Newbie In Orlando, FL

[Deep Hull]

Just finished the academic portions of PADI OW training last week and will do closed water dives Tuesday and Thursday. I am stoked and excited but worried about breathing on the regulator. I know I will be able to, but have those "never experienced it" jitters. Same held me back from taking private pilot lessons two years, I was thinking I would freak out on landing, etc., then I tried it and WOW! I hope the same applies with the dives, guess I will find out tomorrow .

Couple of questions, I want two things out for diving. 1) I want to wreck dive in the future, and 2) I want to learn spear fishing. How much time and how many post training dives should I perform before I even think about taking the associated training classes?

 

[Wendy]

Being new to all this you don't want to add extra tasks until you are proficient at the ones you will be learning in your ow class. So in other words, don't jump into the water with a speargun the weekend after you get your cert, but I guess you know that since you posted this question in the first place. I made that mistake of doing too much too fast and you can read about what happened on the OOA emergency thread. Basically its too easy to get caught up in the hunt and forget the things that you should be doing that are important, like checking your pressure guage.

How long it takes you to get used to, comfortable, and proficient with your skills is up to you. Some agencies have a min number of dives before you can do AOW (I think there is a wreck speciality you can do). In my opinion I think 25 dives is a good place to begin moving on, but opinions vary. You could have 25 dives and suck, or you could have 5 dives and suck less.

As far as wrecks....are you wanting to penetrate wrecks, like go inside, etc, or just dive on the outside? If penetration is what you are interested in I would suggest maybe taking a cavern course someone in the future and possibly a cave course. The skills you learn in these courses I believe will benefit you in wreck penetration. Also different gear may be required.

Some other members that dive wrecks might be able to make better suggestions.

So where in the Orlando area are you? I'm in the neighborhood. Welcome to the board!

 

[Deep Hull]

Thanks for the response Wendy. I noticed in the course material that the shop I am taking class with offers a course called Wreck Diving, which I believe teaches wreck penetration. I would be content to just swim around the wreck until I can take this class.

I live on the east side of Orlando near the Union Park area off Dean Rd, between University and 50.

 

[Wendy]

I am over here on the west side of town, in Winter Garden.

I found this on the PADI website about the wreck diving course and what it entails. The penetration portion sounds very similar to the limits of cavern diving. Since you are in an area not far from caverns, you may want to consider taking a cavern course in place of or in addition to the wreck course. PADI's cavern course follows the NSS-CDS training manuel. Also the skills that you would learn in that course I think are beneficial to ow recreational diving as far as trim and bouyancy, streamlining gear, and safety are concerned.

http://www.padi.com/english/common/courses/rec/continue/wreckdiver.asp


Here is the PADI cavern info (also you can get cavern cert thru a cave agency like NSS-CDS, NACD, IANTD, etc, you basically learn the same stuff).

http://www.padi.com/english/common/courses/rec/continue/caverndiver.asp

Also after you get your ow cert, here is another course you may be interested in. Its the NITROX course. Sometimes you can take it along with your AOW course.

http://www.padi.com/english/common/courses/rec/continue/enrichedairdiver.asp

 

[pdoege]

You don't need any additional training to do wreck dives. Just be careful, don't touch, and don't go inside.

I had been on 5 wrecks before I took the class. The class is basically "Don't do dumb things".

Spearfishing is pretty much the same. Go with someone who knows the ropes. Browse the spear fishing board.

I personally don't care to spear fish. I hate hauling the fricking spear around. Some people really like it.

One thing to watch out for while spear fishing is your air pressure. You'll burn a lot of air chasing down a grouper. Be careful.

You will not have any trouble with the OW dives. Take it easy, breathe, don't run out of air and go up slow. It isn't all that hard.

Have fun!
Peter

 

[Arduous]

Welcome to the board from the cold waters of New England USA. Have fun here and Dive Safe..................

 

[Kayla]

.... to the boards! Dive Safe!


Kayla

 

[Dr. Jay]

Head on over to the Florida Conch Divers section of the Scubaboard.

We're divin' quite often, and there's plenty of chances to hook up with people of all experience levels.

Look forward to diving with ya! Hope everything went well with your checkout dives.

Jason

 

[johncd2]

Welcome to the board to to diving. I would take everyone's advice and get some more experience first before you get into wreck diving or spearfishing. Probally the best way to get experience and meet people is to call around to some of the shop's in Orlando and see what kind of trip's they are running. Most of the shop's run at least one trip a month. You live close to Northwest Divers so maybe check them out. They are off East Colonial right across the street from Greenway Ford.

 

[_Kurt_]

Hello from the Gainesville area. Get REAL comfortable with your gear and open water diving before doing any more advanced stuff. I have been diving off and on for almost 20 years, and am just now getting into spearfishing. The most important thing is to be safe and have fun.