OW Class at Beach Cities Scuba

[ScubaWithTurk]

First let me say I hope this is the best place to post this. I am new SB member but a long time lurker so forgive my stupidity if this isn't the best place.

I am taking my OW class beginning 30 November. I am taking the first class in Huntington Beach at Beach Cities Scuba where I will have two exams that night. The following weekend will be more classroom work combined with pool work at Beach Cities Scuba Laguna Sea Sports.

I will use this to discuss the things I have learned, what I feel may have been lacking (not that I would know other than from what I have read here) what I was comfortable with and what I struggle with during the skills practice. I am very excited to get started but I will admit that as it gets closer I am getting more nervous. That could be due to the fact that diving is essentially a dangerous past time but it could just be because I have wanted to do this since I was a child and the fact that it is finally happening can cause a nervous reaction.

Regardless I am going into the course with a few key things I want to be sure to practice and become as efficient as possible at so that when I do get to dive with fellow SB members I am not flailing around and being totally inept.

Proper weighting, trim, buoyancy control and the emergency essentials such as sharing air.

I have even made a checklist of things I want to be comfortable with prior to my OW dives:

1. Can I clear my mask without panicking

2. Can I hover and still maintain horizontal trim without ever moving my legs or arms?

3. Can I achieve neutral buoyancy without touching the bottom? ( this is a big issue for me as I see many people posting about instructors making them kneel, stand or sit on the bottom. I do not ever want to do any of the three as I feel it would be developing a very bad habit right from the start. Please chime in if you think I am wrong but this really has me worried. If the instructor asks me to do that how can I tell that person I would prefer to try the skill while hovering rather than touching the bottom without offending them? Being a veteran I know good skills start with training, as do the bad habits we pick up)

4.Can I retrieve my regulator underwater without panic and also share air with my dive buddy?



This is my basic checklist for the skills portion. Please feel free to comment as you see fit. I look forward to your advice, suggestions and tips and am going to enjoy sharing my OW certification class with all of you here.

Until the next post- Fair Winds and Following Seas.

 

[Loudmusic]

Trust me when I say that you will not be capable of doing your skills while in a hover as an open water student.

I have my students practice mask and regulator skills while kneeling. By the end of your confined water classes you must be able to hover a little bit. By the end of your open water training dives, a little bit more. After about 20-30 dives most divers can hover okay but not great. That doesn't mean that you'll be bouncing off the ground though.

If your Instructor takes the time for your class and really works on your buoyancy, proper weighting and trim, then you'll be able to hold a good hover during your open water training dives.

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

Last night was my first night of my OW class. The class has 8 people in it and my instructor for this first class was Lisa.

As I am new to diving, I know that I don't know what I don't know so I won't offer up what I thought was negative because I have nothing to compare it to at this time.

I will say I thought the class was rushed a bit. We did introductions and then went on to the forms we had to fill out. Once that was complete Lisa went over the schedule for the rest of the classes. This is where I began to feel disappointed and is if what I had requested when asked was totally ignored.

When I signed up I was told I could pick between confined water dives in Laguna or in Cypress. I chose Laguna only to come to class and find out that the confined dives will now be in Cypress. This made me feel like as if they just disregarded my choice all together. Just a feeling I had and in no way does this reflect on Beach Cities because again, I do not know what I do not know.

Lisa then began talking about the options we had between a beach dive and the boat dives. This is where I felt as if I was sitting for a sales pitch. I had already decided pre-class that I wanted to do a boat dive for the experience so it wasn't an issue for me but the her "information to make us aware" seemed more like trying to deter people from doing the beach dive. At least 4 times she stated that people would have to, and I am paraphrasing here, carry 60-80 pounds down 70 steps and then back up to get your tank refilled and then back down 70 steps and we needed to be aware of that and that the dive could be canceled and is canceled much more frequently than the boat dives.

I work in sales and know a sales pitch when I hear one. I also know my LDS as well as PADI are not charities so making a profit is key but the hard sell she was pushing was a bit over the top but in the end no one but me chose the boat dive.

Then we went straight to the knowledge review quizzes at the ends of section one and two. She basically went over the answers, had us sign and then presented us with a quiz where she discussed the problems people see on the quiz prior to us taking it.

I felt as if this was to get us to pass rather than to teach us anything but maybe this is how all classes are done.

My next class is Saturday where there will be a quiz for sections 3-5 and then the final exam followed by the RDP test (which I do not have to take since I own a dive computer). I still have studied the RDP as I think even with a computer, I should know how to do the calculations without one. After all, what happens when I want to dive after a big EMP strike? LOL

I will continue to update this thread with more of my thoughts and I look forward to the input and suggestions from all of you here on SB.

One last thing...I wanted to say thank you to Kristina from Beach Cities as she has been the one to help me through all my gear purchases to date, has answered any and all questions I have had and so much more. She is very knowledgeable, asked me a ,lot of questions prior to me buying anything so she could get a feel for what I wanted to do with the soon-to-be acquired diving skills. She is quite the asset to my LDS.

Also, Chop is a great guy. I had very little interaction with him so far but he is funny, smart and seems to look at things a bit different than other instructors. There was another guy working that evening I had my first class and while I did not catch his name, he seemed friendly and wasn't pressuring me. I felt I could take any issue to him and he would be happy to help me.

That is my first review and I look forward to Saturday where I will have a new instructor and being able to post again about my thoughts on that class.

So far I a a little underwhelmed with the whole situation but that could be due to my expectations. So I am going into the class Saturday with no expectations and with my willingness to learn.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Very interesting -- very enlightening as to the modern diving instruction.
Eagerly looking forward to your next installment...

SDM

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

Thank you very much Sam. I am excited for class two and looking forward to getting in the pool Sunday and finally putting the gear I bought a month ago to use!

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

Good Morning SB members!! Yesterday was my second classroom to go over sections 3-5 of the OW book and the RDP quiz and test.

I came in 15 minutes early and was told by Anthony that our instructor was going to be about 30 minutes late as he was out on a dive and they were running a little behind and he would start us off until Randy showed up. Not a big deal to me as I saw it as a chance to experience another instructor and how they teach. I will say it would have been nice to have the same instructor for my entire open water class. As it sits now, with two classes behind me, I have had three instructors and that could move to four if we get a new instructor today for the confined water dives class. Which could mean by the time I have my OWC, there is a good possibility that I would have had 6 different instructors.

Not a complaint, just an situational observation. Anthony is a full time student and works part time at Beach Cities as an instructor and retail clerk. My first experience with him was when I signed up for the class. He seemed like he just wanted to push product. However being the first one there allowed me to have some extra time with him. He was the first instructor to ask me if I had any plans past OW and when I said I wanted to become a pro and teach he lit up!!

Once my classmates showed up we got started and man is Anthony full of good information. He would go over the knowledge review questions and with each one give us some examples, tips or tricks to help make us better divers. Things he said he wished he had known sooner rather than later. I felt I could learn a lot from his style of teaching and it was nice change of pace from the previous class.

Then Randy came in and took over. Randy is an IDC Instructor and with just two more small things to check off to reach his Master Instructor. His style was different than the other instructors and man did he have stories. I believe he said he had 530 dives and he also told us he loves night diving and tec diving. He reason for becoming an instructor was to teach tec.

Looking at this as someone who wants to go pro and be an instructor, I found it to be pretty cool that he was on the boat that morning teaching a student who was doing their final Master Scuba Diver dives and then he comes back to shore and jumps into an OW class. While I could see that boring some instructors, Randy seemed to like it. He would even tell us if we ran across something he didn't remember because he used his computers and he would have to draw the dive to help himself. Many times he had to scale back what he told us as he teaches so many specialties he didn't want to confuse us and tell us info that is from another class. I admired his honesty and could tell his passion for diving, along with Anthony's was just one part of what made them so easy to relate to and trustworthy. It was their love of teaching this passion of theirs, sharing that with new people, that seemed to truly excite them rather than us being a burden to them.

Ok, let's finish this up. We did quizes 3-5 of which I passed and then we moved on to the RDP quiz followed by the RDP Final. I had asked if we were exempt from that final if we had a dive computer (something I had read here and was also told by Lisa in our first class). Randy said he wasn't sure if that had changed or not so he wanted me to take it since I was the only one in the class with a computer. I didn't mind since I plan on taking many more classes and knew I would need to know the RDP inside and out for future dive planning. I aced the quiz and missed two on the final. Both I should have gotten and I am kicking myself for but I learned a valuable lesson. I found it much easier to draw out the dive when doing problems involving the RDP. Reading them and trying to track that on the RDP was just painful. Once I sketched out each problem, things were much more clear. I have yet to log a dive but I have a feeling I am going to love that part and comparing similar dives.

Once we did that we took a break before moving to the final. It is at this time that Anthony popped in to tell us he was closing the shop so if we needed any gear now was the time. He also told us if we had a computer we would have gotten an automatic pass on the RDP exam. Randy pointed at me and said "He asked me that very question" I told Anthony thanks for making me endure that hell for nothing and he said it didn't matter for me since I wanted to go pro I should have taken it regardless. All was said in good fun and very lighthearted. I was having a good time at this point and really enjoying the class.

Randy had brought in his regs for us to see as he uses a DIN setup. He also brought in his compass so that he could go over the parts and how it worked. I think this was because one of my classmates asked about it specifically but regardless I liked having gear I could see and touch. I am very much a kinesthetic learner.

Off to the final we go. 50 questions, multiple choice with only picking the BEST answer. i was the first to finish and while I was confident in my answers being first to finish a test has always scared me. I thought about going back over it again but I knew I very purposefully read each question all the way through and read each answer prior to marking anything down. I wanted to be sure to not get caught in the trap of reading part of a question, thinking you know the answer only to find out later had you read three more words the answer would have changed.

I turn it in after about 5 minutes of thinking about if I should reexamine my answers. I watch him anxiously as he is grading it. Looks at me and makes a zero with his hand and then smiles. I was very happy to have aced the knowledge section and be able to move on to the skills portion and put this gear I bought to use.

I am off to Cypress in a bit for my confined water dives where I will likely have yet another instructor. According to Randy, who is a contract instructor, they do not get their schedules for the next day until 7 PM that night. I guess it has to do with how many people cancel, where they need people the most, etc. At least that is what I gathered as I asked if he knew who would be our instructor for the confined water portion.

Once I finish with the pool I will post another update here. Time to do a gear check before heading out and try to calm my nerves.

 

[Aguablanco1]

Excellent write up so far. FYI you can only be a Divemaster Candidate if you are actually in the Divemaster class, and after becoming Advanced Open Water and a Rescue Diver. Just sayin'.
RichH

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

Excellent write up so far. FYI you can only be a Divemaster Candidate if you are actually in the Divemaster class, and after becoming Advanced Open Water and a Rescue Diver. Just sayin'.
RichH

Thank you for the kind words. As far as the Divemaster Candidate goes...I did not pick that. I do not know where it came from. I just went to my profile and didn't see anywhere to change that as there is no option for that. Clearly I am not a candidate as I have yet to be even OW certiifed....however I do want to become a DM and eventually an IDC Instructor.

I will be posting my thoughts on the pool session we had yesterday layer this afternoon. Man did i have some issues in the water!

 

[Marie13]

OP, while you may have felt the warnings about the shore dive amounted to a sales pitch for the boat dive, there are actually some of us with physical issues who appreciate those warnings. I've got bad knees/sciatica, and there is no way I would have been able to do that shore dive.

The closest I get to a shore dive here is the "beach" entry at the local quarry!

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

OP, while you may have felt the warnings about the shore dive amounted to a sales pitch for the boat dive, there are actually some of us with physical issues who appreciate those warnings. I've got bad knees/sciatica, and there is no way I would have been able to do that shore dive.

The closest I get to a shore dive here is the "beach" entry at the local quarry!

I totally understand about physical ailments that may effect a diver's ability to do certain types of dives. I think making them aware of any possible issues is the responsible thing to do. Having said that, it was the repeating of this information that made it seem like a sales pitch. Not once, not twice but four times she stated how hard it was to get from the LDS to the beach and back again. There was zero positives given about a beach dive and only for the boat dive did she speak positively.

As I stated before these are just my thoughts and perceptions. Thank you for the comment and allowing me to see another side.