Certifications worth earning

[Bogtrotter]

In cooler climes I would say definitely drysuit and rescue. I didn't think much of padi's peak performance buoyancy.

 

[Bob DBF]

Hello all,

After finishing my SSI Open Water certification I am working on my basic open water skills and diving with a variety of divers for experience. I plan on earning my advanced open water through SSI which, as I'm sure you already know, involves a series of "specialty" courses and a certain amount of logged dives. My instructor runs an advanced open water series including at least the minimum requirements, but I don't have the list off hand.

What I am getting at is this: I'm not a title junkie or card horder, and I'm more interested in the actual experience. Learning from an experienced diver is just as valuable, if not more, than taking a course and getting a new shiny card. That being said, I'd rather not get somewhere and be handicapped for not having a proper certification.

So, over the next year, beyond OW and AOW, what would be the core certifications for diving trips (excluding cave diving and technical type certs) and those courses that are just truly worth it?

I was thinking nav, deep, and nitrox (maybe?), keeping in mind that my advanced series probably includes at least the nav and deep certs.

So what say you, experienced divers? What was worth it? And what was a waste (if anything)?

Thanks, as always.

-BC


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

NAV
Deep
Nitrox
Stress and Rescue

I would have put in Night and Limited Viz, but you are in New Jersey and probably do limited viz dives on a regular basis.

Perfect Buoyancy is a good idea if practice is not sorting it out for you, same for Waves,Tides and Currents.

One thing to keep in mind is that you can usually pick up older versions of specialty course books on ebay relatively cheap to learn what you can from them, and make a more informed choice on classes after AOW. A PADI Adventures in Diving manual on ebay for $15 will give you an overview of specialties, which are similar between agencies.


Good Luck and Good Diving



Bob
---------------------------------
I honestly feel I'm a better diver now. I learned to respect the ocean the hard way. One swallow at a time. Mark Derail

 

[Superlyte27]

I would not recommend Cavern unless you have a particular interest in overhead and technical diving, the same applies to wreck penetration.

Ignoring the bs cards, like Underwater Basket Weaving, Boat Diver, Master Diver, etc. I have nearly every high end card you can get. A few are Trimix Diver, CCR Cave, CCR DPV. Technical Cave Diving Instructor. Trimix Instructor. etc.

Care to guess which class IN ALL THE CLASSES I've ever taken, taught me the most, and was the hardest, and laid the foundation for all other classes to follow? Care to guess which class catapulted my skills in the water from that of just a novice to someone who looked truly confident and proficient? Do you want to guess which class taught me more about survival than any other class I've taken since? You got it. Cavern Class.

It's not about wanting to dive in overhead or dive in caverns, or go technical. It's about learning how to dive properly and safely. It's about looking and feeling good in the water. It's about your 100% certainty for survival. But you really wouldn't understand unless you've gone through it, with a great instructor.

 

[NAM001]

Yes bob you are correct, i went back to check and noted the same thing you have mentioned and i agree a much better way to progress form OW to AOW. When I got involved with SSI I already had a nauii AOW. So master just needed rescue and 3-4 specialties. I wonder what is required to go from ssi aow to ssi to master. another 3-4 specialties or if you use the same ones and aow to master is a rescue cert issue.

Since he specifically mentioned SSI, the AOW does in fact include certs for the specialties. Unlike the PADI AOW, which is a few "sampler" dives, the SSI AOW is awarded for completing four specialty courses that encompass 24 dives. To my concern, that's a way better approach if the intent is to learn something rather than simply collect a card that allows you to do dives you're probably not going to be qualified to do ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[boulderjohn]

Interesting question Tony. My understanding is that Nitrox was indeed considered a step into tech but I doubt you will find too many divers today that still see it that way. I think that Solo training is headed the same way. It seems more and more recreational divers use the course as a way to be a safer diver, when used in a recreational context (obviously not talking solo penetration diving here).

So what is the definition of tech? I am certainly not qualified to say. But it seems there are several ways to define tech diving including dives that involve a higher risk then recreational dives or dives that preclude a direct assent to the surface. Solo as taught to the recreational diver specifically precludes hard or soft overhead dives and some might argue that a solo trained diver is actually a safer recreational diver.

I have written a draft of an article that is lying in wait somewhere in my computer files. It is called "TecReational Diving: Scuba's Middle Path." The main idea of it is that scuba diving was once just scuba diving, and it was essentially what most of the world thinks of today when they think about scuba. But even back in those days, some individuals were pushing the limits, going deeper than others and going into places others dared not go. They learned pretty quickly that there were dangers involved, and they began to develop specialized equipment and dive protocols so that those dives could be done more safely. Thus two entirely different worlds of diving evolved, with different names. One was recreational or sport diving, and the other was technical diving. These were quite separate, and there even developed some animosity between the two groups.

But in time some of the practices associated with technical diving began to find their way into recreational diving. The most obvious example is nitrox. Nitrox was once absolutely only for technical divers--at least two technical diving agencies have the word "nitrox" in their names. Today nitrox is well within the recreational world--for many years now OW students have been allowed to use it on their final OW checkout dive. Another example is the SMB. Once a part of technical diving, its use was added to the PADI DM program a few years ago, and it is now a part of PADI OW training.

Technical diving is still different from recreational diving. Definitions differ, but the main idea is that in the case of an emergency, the recreational diver can get to the safety of the surface quickly, while a technical diver must be able to take care of any emergency at depth because there is something preventing that quick ascent. On the other hand, much of the equipment and many of the skills technical divers developed as a matter of necessity are now being perceived to improve the quality of recreational diving as well. Consequently, those skills and equipment are finding their way more and more into the recreational world.

 

[jimbeeler]

From my perspective I have found the most valuable for me have been:

1. Rescue (whenever you are able to take it from your certifying agency)
2. Navigation
3. Peak Performance Buoyancy
4. Nitrox

This is pretty much in order of how valuable I feel they are to me. Number 1 as soon as you are able to take it, is a very worthwhile course. Number 2 is valuable because it's amazing how easy it is to get lost underwater. 3 is valuable because without proper buoyancy, you're all over the place underwater, use more air and you can forget about taking photos or video. Number 4 is useful for those times you can use Nitrox.

Jim

 

[NAM001]

Yes Nitrox and buoy shooting is now in the rec arena but untill you marry those skills with a location or another skill its still just rec. IE shooting a buoy to hang while doing deco. Laying a line in an overhead vs a lake bottom to navagate from one sunk item to another. frog kick in a silty environment vs open water. Its that relationship that seperates rec things from tech things.

I have written a draft of an article that is lying in wait somewhere in my computer files. It is called "TecReational Diving: Scuba's Middle Path." The main idea of it is that scuba diving was once just scuba diving, and it was essentially what most of the world thinks of today when they think about scuba. But even back in those days, some individuals were pushing the limits, going deeper than others and going into places others dared not go. They learned pretty quickly that there were dangers involved, and they began to develop specialized equipment and dive protocols so that those dives could be done more safely. Thus two entirely different worlds of diving evolved, with different names. One was recreational or sport diving, and the other was technical diving. These were quite separate, and there even developed some animosity between the two groups.

But in time some of the practices associated with technical diving began to find their way into recreational diving. The most obvious example is nitrox. Nitrox was once absolutely only for technical divers--at least two technical diving agencies have the word "nitrox" in their names. Today nitrox is well within the recreational world--for many years now OW students have been allowed to use it on their final OW checkout dive. Another example is the SMB. Once a part of technical diving, its use was added to the PADI DM program a few years ago, and it is now a part of PADI OW training.

Technical diving is still different from recreational diving. Definitions differ, but the main idea is that in the case of an emergency, the recreational diver can get to the safety of the surface quickly, while a technical diver must be able to take care of any emergency at depth because there is something preventing that quick ascent. On the other hand, much of the equipment and many of the skills technical divers developed as a matter of necessity are now being perceived to improve the quality of recreational diving as well. Consequently, those skills and equipment are finding their way more and more into the recreational world.

 

[boulderjohn]

Yes Nitrox and buoy shooting is now in the rec arena but untill you marry those skills with a location or another skill its still just rec. IE shooting a buoy to hang while doing deco. Laying a line in an overhead vs a lake bottom to navagate from one sunk item to another. frog kick in a silty environment vs open water. Its that relationship that seperates rec things from tech things.

That is pretty much what I said in the part you quoted. Skills and equipment associated with technical diving are slowly making their way into recreational diving. I also said there is still a difference between recreational and technical diving.

 

[Superlyte27]

My interpretation of the difference between technical and recreational.

Recreational is any dive where free ascent to the surface is possible at any and all portions of the dive.
Technical is any dive where free ascent is not possible due to a virtual or hard ceiling. A virtual ceiling would be a deco obligation. A hard ceiling would be like in Cavern or Cave Diving, Ice Diving, Wreck Penetration, etc.

Now, most wouldn't agree that Cavern Diving is technical. I'm kind of on the fence myself to be honest. But when I teach (and the mentors I surround myself with) cavern diving, I'm teaching it as if everything went wrong that could go wrong, can you still survive. Yes. Well, not literally, because if a submarine fired a torpedo in the cavern, you're pretty screwed. Technically it could happen, but not very likely.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

I use the same thought process as Superlyte27 but I also use to add, "Any time you are breathing a different gas than air." As for me, I think that there is really so much to learn from a Nitrox class but over the years it really has been watered down. Pun intended. Some of the lessions learned: Before in OW you are stressed about a safety stop but outside your cert. seldom did anybody stress a virtual bottom. Maybe the first time you start to learn about the CNS and OTU clocks. Partical pressures of gases in relation to ATA. Start having to track oxygen as well as nitrogen. Proper tank cleaning proceedures, marking, filling, etc. Best mixes for different dives. etc, etc. Again, just my thoughts.