New to diving, looking to get some information on the theoretical side.

[any name you wish.]

Hello everyone, I'm new to both diving and this forum.

I'm from Belgium and we don't really have that much of an active dive scene here as far as I can tell. My only experience so far, is that I've been following channels like dive talk on YouTube for a while and I used to spend some time freediving but nothing crazy. (I think something like 7m must have been my deepest dive with a static apnoea of 2:30min at the time) as well as a summer spent snorkelling in Tuscany. I'm fairly comfortable in the water.

I'm currently looking for a good place to learn how to dive that is near me, which has proven difficult. Given the weak shoreline that my country has to offer that shouldn't come as a surprise. Most of the dive clubs I see have pictures of people on their knees in a pool and from what I could gather from dive talk this is a sign they are putting too much weight on the divers. Maybe I have been misinformed, but with the current knowledge that I have I sort of treat it as a red flag. (feel free to correct me if this is just noob-think).

I also saw various online courses promising that you can get your cert online. With numerous courses being sold starting around 100 euro. I was wondering if there are some places I could find the same information without having to pay. (not pirating the courses, just the same information the courses are based on).
Or is there an added value I am missing with these courses? I really am just interested in learning all about the theory behind diving, maybe it could get me a leg up when I eventually do find a diving club to make my time spent more valuable as I could focus on practice rather than internalising the information.

As someone interested into getting into diving I find the whole certification area to be somewhat confusing as a whole. I also find it hard to gauge how good the instructor might be due to my lack of experience. Any tips are welcome.
Nice meeting you all.

 

[boulderjohn]

Most of the dive clubs I see have pictures of people on their knees in a pool and from what I could gather from dive talk this is a sign they are putting too much weight on the divers.

The trend away from teaching class on the knees started about a dozen years ago, and it is taking too long to completely take over. Student who learn NOT on the knees learn buoyancy much faster and will usually look like experienced divers by the time they are done with the course. Students who learn on the knees usually finish instruction with poor buoyancy skills.

As for the overweighting part, you have mixed up cause and effect. They are not on their knees because they are overweighted. When an instructor chooses to put the on the students on their knees, he must have overweight so they can stay there comfortably. They are thus overweighted because they are on their knees.

I also saw various online courses promising that you can get your cert online. With numerous courses being sold starting around 100 euro. I was wondering if there are some places I could find the same information without having to pay. (not pirating the courses, just the same information the courses are based on).

Most major agencies offer online instruction. This only replaces the academic learning in the class, which you would otherwise get from a book. You still have to do all the same physical learning in a pool and in the open water. In my experience teaching students who learned from both the book and online, the ones who learned online had better understanding than the ones who learned from the book.

 

[any name you wish.]

The trend away from teaching class on the knees started about a dozen years ago, and it is taking too long to completely take over. Student who learn NOT on the knees learn buoyancy much faster and will usually look like experienced divers by the time they are done with the course. Students who learn on the knees usually finish instruction with poor buoyancy skills.

As for the overweighting part, you have mixed up cause and effect. They are not on their knees because they are overweighted. When an instructor chooses to put the on the students on their knees, he must have overweight so they can stay there comfortably. They are thus overweighted because they are on their knees.

Most major agencies offer online instruction. This only replaces the academic learning in the class, which you would otherwise get from a book. You still have to do all the same physical learning in a pool and in the open water. In my experience teaching students who learned from both the book and online, the ones who learned online had better understanding than the ones who learned from the book.

Thank you for taking the time to write this up John,

I see what you mean with cause and effect related to teaching on the knees. Thank you for clearing that up.

Given that the diving standard has moved away from this, is it safe to assume the instructors are going to be teaching according to dated principles as well? Or that there will be less emphasis on proper buoyancy control / trim? Even so, if these outdated principles are all you can find in terms of diving clubs is it still better than nothing or should I just accept that I wont be doing any diving for the foreseeable future until I move somewhere with a more active dive scene.

Also, I was wondering if there are some reputable places online I could go to get my theoretical information?
For now I just want to stop sitting on idle hands and get going with the theory.

 

[Scuba-dooba-do]

We are training on our knees and I have a hard time with buoyancy. Good to know this.

 

[Cthippo]

I found an older copy of the PADI textbook at a used bookstore and bought it for a few dollars. Not the most up to date, but 90% of it has not changed. Probably available on Amazon.

 

[Jai Bar]

Hello everyone, I'm new to both diving and this forum.

I'm from Belgium and we don't really have that much of an active dive scene here as far as I can tell. My only experience so far, is that I've been following channels like dive talk on YouTube for a while and I used to spend some time freediving but nothing crazy. (I think something like 7m must have been my deepest dive with a static apnoea of 2:30min at the time) as well as a summer spent snorkelling in Tuscany. I'm fairly comfortable in the water.

I'm currently looking for a good place to learn how to dive that is near me, which has proven difficult. Given the weak shoreline that my country has to offer that shouldn't come as a surprise. Most of the dive clubs I see have pictures of people on their knees in a pool and from what I could gather from dive talk this is a sign they are putting too much weight on the divers. Maybe I have been misinformed, but with the current knowledge that I have I sort of treat it as a red flag. (feel free to correct me if this is just noob-think).

I also saw various online courses promising that you can get your cert online. With numerous courses being sold starting around 100 euro. I was wondering if there are some places I could find the same information without having to pay. (not pirating the courses, just the same information the courses are based on).
Or is there an added value I am missing with these courses? I really am just interested in learning all about the theory behind diving, maybe it could get me a leg up when I eventually do find a diving club to make my time spent more valuable as I could focus on practice rather than internalising the information.

As someone interested into getting into diving I find the whole certification area to be somewhat confusing as a whole. I also find it hard to gauge how good the instructor might be due to my lack of experience. Any tips are welcome.
Nice meeting you all.

Not sure what certifications you've seen online for 100 euros. It may well be some specialty available to already certified divers, such as Nitrox.

To start scuba diving you will have to get an Open Water certification, to begin with. This is entry level and if you find that you like scuba, you can take it from there with additional training: Advanced Open Water, specialties and so on. The majority of these are taught and practiced in the water, not online... There are various certification agencies (for example PADI, SSI etc. etc.) out there that teach the same thing- scuba diving- and most of them have more or less the same types of courses and specialties so you can read their FAQ's to understand how all these certifications relate one to the other.

You can learn by yourself the theory, though. There are countless sources online on the various aspects of scuba diving theory. Even if there are variations in how different agencies teach this, the theory by itself is just the same. I don't see how this will free you more time to focus on exercising, though.

I would probably do the opposite of what you are suggesting: first get certified, then start getting better knowledge from additional sources focusing on topics that I want to expand my knowledge in them, for example decompression theory.

 

[johndiver999]

ScubaBoard Download Library Index

ScubaBoard Download Library Index Scientific Diving Manuals & Papers Scripps Institution of Oceanography Manual for Diving Safety, August 2012 Scripps Institution of Oceanography Manual for Diving Safety, April 2005 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Diving Safety Manual, Revision 3.2...

scubaboard.com

 

[Jai Bar]

Or this one https://diving-rov-specialists.com/index_htm_files/history-8-us-manual-rev-5.pdf

 

[Etmutt]

If you're in Belgium, you should get your training from there, I guess you will easily find a cmas club. They tend to focus a lot more than padi&co on teaching fundamentals. It might take more time to reach your first certification but you will likely be a better diver

 

[lowwall]

The theory for diving is pretty simple, at least unless and until you get into decompression dives.

Take a look at IFDI : Learn scuba diving . The site is from a modern day Don Quixote who is tilting at the dive training industry by trying to make a sort of open source diving agency, but the information is the same as you'll get in a PADI or SSI course minus all the marketing filler.

The 10m and 20m diver info covers the standard OW theory, 30m is AOW, 40 is Rescue, and Nitrox is Nitrox. It should only take a couple of hours to digest all of this and then you should really start looking for a course.

I just noticed that ISE is offering their equivalent of an open water course starting next week in Assenede. ISE is a DIR-style agency which means buoyancy and trim are the cornerstones of their training. If it works out logistically for you, it's a golden opportunity.

Rec 1 | IS_Expl

is-expl.com

The contact info for the instructor is linked on that page, I'd call him right away if you have any interest.

If you aren't familiar with DIR, I'll suggest you start with this post What is DIR? . There's also a good recent thread about initial training with GUE, the principal DIR agency, versus the conventional agencies: Question - GUE - Is it much different to traditional agencies like SSI or PADI?