A HUGE fear of mine!

[Baddoger]

Hi, my name is Ryan, im from california.I am 14 years old. I am going to be joining my schools dive club. But I just recently went to Sports Challet and there was a very nice guy there telling me everything that I needed to know. He let me try everything on and let me breath through the regulators and everything, well lets cut to the chase. He showed me the button that you press to inflate the BC. I was wondering what would happend if you pressed it by mistake underwatter. I know that if u go up to fast your lungs could burst! Can someone please help me? This is the only thing that is stoping me from getting my PADI license. Thank you so much for you time and help!

 

[herman]

Hi Ryan,

You are correct that if you come up to fast, especially in an uncontrolled manner it can be very bad for you. But your fears tward the inflator valve are excessive. First, while it makes a good bit of noise on land, it really does not deliver a lot of air quickly. In other words, to get into the uncontrolled accent that you are worried about, you would have to HOLD the valve open for a good bit of time. In fact, this valve is used on every dive to add small amounts of air the BC to compensate for normal bouyency changes that happen during a dive. In addition to all this, there are other valves on the BC that are for releasing air from the BC. Most BC's have at least 2 and many have 3 and at least one of the valves is much larger then the inlet valve so even if the inlet valve got stuck, you could just hold open the much bigger outlet valve and SLOWLY do a controlled accent. Once you actually get in the water and have a chance to use the eqipment for yourself, you will see that it is not really a problem at all, GO GET CERTIFIED,YOU WILL BE HAPPY YOU DID FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!!!

Herman

 

[Baddoger]

Thanks herman! What you just told me made my day!!! I cant wait to get registered. One more question what does it take to get your wreck lisence? I live close to San Deigo and I would like to go visit the Yukon for my birth day. Once again thanks for your help!

 

[herman]

Glad to hear I helped. As for the wreck cert, it depends somewhat on what agency that you go with, PADI,NAUI,SSI but usally, you need to get at least their first cert and then take a specialty. I HIGHLY recommend that no matter what agency that you go with, that you take your time and do a bunch of "easy" dives to perfect your skills. Diving is not hard but it is a sport of learned skills that take time to perfect and the only way to improve them is to dive. One BIG mistake new divers make is to get in over their head too soon (forgive the pun!!)and start doing dives they are not ready to handle, think of the first cert you get as a learners permit and not a license to do any dive you want. You need to become very comfortable with your new equipment and the new world you are in before you tackle deep wreck diving ( I live on the North Carolina coast and most of our wreck diving is 100 ft or more)In my area, there is a quarry that we do a lot of diving in, it is not deep or very interesting but the skills that you need to practice to be a good diver are easily done there and the cost is low. It will serve you well to find a similar dive site in your area and go there often.

Herman

 

[Ladydiver]

Hi Ryan,

As Herman said, many wreck lie at or about 100 ft of water. If you get certified with PADI, your Open Water certification allows you to dive to 60ft. What I did was take the Advanced Open Water course shortly after my Open Water class. The Advanced class certifies you to 100ft. Due to good old Mother Nature, the Yukon is lying on its site in about 90 ft of water instead of in the upright position they had planned for which would have made for more depth variety.

I think Herman was right on when he said to do some EASY dives after you get certified so you can get your bearings and get used to the new environment underwater. Then take your Advanced class. There is even a Wreck Diving module in the Advanced curriculum.

Remember, take things slow and easy. Just because you have a card that says you are certified doesn't mean you can go hog wild and dive anything you want. Stay withing the limits of your experience and most of all, HAVE FUN!

Cheers,

 

[King_Neptune]

Ryan,

If you are going through Sports Chalet that will be NAUI. Since I am also in San Diego let me toss in my $0.02 about who to go with. First let me say this is NOT a PADI vs NAUI vs SSI vs Saturday Morning Cartoons, etc statement but rather personaly experience. I have been diving in San Diego since right about the year you were born. If it is not too late I would suggest going to "Ocean Enterprises" and checking out what they have to offer. "OE" is a 5 Star PADI dive facility and thats ALL they do is SCUBA. Again, let me state that I say this because of the specialize attention they can give you and they do it all! Whereas Sports Chalet here in San Diego has a bit to be desired when it comes to diving, but thats because they do all sports and not specialize in scuba.

OE is down on Balboa Ave. If you went to the Sports Arena Sports Chalet then you were probably pretty jazzed about the indoor pool they have in the actual store but believe me, its not so cool when you are trying to take lessons and learn.

Just my opinion....

=-)

 

[Baddoger]

Thanks Neptune for all of your information. I dont know if ill be able to register there cause that is a long drive to go to every day! Well, see ya a round!

 

[lil'scubachick]

Hi, my name is Ryan, im from california.I am 14 years old. I am going to be joining my schools dive club. Buti just recently went to Sports Challet and there was a very nice guy there telling me everything that i needed to know. He let me try everything on and let me breath through the regulators and everything, well lets cut to the chase. He showed me the button that you press to inflate the BC. I was wondering what would happend if you pressed it by mistake underwatter. I know that if u go up to fast your lungs could burst! Can someone please help me? This is the only thing that is stoping me from getting my PEDI license. Thank you so much for you time and help!

Hi Ryan! My name is Brittany.I'm from California too. I'm 13 turning 14 very soon. Well, you are supposed to inflate your B.C. while your underwater. You will learn that you take the class.When you said PEDI u meant PADI right? Well, hopefully this will help and if you have anymore questions you can email me @ princessofdragracing@hotmail. com or my aim is CMMlover1991.Maybe we can become friends on scubaboards its really hard to find someone my age to talk to. here

 

[Diver0001]

Hey Brittany,

I don't think Ryan is going to get your message. His post is more than 4 years old and he hasn't signed on to scubaboard since feb 2001.

R..

 

[Baddoger]

Hey Brittany,

I don't think Ryan is going to get your message. His post is more than 4 years old and he hasn't signed on to scubaboard since feb 2001.

R..

This is funny stuff. Well 4 years later here I am. I'm 19 now and I didn't do much scuba because I took up flying. Well I want to get into it again. What's the average prices to start up?