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.

Update: July 13th - 20th, 2009 We went snorkelling with whale sharks in Holbox and back to Cozumel.

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)
Cozumel 2009 - 11 dives (max depth 111 feet, drift diving, first night dive, first dives with back plate and wings from Deep Sea Supply, 5-6 lbs no, wet suit,many nurse sharks, many turtles, very cool parrot fish, first octopus, first time diving with a computer (Sunto Vyper 2) awesome dives with Brian Morsony, TImothy Hallinan, and Brianna Harp)
Total  - 20 dives

Jen
Cozumel 2008 - 8 dives (max depth 80 feet, drift diving, 1 wreck dive)
Cozumel 2009 - 5 dives (max depth 111 feet, drift diving, first night dive, first dives with back plate and wings from Deep Sea Supply, 3-4 lbs no, wet suit, many nurse sharks, many turtles, very cool parrot fish, awesome dives with Brian Morsony, TImothy Hallinan, and Brianna Harp)
Total - 13 dives

Scuba Tony - A great dive master in Cozumel
SCUBA Board - A very informative and friendly forum
Deep Sea Supply - A maker of back plate/wing BCDs, highg quality and the owner gives a great deal of personal attention
Tech Diving Limited - A good Source of SCUBA equipment from a small, personal shop
Ocean First Divers - A good, Boulder based dive shop, offers technical courses
PADI - Information from the largest certification agency in the United States
Greatful Diver's School of Diving - Great Articles