How long do you have to finish your diving course?

[Daniel1]

I started my diving training in late Oct/early Nov. I did my third open water dive at the start of January and everything else is done except for the fourth and final open water dive. I am tempted to leave this for July/Aug when I am next somewhere nice for diving. Is this ok, or is this gap an issue?

Thanks

 

[tursiops]

I started my diving training in late Oct/early Nov. I did my third open water dive at the start of January and everything else is done except for the fourth and final open water dive. I am tempted to leave this for July/Aug when I am next somewhere nice for diving. Is this ok, or is this gap an issue?

Thanks

One year. You're fine.
After the layoff, however, you might want to do a workup dive to get re-acclimated....3 dives hasn't built a lot of muscle memory yet! So you might in essence redo dive #3, in preparation for dive #4..

 

[Daniel1]

Thanks. Yeah, I think I would do it with another dive on the same day (a 'fun dive' as they would call it, I guess!).

 

[tursiops]

Thanks. Yeah, I think I would do it with another dive on the same day (a 'fun dive' as they would call it, I guess!).

Just note that you need a professional buddy since you are not certified yet, and that makes it not quite a "fun" dive for them,. which means you are probably paying for that "fun" dive. Just make sure the mutual expectations for that dive are in sync.

 

[TMHeimer]

Another good idea (in addition to getting in some practical review/practice) is to go through the motions on land of the 20 or so pool skills you learned.--Ei. BCD removal, replace, mask clearing, reg retrieval, etc.--the whole bunch of them, maybe even assembling the scuba unit. Other than the latter, I still do this briefly once a week, considering that there is (hopefully) a good chance that some of these skills will rarely, if ever be needed. But, they're easy to forget if you don't memorize them when you are a new diver (I did not, I dived).

 

[KenGordon]

I started my diving training in late Oct/early Nov. I did my third open water dive at the start of January and everything else is done except for the fourth and final open water dive. I am tempted to leave this for July/Aug when I am next somewhere nice for diving. Is this ok, or is this gap an issue?

Thanks

What is wrong with Scotland for diving? Some of us spend a lot to go there and dive.

You may have been led to believe that you need to go to warm places to get good diving. That isn’t the case.

 

[The Chairman]

You may have been led to believe that you need to go to warm places to get good diving. That isn’t the case.

I agree. However, you do need to go to warm places for warm diving.

 

[1LE]

One year. You're fine.

To attempt to be more precise (correct me if I'm wrong), I believe it's one year from last lesson too (rather than start date) from my research/what I've been told.

Similar position here with taking a break. Started June of 2017, worked on it through November. Currently waiting for Winter to pass so we can get restarted and hopefully complete it (I've got my own whole thread where I was thinking about just quitting because of how hard it is to get the quarry time in). I really wish there was an easier way to step through it for people like us that take a long time. OW is an awful big chunk to do with the time limitations. I'm wishing there was a pool/confined cert one could do first, then upgrade to OW later on, but unfortunately there is not...

 

[Edward3c]

I started my diving training in late Oct/early Nov. I did my third open water dive at the start of January and everything else is done except for the fourth and final open water dive. I am tempted to leave this for July/Aug when I am next somewhere nice for diving. Is this ok, or is this gap an issue?

Thanks

If your learning with BSAC then you can utilise the the South Scotland Regional Training sessions at "Quarry View Coffee Shop and Garden Centre, Crarae, PA32 8 Minard, Argyll And Bute", held every second Saturday of the month. I ran one yesterday, the next is Saturday 10th March.

 

[yle]

I started my diving training in late Oct/early Nov. I did my third open water dive at the start of January and everything else is done except for the fourth and final open water dive. I am tempted to leave this for July/Aug when I am next somewhere nice for diving. Is this ok, or is this gap an issue?

Thanks

While all of the above is good advice, the best thing you can do for yourself is to discuss your plans with your instructor. If you plan to delay finishing your class, your instructor will be able to advise you on what he/she will want you to do to "refresh". If you plan to finish your course with a different instructor, your previous instructor will need to provide you with a referral.

Overall, your instructor knows far more about your situation than anyone on Scubaboard and should be able to give you the best advice.