Certifications worth earning

[bc214]

Hello all,

After finishing my SSI Open Water certification I am working on my basic open water skills and diving with a variety of divers for experience. I plan on earning my advanced open water through SSI which, as I'm sure you already know, involves a series of "specialty" courses and a certain amount of logged dives. My instructor runs an advanced open water series including at least the minimum requirements, but I don't have the list off hand.

What I am getting at is this: I'm not a title junkie or card horder, and I'm more interested in the actual experience. Learning from an experienced diver is just as valuable, if not more, than taking a course and getting a new shiny card. That being said, I'd rather not get somewhere and be handicapped for not having a proper certification.

So, over the next year, beyond OW and AOW, what would be the core certifications for diving trips (excluding cave diving and technical type certs) and those courses that are just truly worth it?

I was thinking nav, deep, and nitrox (maybe?), keeping in mind that my advanced series probably includes at least the nav and deep certs.

So what say you, experienced divers? What was worth it? And what was a waste (if anything)?

Thanks, as always.

-BC


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[Superlyte27]

Nitrox, Cavern, and Rescue... but Cavern greater than all. Provided you take it with a good instructor.

 

[uncfnp]

I would add Solo to the list as well. Or self-reliant if that is the course available to you. But you will need to get a few dives in first (100 min).

 

[scubastingray]

I think the best ones are those that either give you good training that you can't figure out on your own safely, or give you access to new sites/things.

I.E. Nitrox is good, Cave training is a good idea, Advanced Open Water can be nice if you dive with boats that require it.
Some fluffy courses can be good if you don't mind being separated from your wallet. Personally I'm avoiding them.

You can probably figure out some things on your own safely though (or with a mentor if you are lucky).

You don't need a night, photo, drift, boat diving cert.

 

[dmoore19]

I think it depends on what you find valuable. I would think the AOW would be well worth the effort if you need it to get on to certain boats. I would think Navigation, Deep and Nitrox are great choices.

The question for you to decide would be what you find interesting or want further instruction for. If you aren't comfortable with boat or drift diving they might be valuable to you. Everybody has different needs and places different value on different certifications. It is up to you to decide which ones are a waste of time and money. Not much help but I don't think any of them are a total waste, except the Zombie cert, that one seems useless, everybody knows Zombies can't swim.

 

[KeithG]

Two different things to consider:
- what skills do I need?
- what cards does my dive op want me to have?

It all depends upon where you want to dive. My impression is that the lawyer happy US is more worried about certs. I could be wrong. I do not dive there.

As a vacation diver splashing randomly about in the Caribbean, I have not run into a dive op that worries about my cert level. So it is up to me to worry about my skill level.

The skills I have found useful (for a vacation diver) are:
- navigation
- repetitive dives (yes there is no course for this that I am aware of...)
- deep dives
- drift dives
- boat dives
- night dives (almost like low viz dives but not really)
- deep blue dives (is there a course for this?)
- nitrox dives (I am not certified)

I suggest you also consider "deep current dives" as Cozumel requires this skill.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

I find it interesting in what a dive considers technical. To me your first step into the tech side of diving is Nitrox. I find it also interesting that since computers have became mainstream, that no one seems to do multilevel dives with the wheel any more. So my suggestion: Night and Nitrox. The reason being is that you start to learn how gases effect the body in the nitrox class and you learn extra skills, i.e. light signals, in the night class.

 

[uncfnp]

To me it's both cards you need for certain activities but also cards that will help develop a skilled and thinking diver. Nitrox to extend BT and because you can't get nitrox without it. Rescue to make you a better buddy. Solo to make you a safer diver and establish a self reliant mindset. Doesn't have to mean you ever plan to solo. And though I won't finish the class until August, just reviewing the course material I have to agree with Superlyte27 on Cavern. It both gives you a card to open up a new area of diving but I believe it will also add another layer of awareness and skills to my diving.

Deep, night and navigation should be part of your AOW class.

 

[Agility]

For me cards are only to show when checking in with an OP, so AOWD, Deep and Nitrox are the cards they want to see to let me dive the sites I want to go to.
Skills is quite another chapter, but you do not neet a card to prove your navigational skills or your low-viz skills etc.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

Am I the only one that thinks that Solo is more on the tech side of diving which the OP said that he does not want to do?