Anything simpler than Open Water?

[1LE]

Been working on my Open Water (SSI) since early Summer of 2017 with my dive buddy. Enjoying it, but all our time is in the 10 foot pool. Now I don't mind having a gajillion pool hours (it's still fun), but my issue is that getting weather plus our schedule to allow the quarry dives to finish this thing up is a nightmare. I've heard that I only have 1 year to complete all the objectives before my class expires and I'd have to start again. It's looking like that's just not enough time to get those all done.

I really have no interest in the full Open Water certification limits themselves anyways. I'm only interested in doing local shallow lake/pond diving and have no need nor desire to go deeper than 10 feet. Is there some other program I could switch to that would fit those goals?

I feel like Open Water is the full blown "Private Pilot" of diving when all I really want is the "Sport Pilot" version. I want to be able to get my tanks filled and go down 5-10 feet in the pool and those shallow lakes with my dive buddy and that's it. Is there a different program that would be a better fit for me? I don't mind buying another class if it means I could get that done.

 

[Marie13]

Nothing that would allow you to dive on your own (without a dive pro).

 

[JohnnyC]

You could do PADI Scuba Diver, but that requires you dive with a PADI Professional, but it should allow you to get tank fills.

 

[runsongas]

At 10 ft deep, just get a hookah system

 

[gypsyjim]

Open Water is just the most basic, entry level instruction.
It is designed to introduce a new diver to the sport, and teach the most basic levels of safe diving, and hopefully to continue on to more in depth ( no pun intended) training.
OW is far less demanding and all inclusive, by design, than a great many other scuba certifications, and it is intended to teach safe practice one needs to do even shallow dives on compressed gases..
Even in 10 feet of water you will need this knowledge and skill.
It would be difficult to pare diving down any further, and some feel that even this level course is not adequate training to produce well trained, safe divers.

 

[tbone1004]

what they said. you can probably get a referral to finish the OW dives in north Florida though. A lot of instructors will do that, or actually go to places like Vortex, Ginnie, etc and finish the OW dives there because it's a lot warmer

 

[TMHeimer]

I'm not really familiar with hookah, but that seems a good idea. PADI Scuba Diver Cert.---I believe you still would have to get to the quarry for a couple of "checkout" dives. Not sure, others can answer that or google PADI.
I know it won't help, but I'm curious how it worked out that the SSI shop got you going in the pool without a plan to finish up in the summer--I mean, it's only 4 dives over a weekend.
Also curious about what you'd do only diving in 5-10' ponds/shallow lakes--see some fish maybe? The only advantage over snorkeling down is obvious in that you don't have to surface all the time. I do actually on rare occasions dive those depths to shell collect, but you couldn't do that in fresh water, other than finding a very few non-colourful species.
I don't know the details of your agreement with the shop, but since it was early summer when you started and you couldn't finish, it seems you may want to get a refund.

 

[flyboy08]

That's like flying no higher than 50 ft ....get the full certificate and use as much of it as you must.

Did you only get half of an IFR rating?

 

[Bubblesong]

Maybe I am the one person to give the troll-roll-call post, but here goes!
Switch from challenging SSI to super-easy-peasy-PADI, and get your checkout dives done lickety-split!

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Free diving sounds like the answer to your question.