Divers and potential divers in Albany, Corvallis, Lebanon and Sweet Home have had little or no local opportunity for dive classes, equipment maintenance or air fills for many years.

Mark Fischer and Steve Camden are excited to begin to fill this need. Beginning January 2011, Steve Camden and Mike Bovard will begin teaching a wide range of PADI classes in Albany. Classes will meet in Steve's garage which has been outfitted as a showroom (you may remember a small company called Hewlett Packard started in a garage as well). Confined water dives will take place at the Albany Community Pool a few blocks away. Open Water training will take place at the Yellow House and Green Peter Reservoir.

Air fills are available by appointment. Nitrox fills will be available with one week turn around. A modest selection of equipment will be available in Albany with full inventory and ordering capability available through HydroSports Dive and Travel's shop in Keizer.

Class dates and schedule are available from Steve Camden at steveholly@q.com or 503-508-5950. Watch for details in future emails and on the website www.hydrosports.com.

To kick off classes in Albany Steve and Mike are offering a special price for the Open Water Diver Class. To register for a class, please contact Steve Camden, 503-508-5950 or steveholly@q.com. We have received brand new Sherwood BCD's, regulator and computer consoles for use during classes in Albany.

The $300 Class Fee Includes:
• Use of ALL scuba equipment during class
• Instruction by the Professional Staff of Albany Scuba
• Class and Confined Water Dives in Albany
• Open Water Training Dives in Hoodsport, WA
• Certification Application Fee
• 6 Month Subscription to Dive Training Magazine
• Divers Alert Network Student Accident Insurance

The Class Fee Does Not Include:
• PADI Open Water Dive Crew Pack, $75 per person
• Lodging/Beach fee during open water training dives

Visit www.albanyscuba.com for class schedules

Learning to dive isn’t difficult, but like any activity worth doing, it requires some time and effort. While taking the PADI Open Water Diver course, you’ll enjoy three phases: Knowledge Development, Confined Water Dives and Open Water Dives

The PADI Open Water Diver course is incredibly flexible and performance based, which means that your PADI Dive Center or Resort can offer the program on a wide variety of schedules, and paced according to how fast you progress. It’s possible to complete your confined and open water dives in as few as three or four days (provided you take care to read the manual and watch the video ahead of time).

However, many people prefer a more leisurely schedule. Contact HydroSports Dive and Travel to find out the schedules or ask about a private or semiprivate course.

1. Knowledge Development: This develops your familiarity with basic principles and procedures. You learn things like how pressure affects your body, how to choose the best gear and what to consider when planning dives.

You complete Knowledge Development on your own, reading each of five sections of the PADI Open Water Diver Manual and watching the corresponding section of the PADI Open Water Diver Video (which also previews skills you’ll learn). If you like learning with a personal computer, you can also get the Open Water Diver Manual and Video together as a CD-ROM. You briefly review what you studied in each section with your instructor and take a short quiz to be sure you’re getting it. At the end of the course, you take an exam that makes sure you’ve got all the key concepts and ideas down.

2. Confined Water Dives: This is what it’s all about. You develop basic scuba skills in a pool or in a body of water with pool-like conditions. Here you’ll learn everything from setting up your gear to how to easily get water out of your mask without surfacing. You’ll also practice some emergency skills, like sharing air just in case. Plus, you may play some games, make new friends and have a great time.

There are five confined water dives, with each building upon the previous. Over the course of these five dives, you develop the skills you need to dive in open water.

HydroSports conducts our Open Water Dives at the Yellow House in Hoodsport, Washington.

The Yellow House is a private home custom outfitted for scuba diving. Owned by a diving instructor, the house sleeps nine guests in the basement in comfortable bunks and up to six additional guests in private bedrooms on the main and upper floors.

The house is equipped with a fully stocked kitchen, living and dining rooms, three and a half bathrooms, hot tub, barbeque, heated drying room, indoor dressing room for setting up scuba equipment and a private beach for training dives. The local air fill station is 1/8 mile up the road. Most of our guests consider The Yellow House to be a comfortable, well-appointed Bed and Breakfast. We host a pot-luck dinner on Saturday night, one of the traditional highlights of every open water training weekend.