Recertification/refresher after 20+years

ScubaBoard to the rescue...

My parents are/were divers BC (Before Children). Now that us kiddies have found the water, they are interested in getting back in the water with us.

I know that one parent is PADI and one is NAUI. I heard a rumor that the certifying agencies will give "free" refresher courses to people like them...previously certified but haven't been diving in many years. Is that true or am just hearing things?

If not, do they need to take a full-on OW class again or are there "refresher" classes that are offered?

Thanks!

My dad took a refresher while I took the full class. He had to pay $100 to do the pool sessions and one checkout day. The second day was a boat dive that was not required for refresher but most people like doing that as well for a boat ticket of $60.

After that much time I would suggest they take OW again.

Most dive shops (at least here) do not do free refresher courses for certified divers, but they are not expensive.

What would your thoughts be on going back through the instruction book on one's own and then take a private, one-on-one refresher course as opposed to the full OW course again?

I was out of the water for 18 years. I re-read my OW book and took a refresher class at the LDS. We went through the tables again and did several calculations. We then went into the pool and practiced all of the required skills - mask remove/replace, no mask swim, regulator remove/replace, switch from snorkle to reg and back while swimming, doff and don gear at depth, weight belt drop, etc. It was thorough and fun and only cost about $50. Took an afternoon to do. I then took the AOW course a month later and was off the NC coast a month after that.

It's sort of like riding a bicycle. You really don't need a whole lot of instructions after you've been off of one for a while. But a refresher would be a good idea. My first dives, no cert, were in the early 70's. I started back and got certified three years ago. Big difference was the cumputer instead of tables, weight-integrated BCD and bi-focals.

er1n99,


I was out of diving for 25 years. My Son wanted to start scuba diving. I went through the OW course with him. I found that I learned a few things that I had forgotten and had a blast working with him. Also, I felt better going back in the water after that length of hiatus from diving. We all change physically and mentally in that time span. Good luck and have fun.



Froid

er1n99:

ScubaBoard to the rescue...

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I heard a rumor that the certifying agencies will give "free" refresher courses

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Nope.

Agencies don't give courses, they just set the standards. Shops/instructors give courses and you'll be charged for it. I don't know what they cost around your area so you'll have to call around. Usually it's a fraction of what the OW course costs.

A typical refresher for someone who has been out the water for a year or two consists of reviewing theory (you get either a quick exam or the final exam) and evaluation the skills from the OW course. You get advice and debriefed on the dive but there isn't generally enough time to re-drill things you've totally forgotten. If something needs a lot of work you may need a second session. This will depend almost entirely on how much previous experience they have.

In some case the student has forgotten so much that they really honestly should be advised to retake OW. This will depend largely on previous experience.

I've done refreshers for non-PADI divers from NAUI and CMAS before. I think you can do it because there are cross-over equivalents. From what I've seen, from a skills point of view it doen't make much difference but from a theory point of view, of course, the NAUI and CMAS divers have never seen the PADI tables. It's probably best if you send your NAUI diver to a NAUI instructor and the PADI diver to a PADI instructor.

R..

I learned to dive at the age of 18 and dove until my late 20s/early 30's -- then life intervened and I quit. 20+ years later I got back into diving with my wife who was brand new at it.

I took the class with her and I'm glad I did.

Why?

Well, the gear had changed (a lot) from what I dove in the 1960's/early 70's -- although the basics of diving hadn't changed much at all -- REALLY!

Diving is going into an "alien environment" so why wouldn't you want to be as current on skills as possible?

I'm convinced it is stupid to do diving "on the cheap." You don't have to do it expensively, but please, don't do it on the cheap.

They should get recertified after such a long time.