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@mitsugirly There are a couple advantages to consider in completing your certification at home. 1) You'll most likely do your open water training with the same instructor who you had for your class and pool sessions. this allows for continuity leading to comfort for you. The skills you'll demonstrate will be the same, but having the same instructor makes most people more comfortable. 2) By getting certified at home, you'll then go on your trip as certified divers, so you can start participating in the "real" dives, rather than the structured training dives. Without the paperwork issues, and other concerns related to getting referral dives done. 3) Finally, diving in an inland quarry or lake tends to have colder water, and less (sometimes much less) visibility than the ocean. This doesn't sound like an advantage, but seeing those less than ideal conditions has real value when, someday in your future as divers you find yourself in a situation with poor visibility. This can happen when the current stirs things up, or if another diver silts up an enclosed are on a wreck or swim-through. Having experienced poor visibility during your supervised training dives can pay off. Harris Denver, CO

The old system: 1 Point per cruise An additional point for cruises 12 nights or longer An additional point for concierge class or higher. Max 3 points per cruise. When the conversion occurred, each "old" point equaled 30 "new points. Harris Denver, CO

@mitsugirly OK, For the first question you have a flexible container with six liters of air in it. It's being held to that size by the 1 BAR/ATA or 14.7 PSI of pressure at the surface. It sounds like your confusion may be that you don't start from zero, you start from one. When we take it to 33 feet or 10 Meters depth in seawater, the pressure double to 2 BAR/ATA or 29.4 PSI. Because of Boyle's law the volume is 1/2 when the pressure doubled, so the volume is now 4 liters. We continue down to 20 meters or 66 feet. We increase the pressure to 3 BAR/ATA or 44.1 PSI. Note the pressure doubles from the surface to 33 feet, this time it doesn't double, but does increase by 1 BAR/ATA. So at 66 feet we're at 3 BAR/ATA or 44.1 PSI, so our original pressure from the surface (14.7 PSI) has gone up 3 times (44.1 PSI), so our volume is now 1/3 it's original amount, so that answer is 2 liters. The volume went from 1 to 3 BAR/ATA, so the increase was 2 BAR/ATA. As for the density, you're correct it is 3 times greater at 66 feet of depth in seawater than it would be at the surface. Remember, that this is dealing with gas in a container. so the number of molecules of gas doesn't change; what changes is how "tightly packed" the molecules are. As pressure increases they're pushed together more. Hopefully this made is clearer instead of worse. Harris Denver, CO

@mitsugirly If it's presenting the information in BAR, you may be using the metric version of the eLearning. You might find it easier if you're used to Imperial measurements, to switch to that version. Otherwise a couple basic points that may help: At sea level atmospheric pressure is 14.7 pounds per square inch (PSI). Because of the weight of air, at sea level, there is that pressure exerted against everything. Another way to say 14.7 PSI is 1 BAR, or 1 ATA (Atmosphere Absolute). Water is much heavier than air. Sea water weighs 64 pounds per cubic foot. When you descend in the ocean the pressure starts at the 14.7 PSI atmospheric pressure, and increases another 14.7 PSI every 33 feet you descend. 14.7 at the surface, 29.4 at 33 feet, 44.1 At 66 feet, and so on. The total of the atmospheric (air) pressure and hydrostatic (water) pressure is called absolute pressure. This increasing pressure effects us many interrelated ways as divers due to Boye’s Law: In a flexible container, as pressure increases volume decreases and as pressure decreases volume increases. The flexible containers you’re primarily concerned with as a diver are your lungs, your ears and your buoyancy compensator (BC). If you take a flexible container down from the surface, at 33 feet down it’s volume will be 50% what it was at the surface. Likewise, if you fill a flexible container at 33 feet deep, then take it to the surface it’s volume will double. If the flexible container is your lungs, they’re incapable of that expansion. Hence the reason it’s critical to breathe continuously and never hold your breat on scuba. Otherwise, if you increase something’s volume without changing its weight, it becomes more buoyant. Thus if you have a given amount of air in your BC at 33 feet, and are neutrally buoyant (neither floating up or sinking) the BC will expand as you ascend and you’ll become positively buoyant. This is why it’s best to be properly weighted, so you don’t have air in the BC at depth, but if you do you must vent air out as you ascend, to prevent the ascent from becoming more and more rapid, leading to an unsafe ascent speed (faster than 30 feet per minute). I remember Boyle’s law as “Breathe Or Your Lungs Explode”, which crudely, but effectively summarizes its importance. Harris Denver, CO

@mitsugirly Great! Let us know when you narrow down places for your certification dives. I'm sure between everyone here we'll be able to give you recommendations for a great place to do the dives. Harris Denver, CO

Dominica is tough to find a good shop, as it's not a developed as other islands. However, the difficulty is worth it as the diving is great. I've used Nature Island Dive there, and they were quite good. They're in Soufreire, which is a drive from Rousseau, but they were able to do port pick-up and return when I dove with them. Simon is the owner. If he can he'll make it work for you. Be aware email responses can be slow. (https://natureislanddive.dm/). Harris Denver, CO

Yes, on Watermelon rare occasions it's always best to bring a credit card 🙂 Harris Denver, CO

@Zerog33 While it always raises suspicions that the most recent merchant is somehow where to point the finger when there are fraudulent charges; it's almost never the case. What happens is large scale scammers use various techniques to compromise card numbers. Typically these involve either "brute force" attempts, where a computer is used to try number/CVV combinations (issuers have a standard validity period, so the expiration date is effectively know each month), or compromised numbers from attacks (hacking) of internal systems. Rarely there are compromises of merchant's systems, and those usually make headlines. The good news is that issuers have become so adept at detecting fraudulent activity, that it's more often than not the case that they notify the customer rather than the reverse. Harris Denver, CO

@ebs0303 A lot of people rent a golf cart from Bonaire Cruisers, and use that to go from site to site. That would probably be the best method. I've never done it, but I do understand you want to reserve early with them. Klein Bonaire is a small island about 1/2 mile off shore. If you take a boat there, you should probably plan on just doing that. If you stay on Bonaire itself, you'll be able to get more variety in your snorkeling sites. That being said, of all those sites I named, Bachelor Beach would be my last pick. It's a reasonably nice beach, buy the sand bottom extends out a ways, so snorkeling there would be rather uninspiring I'm afraid. If you go south, I'd say go to Salt Pier then Margate bay, and if you wanted a third, then before Salt Pier go to Wind Sock, which is a small pier that has a lot of coral, and marine life around it. I'd suggest you'd probably be happier if you went north to either 1000 steps or then next site south Weber's Joy, then Oil Slick Leap (don't let the name fool you, there was never an oil slick there), and if you wanted a third then Cliff. Harris Denver, CO

Basically the entire west side of the island is a marine park, and snorkeling and diving occur from almost everywhere. The far north (North of Karpata) is closed in an effort to contain stony coral tissue loss disease. Popular snorkeling sites include 1000 steps (north) bachelor beach and salt pier (south). I'm a diver, but if I were snorkeling I'd look at Oil Slick Leap and the Cliff (North), and Margate Bay (Far south). I'd highly recommend you spend the $30.00 for this book prior to your trip. It's like having your own guide: https://www.amazon.com/Reef-Smart-Guides-Bonaire-Snorkel/dp/1633539806/ref=sr_1_1?s=books The only reason you'd need a boat is to go over to Klein Bonaire. Otherwise, snorkeling from shore is going to get you the same sites. Harris Denver, CO

@mitsugirly I apologize. i wasn't as clear as I should have been. You definitely can still do referral dives, you can no longer do class and pool with one agency and then the referral dives with another. So if you do PADI class and pool, you have to do your referral dives with a PADI instructor. If you do SSI class and pool, you'll need an SSI instructor and so forth. SDI is not nearly so large, so you'd have a more difficult time finding a referral instructor. Harris Denver, CO

@mitsugirly Your Open Water Diver course consists of classroom, pool and your 4 open water certification dives. Please consider that the online learning is a component of your classroom portion. You cannot do the online portion without being registered with a shop for class and pool. With that out of the way, you can logically look at options for getting your certification dives. Options basically come down to either doing your dives locally with the shop/instructor who does your class and pool, or doing "referral" dives. It used to be possible to do what was called a "universal referral", where you'd do your class and pool with one training agency (e.g. PADI, SSI, SDI, NAUI), then complete your referral on your trip with any agency. However, after a training fatality, where a PADI instructor was teaching a course he was unqualified to teach, and using equipment that was not safely configured, agencies realized the universal referrals exposed the agencies and the originating instructors to too much liability. So now, your referral must be with the same agency that your class and pool is with. If you're thinking a land based trip, I'd suggest doing the whole process (class, pool and certifications) with a shop in your destination. You can book it ahead, and they'll issue your online materials. I likely have a recommendation for any place you would plan a trip to in the Caribbean. Places where I know you could get a top-notch experience include Cozumel, Curacao, Bonaire, Aruba, Saint Lucia, and Barbados. That's not a complete list, just places where I can immediately think of people I'd highly recommend. Feel free to respond here or email me using the link in my signature line. Harris Denver, CO https://my.divessi.com/pro/64612

@Vagabond Knight Correct, no fee for cash. The 5% fee is done because normally someone getting chips charged to their account is effectively charging them to their credit card. The casino staff can't differentiate between someone with OBC on their account or not. The fee gets waived for those with high enough status in the Blue Chip Club (casino loyalty program). Harris Denver, CO

What they obviously did not make clear was that, if he'd gone to the table itself and had the pit boss charge his account for chips, he'd have received regular chips, but been charged the 5% fee. If you get chips at the cashier's cage you get the promotional chips. Harris Denver, CO

I'm pleased to be the first to report receipt of my three points today. 2 for the webinar, and the extra one for the Dream Makers voting. Harris Denver, CO