Scuba certification by Christmas

I could give you suggestions on dive spots like Vortex Springs, but honestly you simply need to call the dive shops in the area you want to travel to and tell them your situation, and they will plan the number of dives needed to get the card. I recommend Panama City, because they cater to beginning divers and have purposely sunken boats/ships and even bridge spans to help attract divers to the area.

Have dove Belize as well, do a night dive while there, pretty cool.

I did vortex springs and Panama City for my checkout dives. Vortex springs is a cold monkey to dive in. We stayed in a room at vortex springs and still laugh about the accommodations there. Kind of like staying at the Bates motel.

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Thoughts on scuba diving in Florida, mid-late October? Other suggestions welcome.

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The Panama City area is really good for checkout dives. Most places around here used to do a couple of dives at Vortex Spring, then a day offshore out of PCB. The weather in October will be fine. Wetsuits will keep you warm between dives.

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I did vortex springs and Panama City for my checkout dives. Vortex springs is a cold monkey to dive in. We stayed in a room at vortex springs and still laugh about the accommodations there. Kind of like staying at the Bates motel.

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I never stayed in a room there. My old dive buddy and I would camp out there 2 or 3 times a year for a nice weekend diving the cave.

Crystal River, FL is where I got mine. Did it in a weekend and you are never in a pool. Checkout dives are fun with tons of wildlife

I dont have any suggestions about Florida, but I would get it all done before you leave.

PADI OW can be had with about 8 hours of e-learning and two full days in the water. You can literally get it done in a weekend if you take care of the e-learning ahead of time.

I wouldn't do checkout in Belize because those dives still require her to do skills. I would want that time to actually dive and enjoy myself.

Where are you diving in Belize? Blue Hole is cool and worth doing once. One of the best places I have been was on the same day, Half Moon Caye. It's a whole day to get out there and back, but it was worth it. It's a wall dive with crazy amounts of wildlife.

The San Pedro area is also very cool, drift dives over ridges that are full of snapper, grouper and sharks. They all follow the boats around. They dropped us in about 60' of water and at the surface we had grouper, yellowtail snapper, dog snapper and sharks all around us. Once we dropped down, they took off to find another boat to follow
You would see boats pass over and giant schools of fish just cruising behind them. They were good dives.