bottle hunting, tech diving, travel, etc) they will soon drift off.

Congratulations also on getting your own equipment. Quite an investment! But very worth it... I always had a bit of buyers remorse a few months or a year after buying some equipment... goes with the sport as you dive more, meet other people, hear other perspectives on diving and gear than just from the shop you certified with. But no worries.... with your own equipment you will dive more! Yay!

Start saving for and looking into a drysuit. This will keep you diving year round, and much more comfortable in the long run. Although I know plenty of wet suit monsters who dive like crazy and are way more badass than I am!!!

Welcome to NWDC, and hope to see you in the water someday!

[BillZ]

Welcome to the board!
Just a suggestion, but I would take back the wetsuits and boots before you use them and get drysuits. Typically, Most folks that regularly dive in our NW waters dive dry.

[QM3Bass]

Welcome to the board!
Just a suggestion, but I would take back the wetsuits and boots before you use them and get drysuits. Typically, Most folks that regularly dive in our NW waters dive dry.

Thank you for the suggestion. I will look into that.

[QM3Bass]

Welcome to the joy!

And congratulations on your intention to volunteer. It has been my observation that many folks get certified for whatever reason, but if they don't find a passion that KEEPS them diving (critters, photography, REEF, volunteering, hunting, bottle hunting, tech diving, travel, etc) they will soon drift off.

Congratulations also on getting your own equipment. Quite an investment! But very worth it... I always had a bit of buyers remorse a few months or a year after buying some equipment... goes with the sport as you dive more, meet other people, hear other perspectives on diving and gear than just from the shop you certified with. But no worries.... with your own equipment you will dive more! Yay!

Start saving for and looking into a drysuit. This will keep you diving year round, and much more comfortable in the long run. Although I know plenty of wet suit monsters who dive like crazy and are way more badass than I am!!!

Welcome to NWDC, and hope to see you in the water someday!

Thank you! Funny that you mentioned buyers remorse. I have been struggling with that for weeks. I feel like I’ve been talked into buying a lot of things I don’t teally need. But that’s what I work for - to spend it.

Great pictures. Thanks for attaching those. My ultimate goal is to dive wrecks. I’m an ex-navy guy and I am interested in history.

[Tom Nic]

Welcome to the board!
Just a suggestion, but I would take back the wetsuits and boots before you use them and get drysuits. Typically, Most folks that regularly dive in our NW waters dive dry.

Thank you for the suggestion. I will look into that.

+1!!

Funny that you mentioned buyers remorse. I have been struggling with that for weeks. I feel like I’ve been talked into buying a lot of things I don’t teally need. But that’s what I work for - to spend it.

Yeah, it goes with the territory, fortunately and unfortunately.

I rented for 6 months, and then bought gear that served me well - 12 years ago! I still dive the same regulator, but everything else has changed and I am really, really happy with what I currently dive, although because of budget reasons it took me a long time diving in gear that I felt was less than optimal until I could afford different.

I am grateful to the many dive shops in our area, and understand that to stay in business they need to sell stuff!

Unfortunately, we don't know what we don't know, and so make equipment decisions that we later regret as we dive more and learn more.

Leave the regret behind, and just go dive and have a good time! We all eventually end up spending way more $$$ than we thought we would in this wonderful joyful addiction, and your purchases will get better. The priority is to DIVE! ...as often as you can.

Talk to divers. When you see someone in a gear set up you don't recognize, ask them "What do you dive and Why?" Listen. Learn. Lots of opinions and opinionated divers! But you will start seeing a pattern that will help you make decisions based on the kind of diving that you do, what seems to work best in those situations, and who you mostly dive with. Ask questions! Most experienced divers are more than happy to tell you why they dive a particular kit or style. The differing perspectives will help you form your own.

Good luck!

[Gdog]

Hey, welcome to the sport and the addiction! Great input from Tom and Bill. As far as the buyers remorse, I get it too. But if you got into this sport thinkjng it would be inexpensive, you picked the wrong sport! So push the remorse aside, and figuratively and literally dive into it. There is so much to learn and an entire new world to experience, and if you are gonna spend your money, what a great way to do it.

[Vjw]

Greetings! I dove with a wetsuit up here for 18 months almost every week before getting my first drysuit. Learned to stay warm during surface intervals with warm drinks and reusable warm packs, but was super glad to get drysuit. That being said, there’s no ‘one way’ to do things - just keep diving.

Welcome to scuba!!

[QM3Bass]

Greetings! I dove with a wetsuit up here for 18 months almost every week before getting my first drysuit. Learned to stay warm during surface intervals with warm drinks and reusable warm packs, but was super glad to get drysuit. That being said, there’s no ‘one way’ to do things - just keep diving.

Welcome to scuba!!

Hey. Thank you! I’m looking forward to more dives.

[FlyinV]

How deep did you get in Battle Ground Lake?
I sure noticed in my drysuit it got really cold below 30ft.

Almost thinking we need to do a trash pick up dive there -- So much laying around -- I picked up a fin and some sun glasses but left all the rest of the trash there.

[QM3Bass]

How deep did you get in Battle Ground Lake?
I sure noticed in my drysuit it got really cold below 30ft.

Almost thinking we need to do a trash pick up dive there -- So much laying around -- I picked up a fin and some sun glasses but left all the rest of the trash there.

We hit 23’ and stayed close to the shoreline. The water temperature went from 72 to 64 right around the 18’ to 20’ level. The second day I wore my hooded vest under my 7mm and I was comfortable except for the exposed area around my mouth.

We are headed up to Hoodsport today. Hoping we can survive the colder water with our 7mm and hooded vest.

[QM3Bass]

Hey, welcome to the sport and the addiction! Great input from Tom and Bill. As far as the buyers remorse, I get it too. But if you got into this sport thinkjng it would be inexpensive, you picked the wrong sport! So push the remorse aside, and figuratively and literally dive into it. There is so much to learn and an entire new world to experience, and if you are gonna spend your money, what a great way to do it.

Hey, thank you. Well the remorse has passed now that we ventured out on our own for some dives up at Hoodsport. It was amazing and so worth all the money. Looking forward to more diving. We are signed up for AOW classes.

[tykeal]

How deep did you get in Battle Ground Lake?
I sure noticed in my drysuit it got really cold below 30ft.

Almost thinking we need to do a trash pick up dive there -- So much laying around -- I picked up a fin and some sun glasses but left all the rest of the trash there.

I could totally do a dive there easily now that I'm in Vancouver (North Portland) I'm missing my regular ThThTh dives! So, if a trash pick-up dive gets scheduled I would be totally in for it. I've not dived that location at all yet, heck I haven't dived fresh water