Got certified.Some SMALL questions

[samsumon]

Good **** guys..I guess I did get somewhat screwed in my OW course. As I still have many questions..My family is going to get certified soon in another school,maybe I can pop in and ask some questions =-). I learn imo alot of just basic stuff. I can take my gear off and put it back on (tank off the BC) I can clear my mask,find my regs if they fall out,find my zero buoyancy.


And also,thanks for the advice on gear and stuff. The thing with this sport as alot fo sports is,to do it recreational it cost a ton of money,about 100 bucks for 2 dives. So im assuming that after a few dives and you seeing how much you like it,its worth to plunge and just buy good gear that will last for a long time.

 

[samsumon]

But what is bothering me is,

I would LOVE to go night diving and see wrecks,caves and go deep. From the looks of it,thats another 1k in training. This is what Im not liking about diving =-(

 

[Brandon]

But what is bothering me is,

I would LOVE to go night diving and see wrecks,caves and go deep. From the looks of it,thats another 1k in training. This is what Im not liking about diving =-(

Find a local group of divers and get out and dive more - make a goal of at least one dive per week and the rest of the issues will sort themselves out.

You're in Florida - you don't have a good excuse to not be diving regularly =p

 

[Tortuga68]

As someone else said, what's the big hurry? The caves, wrecks & deep dives will still be there when you're ready for them

It's going to be a lot more than $1k by the way...

 

[drrich2]

I would LOVE to go night diving and see wrecks,caves and go deep. From the looks of it,thats another 1k in training. This is what Im not liking about diving =-(

You don't need a wreck certification (or anything but OW) to 'see' a wreck. It's penetrating it that requires the more advanced training. You can swim around a wreck much like you'd swim around a coral reef.

One difference between OW & AOW is the recommended max. depth that sometimes comes into play for each cert. level; 60' vs. 100', I believe it is. That extra footage will get you closer to some wrecks, although the deep diver specialty goes even a bit further. Of course, private study, diving with good mentors and strong adherence to good safety practices could eventually qualify you to do such dives, anyway (although a dive boat charter might demand to see an AOW or better card before letting you do it off their boat - some do, some don't).

I think AOW can be valuable right after, or later on after, OW. AOW gives you some structured supervision and a guided intro. to a few dive types.

My question to you: if you don't go straight into AOW, what kind of dives (e.g.: coral reef? shore dive? dive boat charter? fresh water springs?) do you see yourself doing, about how many and how soon (say, 10 this summer?), and who with? If you'll only be diving with family who just got trained, or you need that AOW for some boat charter dives, that's one thing. If you're part of a local dive club or otherwise dive with a seasoned group who are willing to help you advance your knowledge and skills, that may be another.

Richard.

 

[Damselfish]

The advanced course is misnamed and not really advanced. Probably better to think of it as OW2. The PADI AOW class includes single dives from various specialties, and the single wreck dive is not going to qualify you to do the type of wreck diving where you actually enter the wrecks. (Mostly, it will probably teach you why you should not.) But lots of people dive around wrecks with no more than OW, as long as they're not too deep. You get to see the wreck from one perspective and lots of the critters living there.

Night diving will not require a lot of additional equipment or special training. But you should certainly have your act together during the day first.

Cave diving or serious wreck diving is a ways off and lots more gear and training than $1000...

 

[TSandM]

Whereabouts ARE you? Knowing that would help us give advice.

You don't need an AOW card to do a dive at night, or to dive around the outside of a wreck. But a well-taught class will give you some tools to do those things more comfortably, and help you recognize some potential hazards you might otherwise not think of. It's not a bad idea to take it, and the majority of AOW classes are planned for people with very few dives past certification. (Jim Lapenta's class is different.)

But I'm with everybody else -- get out and do some diving. There's lots of good stuff to see during daylight hours and in shallow water (of course, some of that depends on where you are) and it's best to get some practice with your skills in the shallows, anyway.

As far as the decompression question goes -- if you truly don't know how to use the tables you were shown in your OW class, you need to go back to the instructor and ask for a review. If you were taught to dive a computer and were using a computer on the dive you described, you should be aware that the way computers calculate your nitrogen loading is different from the way the table does it. The table assumes you were at your maximum depth for the entirety of the dive, which is rarely true except for wreck diving. The computer gives you "credit" for the time you spent shallower than that, which is why computer dives rarely fit neatly into the categories in the tables.

But all of that should have been covered in your class, and if it wasn't, or if you don't understand it, you really do need to go back to your instructor and talk to him about that.

 

[rollerboi]

It sounds like PADI is the agency of focus? You may wish to seek out an SSI shop and take the specialties you're most interested in - full courses, that together earn the AOW cert.

I enjoyed my Night/Low Vis specialty, as well as my Deep specialty. You'll have gotten the official experience and education you need to more comfortably go on those dives. You'll still need to practice even after obtaining the cert to become truly comfortable and safe. Experience is the true teacher.

Don't worry about number of dives before going into AOW; just get comfortable in the water and get your skills fairly dialed in - you don't have to be perfect, though. Most new divers aren't.

 

[samsumon]

Thanks guys.. Im just going to try and get out into the water as much as possible right now. I'm looking online for more swimming tricks like frog kick,helicopter turns and such. Next dive I go is going to be a 75ft wreck dive so Ill practice down there for sure..Seems that once I get a good few dives under my belt I will know a bit more clear as to what where to take this. Also my family is going to get certified so this is awesome. Maybe taking family dives is what will make this even better.

As far as learning how to decomp and such,Ill ask my instructor again.

 

[samsumon]

Whereabouts ARE you? Knowing that would help us give advice.

You don't need an AOW card to do a dive at night, or to dive around the outside of a wreck. But a well-taught class will give you some tools to do those things more comfortably, and help you recognize some potential hazards you might otherwise not think of. It's not a bad idea to take it, and the majority of AOW classes are planned for people with very few dives past certification. (Jim Lapenta's class is different.)

But I'm with everybody else -- get out and do some diving. There's lots of good stuff to see during daylight hours and in shallow water (of course, some of that depends on where you are) and it's best to get some practice with your skills in the shallows, anyway.

As far as the decompression question goes -- if you truly don't know how to use the tables you were shown in your OW class, you need to go back to the instructor and ask for a review. If you were taught to dive a computer and were using a computer on the dive you described, you should be aware that the way computers calculate your nitrogen loading is different from the way the table does it. The table assumes you were at your maximum depth for the entirety of the dive, which is rarely true except for wreck diving. The computer gives you "credit" for the time you spent shallower than that, which is why computer dives rarely fit neatly into the categories in the tables.

But all of that should have been covered in your class, and if it wasn't, or if you don't understand it, you really do need to go back to your instructor and talk to him about that.

I learn how to use the diving table,the one that you can use to figure out multiple dives and how long you can stay in the water and such..As far as decomp,I dont think we even covered it to well if we did...Wow,shows how much some instructors care.