Back to the water after 15 years
- Thread starter vpresto
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
- Messages
- 53,686
- Reaction score
- 7,865
- # of dives
- 500 - 999
Good, safe plan.
I don't know what 2-star is, and the training back then may have been better than typical today, but 15 years is a long dry spell. My alternate suggestion would have been refresher course and AOW certification.Coz drift diving is wonderful, but hiring a private DM the first day is money well spent, and since you have to have the boat come to you, not you to it, the more surface signaling devices the better. Diving is done with a DM guide for up to 8 divers so stay with yours; for one, it's not safe to surface there without sending a SMB up first - which he will do. Dive computer also suggested for the multi-level diving, but not required.
We have an active Cozumel forum with dozens of involved fanatics if we can help you plan your trip.
damage
Contributor
Good decision, the safest one from my point of view, enjoy your trip to cozumel!
diver 85
Contributor
Prob. new certification???---if you have basically no knowledge of previous course.....should be pretty easy, though
*** NOTE: If interested, please continue this hijack here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/367357-rec-diving-then-vs-now.html ***
This is curious. My initial scuba training took place in 1986. I'm trying to think of the ways my rec diving has changed over these past ~25 years. I can't think of anything, really. When I do recreational scuba diving these days, I pretty much dive the same way I dove back then. For these types of dives, I've always dove the same way, I think. I prefer/use analog gauges, for example when I rec dive. And I conservatively follow standard air tables (rather than multi-level tables). I'm Nitrox certified, but I seldom use Nitrox for rec dives, and when I do, I follow standard air tables. I sometimes take a dive computer, but I use it only to record my rec dive for later playback. I've always kept my ascent rates very slow, but when I sometimes also take my digital bottom timer, I pay special attention to the 30 fpm ascent rate limit. I'm 55 now and have young children, so I limit my diving to at most two dives per day, and take a day off after two consecutive days of diving. And I carried a reel and DSMB during my last rec ocean and Great Lakes dives, which I didn't carry--never heard of in fact--in 1986. These last two things might be the only substantive difference between what I did then versus what I do now, I think. Maybe I'm missing something.
I'm wondering now if others who have been diving a while are similar? How we answer this is important, especially if we sometimes dive with more-recently trained divers. Maybe this should be pursued in a new thread.
Ronald
P.S. Just thought of one more change: I now carry EMT shears, also.
*** NOTE: If interested, please continue this hijack here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/367357-rec-diving-then-vs-now.html ***
This is curious. My initial scuba training took place in 1986. I'm trying to think of the ways my rec diving has changed over these past ~25 years. I can't think of anything, really. When I do recreational scuba diving these days, I pretty much dive the same way I dove back then. For these types of dives, I've always dove the same way, I think. I prefer/use analog gauges, for example when I rec dive. And I conservatively follow standard air tables (rather than multi-level tables). I'm Nitrox certified, but I seldom use Nitrox for rec dives, and when I do, I follow standard air tables. I sometimes take a dive computer, but I use it only to record my rec dive for later playback. I've always kept my ascent rates very slow, but when I sometimes also take my digital bottom timer, I pay special attention to the 30 fpm ascent rate limit. I'm 55 now and have young children, so I limit my diving to at most two dives per day, and take a day off after two consecutive days of diving. And I carried a reel and DSMB during my last rec ocean and Great Lakes dives, which I didn't carry--never heard of in fact--in 1986. These last two things might be the only substantive difference between what I did then versus what I do now, I think. Maybe I'm missing something.
I'm wondering now if others who have been diving a while are similar? How we answer this is important, especially if we sometimes dive with more-recently trained divers. Maybe this should be pursued in a new thread.
Ronald
P.S. Just thought of one more change: I now carry EMT shears, also.
*** NOTE: If interested, please continue this hijack here: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/367357-rec-diving-then-vs-now.html ***
Last edited:
- Messages
- 53,686
- Reaction score
- 7,865
- # of dives
- 500 - 999
I don't know that recreational diving has changed much in the last decade or so? Maybe not. I did my OW training in 2001, same year as my brother, but I've done a few hundred dives since while he has done none so if he got interested again now - yeah, I'd want him to review what he learned back then, with a pro. Quite different as compared to your continued diving RX7. Use it or lose/forget it.
I'm a good bit older but do a lot more than 4 dives in 3 days when I do a dive trip, tho. I think dive computers are good tools to keep one in safe limits.
I'm a good bit older but do a lot more than 4 dives in 3 days when I do a dive trip, tho. I think dive computers are good tools to keep one in safe limits.
Skarn
Registered
rx7: I got certified orginally in 1986 as well by NAUI. The biggest differences I notice are with gear. I used a horseshoe BC (they weren't called BCD's back then and a farmer john wetsuit. Now it seems that not many use farmer john anymore, the horseshoe BCs are a thing of the past, and heck even jacket-style seems to be phasing out in favor of back inflate and backplate/wings. Everyone seems to dive nitrox and computers are the norm. And I never heard of integrated weights back then...it was a belt only.
As far as training, that has changes somewhat as well. I was trained to do the emergency ascent by removing the reg and blowing small bubbles. When I re-certed as AOW back in October, I was told to keep it in and hum. But in the end, the basics never changed.
Skarn
and a farmer john wetsuit. Now it seems that not many use farmer john anymore, the horseshoe BCs are a thing of the past, and heck even jacket-style seems to be phasing out in favor of back inflate and backplate/wings. Everyone seems to dive nitrox and computers are the norm. And I never heard of integrated weights back then...it was a belt only.As far as training, that has changes somewhat as well. I was trained to do the emergency ascent by removing the reg and blowing small bubbles. When I re-certed as AOW back in October, I was told to keep it in and hum. But in the end, the basics never changed.
Skarn
Count me in for the good choice category. I too took was away for over 20 years and started off all over again as a "newby" with OW. Way too much had changed with equipment and standards over the years. Enjoy your trip!
- Messages
- 305
- Reaction score
- 24
- # of dives
I'd go for the re-cert, myself. Sure you can probably get a replacement card, but that card is no substitute for knowledge (or lost knowledge).
Similar threads
