ChaosHokie
Contributor
Hi everyone, I haven't posted in a looong time, but I'm kind of looking for some advice.
About 2 years ago, I took an UTD Essentials of Rec class--and failed. I took the class for a few reasons: I wanted to be a better diver, and I was enamored with all the GUE/UTD stuff on this board, elsewhere, and watching youtube videos. I wanted to gain confidence and experience in a controlled environment on how to be a safer diver as well. I have an AOW cert from PADI that I think is useless, and I refuse to get anymore certs from them.
Anyways, I wound up failing the class the first time around. According to my instructor, I needed more time in the water, more practice, etc and I should've gone back after 6 months to finish up the class. Well....life happened with baby #3, new job, etc, so I put it all on the back burner. I've managed to still go diving occasionally, and practice most of the skills from the Essentials class, but here in Northern VA the quarries get old, and it's hard to just pack up and do a destination dive. The other thing I've found is that since I don't normally dive with UTD people, a lot of the team stuff, dive planning, etc don't really work when you're diving with random buddies.
I want to mention that I don't really have the risk tolerance for technical diving currently (see 3 kids), so that's not a concern. I'm still not comfortable on 100' dives and I have an awful air consumption rate.
So, now I find myself in this limbo state of wanting to further my diving training with the reality of being a vacation diver...With all that being said, should I stick with UTD's Recreational Path (or switch to GUE)? Should I bother with going back and retaking the Essentials class? Or should I just chill and dive and not worry about it.
About 2 years ago, I took an UTD Essentials of Rec class--and failed. I took the class for a few reasons: I wanted to be a better diver, and I was enamored with all the GUE/UTD stuff on this board, elsewhere, and watching youtube videos. I wanted to gain confidence and experience in a controlled environment on how to be a safer diver as well. I have an AOW cert from PADI that I think is useless, and I refuse to get anymore certs from them.
Anyways, I wound up failing the class the first time around. According to my instructor, I needed more time in the water, more practice, etc and I should've gone back after 6 months to finish up the class. Well....life happened with baby #3, new job, etc, so I put it all on the back burner. I've managed to still go diving occasionally, and practice most of the skills from the Essentials class, but here in Northern VA the quarries get old, and it's hard to just pack up and do a destination dive. The other thing I've found is that since I don't normally dive with UTD people, a lot of the team stuff, dive planning, etc don't really work when you're diving with random buddies.
I want to mention that I don't really have the risk tolerance for technical diving currently (see 3 kids), so that's not a concern. I'm still not comfortable on 100' dives and I have an awful air consumption rate.
So, now I find myself in this limbo state of wanting to further my diving training with the reality of being a vacation diver...With all that being said, should I stick with UTD's Recreational Path (or switch to GUE)? Should I bother with going back and retaking the Essentials class? Or should I just chill and dive and not worry about it.