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Hi there, I'm new to diving and need to certify. I am trying to figure out if it is best to certify here at home then go diving on holiday OR if I should certify on holiday.
I'm not looking forward to floating around a cold pool here in Canada but I don't want to waste time on holiday. Any thoughts?
I teach in Edmonton Alberta, and many of our students do the knowledge development and confined water portion of their training in Canada, and then go on to do their Open Water dives on their vacation. This gives you time to get a lot of the work done before your holiday, as well as let you identify any areas where you might need a bit of extra time and work through them. Again saving you time on your holiday.
You could also consider finishing your certification in Canada (the ice will be off the lakes soon!) and not need to do any training on your trip!
However you choose to do it, enjoy! I'm sure you'll get a variety of opinions and some sound advice here on ScubaBoard.
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You can wear a wetsuit if the pool's cold. That will help your comfort level and your concentration. It can really pay off in the long run. You might use a 3-mil shortie or full suit, or perhaps something more substantial depending on pool temps.
I teach in Oregon USA and our it's never really warm in our open water spots, so some students elect to do as Kari noted. We call that "referral" checkouts. Presumably your vacation spot will offer better conditions, your dives will be longer, and you'll get more of a chance to get in the groove.
On the down side, the fee for the checkout dives can be almost as much as for the local course. Your local shop can help you identify and get in touch with training sites at your vacation destination.
If leading dives is herding cats, is leading training dives herding Schrodinger's cats?
And the SB Politeness Award goes to . . . Doc Vikingo, for "I find this assertion not compelling." The measure of a good dive plan is its impermeability.
Poor dive plans, on the other hand, tend to be water-soluble.
If it were me. I'd get certified at home. Simply because, in most if not all training agencies, you will get 4 or more OW dives. Thats 4 more dives to get comfortable and figure things out like buoyancy and trim. Not that you will have these mastered but you'll have a bit more practice. Then you don't have to be so worried about it and you can spend more time enjoying the dive.
Also, you can do your underwater photography specialty to get comfortable with the camera and have that under control to take photos while diving on holiday.
As karibelle suggested, you should at least do the classroom and confined water portions in Canada, otherwise you will be stuck watching videos for a couple of days on your vacation. The pools shouldn't be to cold, but the open water portion in the lakes certainly will be
As far as the open water, when are you going on vacation? If its coming up quick, you will probably need to do the open water on your vacation as the shops can't do the open water part until the ice is off the lakes. If it isn't for awhile, then it depends. The water will be warmer and you will have less exposure protection on your vacation, which will make the checkout dives more comfortable, but there is something to be said for training in the cold water here, it will be an easy transition to the warm water on your vacation, and if you want to do any diving locally you will already be prepared.
Either way welcome to the sport, dive safe and have fun!
I have done the resort certification and then the lds certification. My experience:
Do it all at home if you can. personally I found the training dives dull from and experience point of view. Bottom of the pool, sandy bottom of the ocean, vs sandy lake bottom. All look the same with a flooded mask.
My daughters take when she did hers was that she regrets doing the OWD dives at the resort. Says she waisted 4 dives that she could have done seeing cool stuff. On a 1 week vacation, this could be a significant amount of your potential diving. Especially if weather cancels one or two days of diving.
In the end, do you have time to do the training dives at home?
My wife and I did the PADI eLearning and then did our pool and OW dives in Cancun. This allowed us to minimize how much of our vacation was spent in class (a single all morning pool session with the same instructor with whom we did a resort course the prior year).
We heartily recommend this method, but it does require you to find a good instructor at your vacation destination. You will no doubt be able to get lots of referals (just ask on here...) but you won't be able to personally interact with the instructor (other than via phone/email) like you could with a local shop.
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Welecome to the board helen!!!
