Ideal Dive Experience Schedule

As a new diver I am very interested to build a body of technical diving experience that will complement the wonderful visual and emotional experiences i get every time i explore the underwater world. I am interested in building skills for a variety of dive types and environmental conditions

If you were to generate a series of 5-10 ideal dives or dive trips that would give a diverse set of diving experiences, make me a better and safer diver, and provide the visual/emotional "wow" factor, what would they be?

I have asked a number of more experienced divers this question but it seems that their higher level of experience tend to slant their recommendations to sites that are not the most ideal for a new diver. While i do realize that time spent diving is perhaps the best teacher, I am sure there are sites and specific orders that one should try the sites that should really complement the new diver.

I can't specifically answer your question but I believe your local diving is somewhat similar to PNW diving meaning salt water, cold, limited visibility, with access to deeper depths.

Regarding dive trips, I'll let others answer that one.

Locally, I would first do a certain number of dives that you would consider easy. Just get used to being in the water, working with your dive buddy, being aware of your surroundings, working on buoyancy, etc.

Once you have some of the basics down then add something like a night dive. Get in the water at dusk (still a little light) and keep it shallow. Only add one variable at a time.

After several dives try getting a little deeper in the day time. If you have areas with some currents to deal with move on to those areas but keep it shallow at first and take an experienced buddy with you.

Pick an easier dive site and do it on a less than perfect day so maybe with a little wind or a little higher wave action than you are used to.

Go to a site in good weather/conditions and do a longer surface swim than you are used to.

The idea is to try each new skill initially at an easier site and under fairly good conditions. Add each complication a little at a time. Taking an experienced buddy with you is always a good idea. The idea is to learn while keeping things as conservative as is reasonable.

Much of it has to do with the nature of your local conditions. If you lived in warm weather with good visibility it wouldn't be so important to initially be worrying about cold water and limited visibility unless you were planning a trip to such a place.

Tell us more about your local conditions or the types of places you want to travel to if you're more of a traveling diver and we can be a bit more specific.

If you're asking for specific dive sites around Scotland then you're better off posting in a more local forum on this site.

I like gcbryan's answer.

It's not the dive you make but what you make of the dive. Dive with a spirit of continuous improvement. Go for lots of shore dives as opposed to fewer hard to schedule and expensive boat dives. It's a mix of bottom time and progressive challenges that I think you seek.

Stay in your comfort zone and with frequent diving it will grow.

Pete

From your location, one idea comes to mind immediately: Go to the Red Sea at somewhere like Marsa Shagra or one of the other tent camps. These are ideal for beginners because you can dive a lot in a short period of time (a) on your own initiative, which is good for getting you into a routine and planning and taking charge of your own diving (b) in fairly good conditions which will allow you to work on some basic skills like buoyancy control in an envrionment that's both facinating and not too difficult and (c) from zodiacs and/or boats, which will give you some good preparatory experience for further open sea diving in your own area.

R..