Newly Certified Old Farts

[Captain Morgan1]

Thanks All! Great advice from everyone! First, the “old fart”. We both just recently turned 50 and within weeks received our AARP invites in the mail. Wife has no problem with it. I on the other hand am having a really big issue with it – not aging gracefully. But anyway, you all have eased out anxieties a good bit. We will continue to work on skills in the pool and get as comfortable as we can. I don’t know the time table of the trip but I really like the idea of doing a shore dive to warm up – hopefully there will be time for that. That’s something that I never thought of. And I am certainly not too proud to admit to the group that we are newbie’s.


A question that we were kicking around. During cert, our max depth was about 40ft. So let’s say we on the trip the dive is 70ft. That is beyond our limits (or at least our experience). Of course we would let the dive operator know. But do we do the 30 extra feet or stay on the boat for that portion of the dive? Or do we do the dive but stop at 40 ft and just hang around and wait for the group? How is that usually handled?


Morgan

 

[TSandM]

Generally, the OW certification depth is 60 feet. Does ten feet more or less make a difference? Yes and no. Yes, because gas goes faster the deeper you are, and your time at 70 feet will be shorter. No, because it won't feel any different, and you are still shallow enough for narcosis not to have a huge effect on your ability to process information.

I would highly suggest that you go to nwgratefuldiver.com and read the article on gas management before your trip. It will both make you more cautious, and give you good solid information for planning your dives.

 

[Troy G.]

It's not a bad idea to do a familiarization dive when diving in a new location. Most dive ops in FL you can hire your very own DM for $40 to $50 + tip for a 2 dive excursion. You can even ask to be paired up with a experienced solo looking to mentor new divers, this would also introduce you to the insta-buddy concept.

 

[USFpsychDiver]

I'm another diver who got certified in my mid-50's and took to it with a passion. A couple of years later I was a certified cave diver and I'm now looking at getting trained for scootering in a cave. I'm an old fart and proud of it. I first got certified so I could go on a Caribbean dive trip with my daughter for her college graduation, so our first post-certification dives were at a Caribbean resort. For peace of mind I hired a DM/Guide for the first dives so we'd have an experienced diver by our side. Not sure how much it actually helped, but it made me much more comfortable for a not unreasonable added expense. Diving relaxed is fun; diving anxious less so, but nothing but experience gives confidence; accepting that some anxiety is normal doing anything challenging the first few times is the first step in getting over that anxiety. Have fun, and may the winds cooperate with you.

 

[Donnah]

You have to be at least 70 to be considered an "old fart."
"

 

[TMHeimer]

You have to be at least 70 to be considered an "old fart."
"

Ahh, disagree. Though I think I'm still "going strong", I'm old (think 60 is old) and I fart.

 

[olphart]

Hmmm I'm 71 so I guess I qualify. Only been diving for 9 years, about half and half warm/cold. Got my ice cert last year. You guys are just a bunch of kids!:hippy:

 

[TMHeimer]

Hmmm I'm 71 so I guess I qualify. Only been diving for 9 years, about half and half warm/cold. Got my ice cert last year. You guys are just a bunch of kids!:hippy:

Just curious--are you still actively DMing?

 

[scottwilson1]

Personally I would recommend just getting accustom to your new equipment and how it all works and sets up, practice buddy checks with the wife. doing that should get you pretty comfortable
rest comes with experience I'm new as well and was lucky that almost everyone on the boats were very nice and friendly and willing to help the newbie if I asked.

Have FUN !

 

[Steve_C]

Dives in the Keys generally come in two Flavors. Reefs and inshore wrecks are 20-40 ft.

Big Wrecks are 100 and up but mostly around 100 for the regularly scheduled drips. So any reef trip or inshore wreck is fine. Avoid Spiegel, Bib, Duane.

The one exception are drift dives. They are run on the outer edge of the reef where it slowly falls away. Did one starting at 70 but most of them have been in the 60-50 ft range. But they must be specially arranged for on the regular charters.

PS: I got certified when I was 61.