Experience or Qualifications first?

[DORSETBOY]

It may seem odd for an instructor to post a question like this but I'm interested in the opinions of new divers generally.

When you completed your entry level qual did you look at doing further courses straight away or did you want to get further experience before possibly doing courses at a later date?

My personal bias is that I think that people rush into courses too quickly sometimes and would be better getting more experience first.

 

[junior diver]

I'm more mixed than that. If your in cold water then rush into AOW and drysuit as you will get experience under a instructor and you realyy dont want to dive cold water in a wetsuit. You will also get experience in cutting yourself free as thats really usful in low vis. Anyway thats my 2p (not cents im in England).

 

[mccabejc]

I think I saw another thread along these lines around here somewhere...

Anyway, I completed my OW certification in May of this year. My instructors suggested that I go right into the Advanced class as a means to get some experience. At the time I didn't have any "built-in" buddies to dive with, so the instructor said the Advanced class is a good opportunity to get some more dives in with an instructor. Long story short, my first OW dive after certification (or almost the first) was to be a deep dive, the first dive of an Advanced class. At the time I still hadn't gotten my trim and buoyancy straightened out with all the new gear I had purchased. Thankfully, I stepped back and said to myself "wait a minute, this isn't right". Not necessarily because it was a bad idea, but more because I didn't feel comfortable enough with my diving yet to be thinking about taking photos, going deep, etc. From my experience, in the first 10-20 dives you are still getting your routine down, tweaking your buoyancy, learning to breathe and relax, etc.

So now I am going to wait until I have somewhere between 25-50 dives before I do the Advanced class. From what I've seen posted here, the majority opinion seems to agree with you, and favor getting some dives under your belt before doing Advanced.

However, the day after I finish my Advanced class I will be taking my Dive Master and Instructor certification. Think that's too soon ??? :11:

 

[scubasean]

However, the day after I finish my Advanced class I will be taking my Dive Master and Instructor certification. Think that's too soon ??? :11:

Many here probably won't recommend your path....

But....

One of my friends did something like this, over a year. He had dived off and on 20 years before, then took a more recent cert. course, and did OW through IDC Staff Instructor in a year.

He seems to be doing well, and is a good diver.

 

[Mark Vlahos]

It may seem odd for an instructor to post a question like this but I'm interested in the opinions of new divers generally.

When you completed your entry level qual did you look at doing further courses straight away or did you want to get further experience before possibly doing courses at a later date?

My personal bias is that I think that people rush into courses too quickly sometimes and would be better getting more experience first.

I was first certified in 1994 as standard Open Water, but I didn't go for the Advanced Open Water until 2001. In the first few years after certification I did not dive much and took a refresher in 1996.

I tend to think that time and more dives at your current certification level are better than rushing out and taking more classes without any dives between them.

I have seen instructors with fewer dives than I have, these instructors had adequate skills. By the way just for clarification my skills are not perfect, I certainly have room for improvement, and I probably always will. I would like an instructor to have superior skills, these skills come with both education AND time coupled with experience.

I got my certification with PADI and when I finished my initial classes I was encouraged to rapidly take more classes. I am glad I did not take the classes immediately. I think 50 open water dives is a good landmark to reach before taking AOW. I do think that Advanced Open Water is probably not the best name for this class, it should really be thought of as "refinement and honing of basic skills with a few new concepts". If you put some time in you will be ready for the new stuff and at 50 dives it is a good time to check on what you have forgotten since OW. So, I vote for more experience between certification levels.

Mark Vlahos

 

[Conce]

I always want to get further experience before doing higher level courses. However I did my AOW with more or less 20 dives under my belt because I was travelling to scubadiving and wanted to go deeper ... This was the only reason I did my AOW.

One year and many dives after I took my rescue course because in Portugal we usually dive with a buddy without a guidance of a divemaster or instructor ... so I wanted to help my buddy if he needed me ...

Two years after my first breath underwater (140 dives) I still think that I have so much to learn and I think that experience teachs you a lot in diving ...

I look back and think "I´m a much better diver than I was with a half of the dives ..."

I look to some divers with 2000/3000 dives and think that they might think that we have so much to learn ...

 

[underwater daphne]

for me a certification is a chance to learn new things. experience you get either way.
the idea is not to rush but there is no harm in working your way up to rescue pretty fast. you learn a lot about diving and if you ask me the things you learn in ow, well they're good, but that's just the surface in what you should know, even at a beginners level. that's what i think.
although i woulnd't recommend rushing at all to a dm/instructor level. teaching and coaching mean you have a lot of responsibility and if you don't have the experience to back that up, you could get into trouble.

 

[TheOtherCraig]

Your question is one that is or was probably on the mind of every diver at some point. Personally speaking, I was OW in Jul '02 and after less than a dozen dives, took a Night/Navigation specialty. I was very eager to continue the learning process begun in OW and thats about it. My skills at the time were not the best. The dives (3) went smoothly and the skills I learned I use on practically every dive here in NY but, I think I would have enjoyed the course more had I waited until I had more dives logged and a better handle on my buoyancy. I am now AOW by SSI and began their Divecon program in Jul '03 but decided to dedicate this dive season to working on personal diving. I made a post on another thread here "When To Go Pro" that speaks on this as well. The bottom line is I agree it is better to take one's time and gain experience. I apologize for the long-windedness of my response. I am new here but as my posts increase, you will see it is just my nature!

 

[DORSETBOY]

No worries Craig, your response is really interesting to me, I think we seem to pretty much agree on getting as much experience as poss. For me, when I started I wanted just to dive for the pleasure within my limits and then to exapnd them from there once I felt I knew more of what I wanted out of diving.

 

[stefo2]

In my opinion, it doesn't matter when you take your AOW, as long as you bear in mind that having the certificate doesn't make you and advanced diver, and dive accordingly. In my opinion the most important reason for doing the AOW is do do the rescue course as soon as you feel comfortable.
After that - dive, dive, dive before considering doing any more courses.