Continuing education after OW?

[Scubatude]

Congrats on your certification!

The secret to continuing to dive is continuing to dive! Easy sites, sites that challenge you with good teammates and/or instructors, it is ALL good. Try to find some local groups and shops that sponsor dive days. I personally love diving with and offering advanced training to new divers to help them grow. We have many excellent divers/mentors/buddies in our local So Cal dive community. Check out the Scubaboard So Cal forum here.

As for equipment..yes....but, Black Friday is coming LOL I know my shop will be offering HUGE deals on equipment!

I love the So Cal diving community. If I can do anything at all for you, answer any question or point you in the right direction (or dive site), just shoot me a note.

 

[Bob DBF]

Dive local beginner sites.

Shop for gear, see what other divers in your area use and find out why. Decide whether their gear an configuration will be good for the diving you are planning to do and purchase your own gear. Any gear will work but a little planning will lengthen the replacement cycle.

Dive some more with your own gear and get used to it.

By then you will know when to take the AOW and/or other classes. The idea on training is not the card, it is understanding and being able to use every all the information available in the class. The OW manual has a lot of information that may get overlooked, or shortchanged, in a fast moving class with a lot of students so another read while relaxing on your SI's may make you a better diver than just moving on to the next class.

Diving is not a race, the faster one progresses the more likely a diver winds up in a situation that they do not have the knowledge or experience to successfully rescue themselves.



Bob
-----------------------------------------------

That's my point, people, by and large, are not taught that diving can be deadly, they are taught how safe it is, and they are not equipped with the skills, taught and trained to the level required to be useful in an emergency.

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

 

[Keith.M]

Hi everyone,

i just finished up my OW cert and was wondering if anyone had opinions on what to do after. First off, diving is absolutely amazing and loved ever minute of class and the ocean dives. My boyfriend and I are looking into some gear because we would really like to continue our diving without having to rent everything every time we go diving.

I was wondering if it would be worth it to continue to work on some AOW classes to continue gaining confidence and experience or if you would recommend more dives before pursuing further education. I still don't feel the amount of skill that I wish I had which is why I wanted to continue with education.

Lastly, do you recommend that two new people explore local dives at beginner locations to build confidence or should we try to find local more advanced divers to go with to maintain safety. I'm just lost on how to further diving as I want to stay active in it.

First off, congratulations on getting certified!

I would also recommend getting your own gear, but it would be helpful to be able to try out some different gear before making the big purchase. I would recommend at a minimum that your BC be a rear inflation type. They are not difficult on the surface and they are much better in my opinion in obtaining proper trim, especially when you are just starting.

If you are buying new at your LDS, then consider buying together and really push for some discounts.

I would also recommend that you keep on eye on eBay or even Craigslist. There are plenty of folks who became certified, bought all new gear and then never went again. Don't be that person. But sometimes you can get a really good deal from that person.

Researching what you want first and not just buying your gear on a whim is very important. There is a saying I heard here on SB, which I am certainly guilty of. Buy your second gear first!

So it looks like you are somewhere in So Cal. I would recommend that you head over to Franko's maps and buy the maps for your local area. Franko's Fabulous Maps of Favorite Places! - frankosmaps.com Each of the different dive sites will have a brief description and also a rating as to beginner - advanced. I am getting a nice collection of them myself.

Pick some nice beginner dives and go out and execute them. Make a plan, and then go dive that plan. And yes, always work on your skills so that you can feel very comfortable with them and they are like second nature. Try to approach your dives with an objective in mind, whatever it may be.

I think it is a great idea for you and your BF to dive these together. If you are able to at times, hook up with some more experienced divers, that would be great too. You will be able to spot that diver with experience that has good skills. Not all do. When you are able to dive with someone who has good skills, buoyancy, trim etc... Emulate them. I was lucky to have buddied up with a really good diver for my 13th and 14th dives. It was so obvious, from preparation to execution. He made it seem so effortless. Great trim, beautiful frog kick. I spent those two dives emulating what he was doing and it helped lay the foundation as to how I dive to this day.

Once you really feel comfortable and confident, then you should do your AOW. You will get much more out of it if you are already very comfortable and confident. You are now ready to really learn some new skills. I took my AOW when I had 54 dives. I know I got a LOT more out of the class than the students who had less than 10 dives. The one thing that did surprise me was when I found out the dives we would be doing, Peak Performance Buoyancy was not one of them. I told the Instructor I was surprised that it was not. His response was, "We work on buoyancy on EVERY dive!" I liked that, still do.

 

[DarinJ]

Dive! Dive often at a local site (or sites) that will allow to you gradually explore and increase your comfort level while practicing the basic skills. If you can, dive with a regular buddy who has a similar attitude towards improving his/her skills. Link up with other divers in your area--especially the more experienced divers--and let them guide you as you explore new sites. Ask those more experienced divers to critique your diving and make suggestions of where you could improve. Rent gear from several different shops and try different types and brands of BCs and regs to discover which suits you and your diving best. Talk with those experienced local divers about what gear they use and why.

Most importantly, have fun diving! Yes, we always need to be aware of the dangers of diving, and we always need to be practicing and improving our skills, but first and foremost, diving should be fun! Enjoy it!

 

[Bagster]

Daughter in I are in a similar place, having just completed PADI OW. We are going straight on to AOW, with no independent dives in between.

My rationale is that our local diving is all cold water with usually poor visibility. If we had warm, clear waters handy we would be more likely to strike out on our own, but truly novice friendly local dives are simply not available, in my estimation.

Even though AOW includes deep and night dives that we aren't prepared to make solo, I think we will be safer and less likely to making a dangerous mistake or panic while being watched over by a pro. Our OW instructors were outstanding, very grateful to them.

So we are going for more supervised dives. We will get practice of navigation and buoyancy control, as well as being exposed to greater depth, and night diving. Our 5th dive is the Naturalist elective, and should be a very nice tour to finish up a challenging weekend. I feel confident that this the right course for us at the moment.

 

[Imapseudonym]

Hello everyone,

First off wow, information overload lol. I appreciate everyone taking the time and energy to provide thorough and informational responses. I feel like I've learned so much over the last two pages. There are some nice beginner diving locations about 30 minutes away from where I live which will be good to continue diving. Maybe my boyfriend and I can make a plan to complete a dive every week to two weeks to we can continue to build on the skills we learned in OW. We should probably also work on networking to build some more people to dive with who we can learn from assuming they practice in a safe manner

I think we'll work on getting some dives under us first before we move on to continued education. When making this thread I just wasn't sure if the continued education will build more confidence than just continued diving and practicing OW learned skills. I think I learned my answer from reading all of the responses here though. My main goal in this is just safety and I want to develop good habits.

 

[TMHeimer]

Congratulations here as well.
My thoughts on this are pretty set.
--Agree to get your own gear.
--Agree with doing beginner dives. Shallow is best as it's harder to work on buoyancy.
--Disagree on buddying with another new diver (unless, like me and many, it's your only choice). Neither diver has rescue skills in dealing with panic. Seek experienced buddies. Better yet, those with Rescue Cert.
--AOW: First be quite comfortable with basic skills, buoyancy, working equipment. Everyone differs. I did fine with AOW right away, as many have. Others need a number of dives first.
--Rescue Course: Be comfortable enough again with the basics so you can concentrate on Rescue Course stuff (it's a big manual and a lot of skills). Don't wait too long--you can improve your techniques after the course as well with practice. No matter how polished your diving is, you now have the knowledge.

 

[They call me Tater]

Whatever direction you take, be it training or practice or mentoring...Do have fun. But KEEP DIVING. I have a dive buddy who probably started off better than I did. We dove a lot together at first and worked on skills but then he had one thing or another get it the way of getting out (which is difficult where we only have 4 decent month of weather each year) and a couple years later there is significant difference between the two of us. DIVE!

 

[Jackter45]

I agree with the idea of practising basic skills before moving on to the AOW course. I did my AOW straight after my OW but before/during my OW course I did somewhere in the region of 30-40 confined water (swimming pool) dives. I would debate whether it is appropriate for two newly qualified divers to dive together, it would probably depend the conditions and the difficulty of the dive. On all of my dives I have dived in a group that includes an instructor and would not feel as comfortable diving with a newly qualified diver even now I have done 10 dives, let alone on my first dive after certification.

 

[dmoore19]

I can't speak for the OP and how she feels. I can say that I feel comfortable with what I have done. I didn't take AOW until I had 50 dives, I took the Nitrox course at 100 dives and am now seriously considering Rescue at 150 dives. I think having 50 dives allowed me to appreciate and learn more during the AOW course. I took the nitrox course and learned more than I thought I would. Now that I have some 150 dives completed I think I will be able to absorb more and understand what I am being taught and be able to relate to it better.