Anything simpler than Open Water?

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Since the greatest changes in gas pressure occur in the first 33 feet of depth, "swallow" dives, as in 10 feet or so might be far more dangerous for the unprepared and untrained "diver" than they are thinking.
"Scuba diving in shallow water, usually regarded as safe, causes the bends in dozens of Australians each year, a conference was told yesterday. ... "It is now clear that even shallow waterdives can produce decompression sickness," said Dr Griffiths, director of the Hyperbaric Medical Unit at Townsville Hospital.May 15, 2002
Bends warning on diving in shallow water - theage.com.au
 
Since the greatest changes in gas pressure occur in the first 33 feet of depth, "swallow" dives, as in 10 feet or so might be far more dangerous for the unprepared and untrained "diver" than they are thinking.
"Scuba diving in shallow water, usually regarded as safe, causes the bends in dozens of Australians each year, a conference was told yesterday. ... "It is now clear that even shallow waterdives can produce decompression sickness," said Dr Griffiths, director of the Hyperbaric Medical Unit at Townsville Hospital.May 15, 2002
Bends warning on diving in shallow water - theage.com.au
Interesting. My dives are almost always to that depth, and I may ascend 2-4 times just to get my bearings (just easier than using the compass since I zig zag a lot, and can practice CESA once in a while when I ascend). I don't do any extreme exercising, though. It would be interesting to find out if those compiling these statistics have figured out the mechanics of why these divers get the bends with such little nitrogen in their tissues--unless these shallow dives are very lengthy and the 120 minute compartment or so comes into effect?
 
This. All the pool training, class work, and written test were done a long while ago. The shop is great and offers all the extra practice time you want, and we've done TONS of that as the shop is just a few minutes from the house. Easy to pop over there for a couple hours and then zip home. No issues with any of the skills. Getting the big block of time to hit the quarry (which is a bit of a drive) at the same time we have usable weather and an instructor is the issue.

Realized that I have no real interest other than the local shallow lakes that friends have cottages on. We're getting older and don't do real trips/vacations any more, so won't be doing any exotic dive destination or anything. So, thought I'd see if there was an easier way to get finished up/certified for what we'll actually use. Even if it meant starting over once. What I really do NOT want to do is to end up re-starting year after year and never getting to dive at all for real because I'm not able to get the quarry dives done. Diving's just not *that* important to me. I just like to swim around a few feet down without having to continually surface. If it takes a turn from fun to work, I've got plenty of other hobbies as well as a distinct shortage of time. I want diving to be one of the hobbies, but there's a certain pain threshold where it would not be worth it.
I think we all understand what you are saying, but can't figure why it's so hard to get a weekend trip to the quarry during "usable" weather, when you said you/they basically had all summer. How far IS the quarry?
 
When I got back into diving after a 25 year hiatus I told my local shop & instructor that I had no desire to go below 50'. I look back at that now and just laugh.

OW is like training wheels. You can go without a dive pro, but it is recommended that you keep your depth to above 60' and that you dive in conditions that approximate your training conditions while you build up experience and skill.
Yes, a topic often discussed. The recommended depth is for when you start out, but you gradually can expand that, you're just not given any recommendations on how to do that. Diving with a pro to deeper depths then to those depths without a pro seems to be one recommendation. Another way is to gradually increase depth without a pro--like the OW diver with 1,000 dives--ei. being logical and careful. No specific advice is given on these methods. But, you must get AOW to get a "recommended" depth of 100', and you can get that immediately after OW course, pretty much what I did. Of course, those AOW dives are with an instructor, but it's still not a lot of experience to just start doing that on your own.
 
Been working on my Open Water ... with my dive buddy.

Is the quarry you can't manage to get to Gilboa? Google Maps seem to think that it's only an hour away from Sylvania, so it doesn't seem like there should be hurdles so insurmountable that you can't manage to find a couple of days in May or June, before reaching the anniversary of your "early summer" 2017 start. And that's not even a real deadline since some time with the instructor will restart the clock.

And FWIW, that OW cert doesn't give you limits that are beyond what you think you want to do. Other than some dive ops that will insist on an AOW for some dives it doesn't give you any limits at all. OTOH, it doesn't give you much knowledge or experience, either. Rather than being like a private pilot certificate you should think of it as a student pilot certificate. It's a basic entry level certification that indicates that you've met the requirements to solo, and start to build the experience that will really make you competent.

That said, I take it your dive buddy also needs to finish the class? It's obviously a rather good idea to be competent, but you don't need a C-card to go diving. All you need is a way to get tanks filled, and one guy with a card can take care of that.
 
When I got back into diving after a 25 year hiatus I told my local shop & instructor that I had no desire to go below 50'. I look back at that now and just laugh..

rofl3.gif


I can relate.
In 95, as my marriage failed, I enrolled in a Tae Kwon Do school across the road from my shop, just for exercise and stress relief.
I told the Korean Master who I knew as a customer of mine, that I had zero interest in "pursuing belts", of actually getting into martial arts seriously, but I needed an outlet for my frustration and anger.

10 years later I was an Assistant Instructor.

Sometimes you do not know what will interest, or where it may lead you, until you open a door and try something new.
 
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Is the quarry you can't manage to get to Gilboa? Google Maps seem to think that it's only an hour away from Sylvania, so it doesn't seem like there should be hurdles so insurmountable that you can't manage to find a couple of days in May or June, before reaching the anniversary of your "early summer" 2017 start. And that's not even a real deadline since some time with the instructor will restart the clock.

...

That said, I take it your dive buddy also needs to finish the class? It's obviously a rather good idea to be competent, but you don't need a C-card to go diving. All you need is a way to get tanks filled, and one guy with a card can take care of that.

I presume that's the one? I don't remember the name right now, but about an hour trip (each way) sounds right. We both need to get it done. Weekends with more than a couple hours free are hard to come by. Of course, maybe that's telling me something too. Might not be worth throwing any more time and money at if I won't have time to use it anyways. Maybe just drop it for now, then go through it again after retirement (if still medically able).
 
I presume that's the one? I don't remember the name right now, but about an hour trip (each way) sounds right. We both need to get it done. Weekends with more than a couple hours free are hard to come by. Of course, maybe that's telling me something too. Might not be worth throwing any more time and money at if I won't have time to use it anyways. Maybe just drop it for now, then go through it again after retirement (if still medically able).

Wow, you’re a busy man! Looks like you’ve already made up your mind though. If it’s at all important to you, I’d suspect you’d be able to find several hours on a weekend to finish the course. Obviously, it’s not a high priority item for you. :wink:
 
Unfortunately, yeah, way too busy. Full time job and my spare time/days off go into keeping the house from caving in on my head and the cars running. Learning to fly was easier than diving. I worked right next door to the airport so I only needed a block of 2 hours for each training session every week or 2. Checkrides were 4 hours, but without any travel time to speak of and just one every couple of years or so as I progressed through it did happen. Took me 4 years to get a motorcycle endorsement once I decided to do it because you need 3 days in a row available for the course... Really love popping over to the pool for a couple hours for diving, but add in *another* 2 hours of driving and doing so multiple times in a short window of time and hence the problem. If I can keep getting my date bumped up maybe at some point I'll be able to at least get my card (even if I never get to use it "for real"), but if my training expires and I have to start over...

Today I had a whopping 40 minutes of spare time in between getting home and my next meeting (rapidly coming up)... Sigh. Worse places than to here to burn a few minutes I guess. :)
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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