Was my Nav course necessary?

[The Chairman]

One last thought, a compass becomes the most useless piece of equipment on you if you didn't take a reading before you either splashed or headed away from the downline.

I would completely agree!

Biggest problem for me seemed to be keeping compass level

... and centered. Those are the two biggest mistakes I see. Then as @lowvis attested to, becoming so fixated on the bearing that you don't see much else.

Then you swim to that target and repeat.

Best way to deal with currents and have fun at the same time!

The only thing that matters is to have someone get you out of your comfort zone and help you find the things you could improve on.

The best instructors are the ones that evaluate the student and teach to their weaknesses as well as to what they hope to accomplish. This requires some flexibility and actually diving with the student before you pop into teaching mode. You already know about navigation? Cool... let's up the ante and get you out of your comfort zone. No, I can't just take you at your word, but it should be fairly easy to ascertain where you are at. Then just tailor the class to meet the student's needs and objectives.

Navigation in the Keys is a bit different from navigation else where. Most dives are shallow and ducking out of currents mean that you're not going to be able to swim a straight line anywhere. So students learn to head into the current and when they hit their turn pressures, one does a "commando peek" and gets a compass heading to the boat. All I ask is that they find the anchor line or the boat. No real need to lead the current, since it should be sending you right back to the boat. I don't think any of my AOW students have needed to take an additional course to be able to navigate.

 

[Stoo]

IMHO, many of the courses offered these days aren't really "necessary", but then I am from the days when "teaching someone to dive" was much more inclusive in terms of the curriculum. PADI did a masterful job of taking two courses... basic and advanced... and turning them into about 15 courses or something. Obviously there are pros and cons to this, but I suppose one upside is that you don't need to spend money on stuff that you already know, or that you have no need to know.

 

[Steve_C]

11 years ago when I started diving I did not have any dive buddies. The clubs did not fit my schedule. I had a little extra money. Taking courses was both enjoyable, sometimes educational, and a way to get more diving in. Now I no longer take diving courses but I have a fairly wide circle of diving buddies. My interests are in learning more about the flora and the fauna as opposed to trying to become a better diver. I am not interested in deco or caves and my dives are now NDL limited.

 

[Subcooled]

I am familiar with navigation.

If you have done orienteering based on landmarks and a map (not on compass bearings only) then you should be prepared for underwater navigation. The compass, of course, is close to your eyes and that causes some grief (e.g. parallax), but it's manageable. The visibility may be worse. There may be currents. And so on. But basically, you need to keep your eyes open and to memorize things.

I did take a PADI AOWD course with a navigation dive included. Both the dive and the instructor sucked (I had done 10 years of orienteering and all dive instructors really are NOT orienteering instructors). If you have no clue about navigation, then they can help you. Exceptions, of course, do exist.

This course was $130 and I really did not get anything from it.

You did get one adventure dive out of five done against your "advanced" level that grants you (or your dive operator) insurance cover when you dive down to 30m/100 ft. This is not a bad thing. You may not learn anything, but you may gain 1/5th of insurance cover.

If you want to learn "everything" you will need to read books and choose them wisely. PADI is great for holiday divers but I would ask you to compare agencies including NAUI, CMAS, GUE, and others. You need to pick the one that suits you.

And please do remember, there will always be shades of gray.

 

[Subcooled]

In my experience most people do not know how to use a compass properly

Yes. Most people tend to get too technical. You just need to locate north and orient the map or your mind with north. The rest should happen in your mind.

A bearing can be "stored" on a compass (by turning the bezel) and that may be useful if you travel long distances without landmarks (e.g. in fog). Many people however use too much energy on learning this little trick instead of learning how to compare the map to the world.

 

[Steve_C]

Orienteering vs Underwater:
Some common skills but:

In water sometimes you can leave the bottom and go up and look around (good) if shallow or if a low viz "fogbank" near the bottom.

In water such as traversing over a cold deep dark hole you will lose sight of all visible landmark and you may have to travel a while like that

Near as I can tell there is no moss on the north side of rocks and trees underwater.

If there is a lot of metal laying around like in a debri field on a wreck site the compass is worthless. The field can stetch for 100s of feet.

Sometimes the best thing to do is run a reel if you have to get back to the anchor.

Leaving a trail of crumbs does not work well in either case but definitely not under water.

Air does not make ripples parallel to shore.

In water there is often a dark area under the boat that is visible from a greater distance. Especially in shallower Keys type dives. The cabin with a warm cot leaves no shadow.

 

[Subcooled]

Off topic: Some good points above. Especially the vertical aspect. Magnetic rock does however exist on land as do zero visibility situations (flat woods, snow storm, fog, ...).

 

[306dive306]

do your ADV + Nitrox, log 100 dives, and do Full Cave.

 

[Oldbear]

They are not only in violation of PADI standards, but also safety standards. They should be reported and closed down. Better no shop be open than one operating like that.

This is the same shop that does a combined confined and open water dive for their OW classes (1 or 2 Confined water dive exercises are done in a pool the rest are mixed in with the OW portion of the certification weekend) They have a air check proudly displayed in their shop that is over 3 years old and have no idea about how nitrox works. So it is an interesting Shop and Instructors but when you are the only shop in town......

Warren...if you have witnessed these standard violation and the others you have previously posted about in other threads please, PLEASE call PADI and report them. While I would love to report them based on your statements PADI pros need to witness violations in order to report them. If this shop is as bad as you describe, I would like to have them investigated but PADI.

 

[extremetito]

I've taken courses in underwater navigation as well, but have never had to use the compass for the kind of dives I do (recreational dives in the tropics in good weather). Nevertheless, I'd like to be reasonably comfortable using the compass should the need arise.
Is this a good reference book? (Night Diving, Underwater Navigation and Limited Visibility Diving, Barsky):

What I do is go to a used book store and/or online and find a good book on the subject, or the actual manual being used, and see if I know as much as I think I do. Then act accordingly.

Amazon.com: Buying Choices: Night Diving, Underwater Navigation, and Limited Visibility Diving

Bob

Is there any other book or resource for quick and simple reference that anyone can recommend?