Saltwater Junky
Contributor
Another vote for AOW and more dives. An inexpensive camera is the Reef Master Mini from SeaLife. It does photos and video about $250.00. You can also add external strobes for about $150.00.
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Tech diving? Man, I could spend a year and a half in Australia, absolutely fascinated, without ever going deeper than 100 feet. Diving there ranges from the warm water diving in the Coral Sea, with all the fabulous tropical critters, to cold water diving and wrecks in the south.
Too many people rush through their diving to get technical certs, when they haven't even begun to explore what's available to them in recreational depths. A very fine technical instructor I worked with once told me, "Do all the diving you can do within your certification, and when you're bored with all of it, THEN get technical training."
Definitely get your own gear (and if you are tempted by wreck penetration or decompression diving, choose gear you can grow into those areas using) and dive with it, a lot. When you go to a new place, the diving there will all be new to you, and you'll be completely excited and full of wonder (or at least I was, in Australia) in familiar depths. And if you get bored, do your tech training there!
Too many people rush through their diving to get technical certs, when they haven't even begun to explore what's available to them in recreational depths. A very fine technical instructor I worked with once told me, "Do all the diving you can do within your certification, and when you're bored with all of it, THEN get technical training."
Definitely get your own gear (and if you are tempted by wreck penetration or decompression diving, choose gear you can grow into those areas using) and dive with it, a lot. When you go to a new place, the diving there will all be new to you, and you'll be completely excited and full of wonder (or at least I was, in Australia) in familiar depths. And if you get bored, do your tech training there!
deco_martini
Contributor
AOW may be a waste of your time versus actual diving. I was in the bahamas with a local group who were doing AOW checkouts. I looked at the skill checkouts for their AOW stuff and thought "wow, I learned all of that from my first 50 dives". You may want to ask locally from other people who have taken AOW and find out if they really found it worth their time.
AOW isn't a magic wand that you can wave and be a better diver. Conversely, if your LDS is a great shop that adds a lot of value to the AOW instruction (like old NASDS), then you might be in for a treat.
AOW isn't a magic wand that you can wave and be a better diver. Conversely, if your LDS is a great shop that adds a lot of value to the AOW instruction (like old NASDS), then you might be in for a treat.
I'll throw another vote for MORE diving and AOW,
As for the camera start with the housing and get comfortable with that before u worry about a strobe or any other extras.
For the tech i'd wait a little while and see how u go later on, and as mentioned in another reply if your that way inclined we have some wicked caves here in South Australia and some good Tech Instructors that will be able to look after you if u head down here.
If ya head to South Australia send me a PM and i'll be more then happy to help get u out on some good local Reefs and Wrecks
Bradley
As for the camera start with the housing and get comfortable with that before u worry about a strobe or any other extras.
For the tech i'd wait a little while and see how u go later on, and as mentioned in another reply if your that way inclined we have some wicked caves here in South Australia and some good Tech Instructors that will be able to look after you if u head down here.
If ya head to South Australia send me a PM and i'll be more then happy to help get u out on some good local Reefs and Wrecks
Bradley
tangfish
Contributor
Completely spot on. I think that too many people rush along, collecting the little pieces of plastic that say you can do this or that type of diving. When you're faced with challenges in the water, only your experience, instinct, training, confidence and muscle memory will save you. The plastic cards on the surface won't do much. Enjoy each step along the way by doing exactly what TSandM here recommends.
refinished
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I did some diving in South Africa late last year and they wanted to see AOW certs for even fairly basic dives. So you'll need it... so get it. However.... Do not get it just to be able to check the box. Find a very tough instructor who is more concerned with making you a better diver than just zipping down the skills list of an agencies standards doc. Get Nitrox while you are at it. AOW and Nitrox opens up a lot of possibilities for great diving.
Two reasons to wait on your tech diving: First, if $ is tight for you right now, then you won't be able to do it the way it needs to be done. Tech diving (training, gear, tech level trips, time to keep skills up) is very, very expensive unless you cut corners. Don't cut corners. Second, you need a bit more experience. 'Too far too soon' is not an elitist sentiment. It's been a factor in many recent fatalities. And a third one just for fun - the deep wrecks and caves will be there when you are ready for them.
Two reasons to wait on your tech diving: First, if $ is tight for you right now, then you won't be able to do it the way it needs to be done. Tech diving (training, gear, tech level trips, time to keep skills up) is very, very expensive unless you cut corners. Don't cut corners. Second, you need a bit more experience. 'Too far too soon' is not an elitist sentiment. It's been a factor in many recent fatalities. And a third one just for fun - the deep wrecks and caves will be there when you are ready for them.
After visiting the LDS I found that I'm going to need to save more money than originally planned for my gear. I was looking into a BP/ W system, which was a lot but the owner was telling me that if I buy it now and do the training later, it will save me money in the long run since I won't have to buy a new lift system later. I was also wondering about SSI's tech courses. A man who I think is named Steve Newman who wrote the tech diving books for SSI visited our LDS and talked to us about the new SSI tech program, which is apparently very new for SSI and what got me interested in tech diving. He made it sound like there were cave courses but on SSI's site it looks like there are only deep diving courses. Does anyone know if cave courses are coming and if not, how do I get into that when I'm certified in a limited agency?
Thanks Again,
Adam
Thanks Again,
Adam
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