Not only has scuba equipment grown friendlier in the last decade, says Capital Scuba owner and dive instructor David Waechter, so has the instruction.

"It's a lot more relaxation-oriented," Waechter says of the somewhat intensive course required to earn your Open Water certification, which, in turn, allows you to buy air. The course involves six, three-hour sessions of classroom and pool instruction followed by two days of check-out dives in an open body of water.

"In the mid-'90s, it was still a male-oriented, guerrilla-oriented kind of thing," says Waechter, who began teaching around that time. Divers had to complete timed swims, and it wasn't unusual for an instructor to come up behind you in the water and rip your regulator out of your mouth to see if you had the wherewithal to retrieve it, replace it and clear it of water.

The growing number of women divers helped change that towel-snapping mentality. In the mid-'90s, about one in five divers were female. Today, says Waechter, that number is closer to half. "They finally realized that we have women divers."

Expect to pay $300, "plus or minus $50," to earn your Open Water certification, Waechter says. That's for the course. Expect to pay another $150 for your basic personal dive gear: mask, snorkel, fins, booties (the rest of the equipment is provided). If you decide you're really into the sport, Waechter says you can expect to drop $1,500 to $2,000 to get fully outfitted.

Dive courses are offered year-round locally. Most local divers get certified at Rolesville's Fantasy Lake Scuba Park -- Gypsy Divers' Dave Farrar says about 2,500 of the 3,384 Open Water certifications his shop has awarded since 1982 have been at the quarry -- though some get certified in north Florida, some off the North Carolina coast and others at blue-water resorts.