Heya!
So this past weekend my fiancee and I completed our NASE Open Water certifications in Key Largo. Lucky for us (or unlucky, depending on how well you know him) we had the pleasure of training for Open Water with NetDoc and Elana.
I have to say, it was fantastic.
I'm not sure if anyone is looking for an instructor in Florida, but if you are I felt it may be helpful to detail how it all went down. Frankly I was terrified of taking classes at a cert mill and then being unprepared for actual diving. Pete and Elana really did go the extra mile to make sure that fear was gone before we hit the pool.
They wouldn't let us get a hotel, in fact, made us bring the puppy down from Orlando so we didn't have to board him. They brought us into their home as family. This not only saved a ton of money and headache, it allowed us to really saturate the entire trip in SCUBA knowledge.
Being a pretty big dude (6'5 and 300Lbs) I was concerned about pretty much everything. Pete also being basically a manatee wearing quickly put my mind at ease and showed me the way, turns out, I am as graceful as a Russian ballerina in the water.
The pool sessions on the first two days were absolutely great. Pete got us out of our comfort zones just enough to learn, but not so far that we freaked out. My partner had some issues initially with breathing control which were totally gone by the end of the first session. That evening at their place we did drills on a number of things, even going so far as having Elana break out a yoga mat to lay my partner down and help her master the Frog Kick.
Day 3 we planned on getting out first light to Cannon Beach at Pennekamp National Park, about 10 minutes away. After getting our gear together Pete gave us a briefing on the dive site (this was actually the second, more detailed briefing. The previous evening we talked in detail about the skills, site, and a number of other items so we were itching to go!) and we hit the water. I was a bit hesitant at first due to some environmental factors. Cannon beach is a cove with rocky bottom, covered in a thick silt layer up to a foot more more deep in areas. Additionally it is absolutely full of Cassiopeia jellies and visibility is extremely poor (3-5 Ft maximum). The site was chosen because of this. The conditions suck, so it's all uphill from there and you are super confident after it's all done. Afterward there is an aquarium on site that we hit with Pete and learned a good deal about local fauna in the water!
The final set of dives were boat dives out of a local charter with about 15 other people, one dive on a reef at Pennekamp and another which was a wreck dive (FANTASTIC!). By the time we began these two dives it was all clockwork. Breathing, buoyancy and trim, gear, dive planning, absolutely everything was perfect and as a result we had a great time! There were other students on the boat and by that point I could already tell we were superior due to training.
The entire time, from day 1, Pete stressed the importance of buoyancy and trim. All of our training and skills were performed while neutral. I thought it was gimmicky at first not really knowing any better, but holy crap! When you realize how much easier EVERYTHING is while neutral there is no looking back. Even watching the other students in different classes kneeling on the bottom or kicking up silt and banging around it was blatantly apparent that neutral is best, always. Honestly even the lifeguards at the pool on day 1 thought we were taking an Advanced class because we were so well trimmed and comfortable!
Frankly without Pete and Elana I would am sure there would have been much less enjoyment in those final dives. The confidence and skill they instilled in us was absolutely key.
If you want to learn, are in Florida, and don't want to suck I really cant recommend these two more.
Thanks again NetDoc and Elana!
So this past weekend my fiancee and I completed our NASE Open Water certifications in Key Largo. Lucky for us (or unlucky, depending on how well you know him) we had the pleasure of training for Open Water with NetDoc and Elana.
I have to say, it was fantastic.
I'm not sure if anyone is looking for an instructor in Florida, but if you are I felt it may be helpful to detail how it all went down. Frankly I was terrified of taking classes at a cert mill and then being unprepared for actual diving. Pete and Elana really did go the extra mile to make sure that fear was gone before we hit the pool.
They wouldn't let us get a hotel, in fact, made us bring the puppy down from Orlando so we didn't have to board him. They brought us into their home as family. This not only saved a ton of money and headache, it allowed us to really saturate the entire trip in SCUBA knowledge.
Being a pretty big dude (6'5 and 300Lbs) I was concerned about pretty much everything. Pete also being basically a manatee wearing quickly put my mind at ease and showed me the way, turns out, I am as graceful as a Russian ballerina in the water.
The pool sessions on the first two days were absolutely great. Pete got us out of our comfort zones just enough to learn, but not so far that we freaked out. My partner had some issues initially with breathing control which were totally gone by the end of the first session. That evening at their place we did drills on a number of things, even going so far as having Elana break out a yoga mat to lay my partner down and help her master the Frog Kick.
Day 3 we planned on getting out first light to Cannon Beach at Pennekamp National Park, about 10 minutes away. After getting our gear together Pete gave us a briefing on the dive site (this was actually the second, more detailed briefing. The previous evening we talked in detail about the skills, site, and a number of other items so we were itching to go!) and we hit the water. I was a bit hesitant at first due to some environmental factors. Cannon beach is a cove with rocky bottom, covered in a thick silt layer up to a foot more more deep in areas. Additionally it is absolutely full of Cassiopeia jellies and visibility is extremely poor (3-5 Ft maximum). The site was chosen because of this. The conditions suck, so it's all uphill from there and you are super confident after it's all done. Afterward there is an aquarium on site that we hit with Pete and learned a good deal about local fauna in the water!
The final set of dives were boat dives out of a local charter with about 15 other people, one dive on a reef at Pennekamp and another which was a wreck dive (FANTASTIC!). By the time we began these two dives it was all clockwork. Breathing, buoyancy and trim, gear, dive planning, absolutely everything was perfect and as a result we had a great time! There were other students on the boat and by that point I could already tell we were superior due to training.
The entire time, from day 1, Pete stressed the importance of buoyancy and trim. All of our training and skills were performed while neutral. I thought it was gimmicky at first not really knowing any better, but holy crap! When you realize how much easier EVERYTHING is while neutral there is no looking back. Even watching the other students in different classes kneeling on the bottom or kicking up silt and banging around it was blatantly apparent that neutral is best, always. Honestly even the lifeguards at the pool on day 1 thought we were taking an Advanced class because we were so well trimmed and comfortable!
Frankly without Pete and Elana I would am sure there would have been much less enjoyment in those final dives. The confidence and skill they instilled in us was absolutely key.
If you want to learn, are in Florida, and don't want to suck I really cant recommend these two more.
Thanks again NetDoc and Elana!
