Wall Dives as Part of OW Certification Checkout Dives

[WrmBluH2O]

For those of you who recently completed OW certification, I am curious. Did any of your four dives include being on a wall with no hard bottom underneath you?

I did my four OW dives on an island with the third largest barrier reef and a 7,000 foot drop off. It was a one-on-one class because there were no other OW students at that time. On three out of our four open water dives the instructor guided me over the wall at points. Max depths of 66, 61, and 52 feet, with average depths of 35, 34, and 36 feet, respectively.

Were wall dives part of your OW checkout dive(s) experience? It may be neither here nor there now; I'm simply trying to get a sense as to whether or not this is common. I imagine many folks would be thinking to themselves, "how cool"! Instead I found it disconcerting to be at the admittedly stunning abyss.

Thanks in advance for sharing your experience on this one. Happy diving!

 

[Hawkwood]

With regard to PADI, there is no requirement for a "hard bottom".

However there are definite restrictions on the maximum depths reached during your Open Water training dives. Those maximum depths are:

Dives 1 & 2: 40 feet
Dives 3 & 4: 60 feet

 

[WrmBluH2O]

Hawkwood, thank you for the quick response and two good pieces of info. I see...so that is why my log book reflects 40, 40, 60, & 60.

 

[TMHeimer]

I figured that would be the answer. I also would have found a 7,000 bottom on my checkout dives to be disconcerting. You would think there could be a case of uncontrolled descent & fatality.

 

[KevinNM]

One on one the instructor can deal with student issues pretty effectively. Essentially you are not going to the bottom because the instructor isn't going to let you.

Not saying this is a great idea, but it isn't like he had 8 students to try to keep track of.

 

[rongoodman]

Where was it? I know there are places in the Caribbean with 4000-5000 foot drop offs, but I've never heard of 7000. Unfortunately, there are no walls like that in Lake George where I did my OW class.

Google says there's a 7000 foot wall off Grand Turk. I've been there, but hadn't heard it was that deep. On some of the moorings we were doing a giant stride off the back of boat over the abyss, which was kind of neat.

 

[rivers]

Where was it? I know there are places in the Caribbean with 4000-5000 foot drop offs, but I've never heard of 7000. Unfortunately, there are no walls like that in Lake George where I did my OW class.

I think turks and caicos have a 7000ft drop off. i think....

 

[WrmBluH2O]

You guys are all awesome, thank you! Rivers and rongoodman are correct; I was on Grand Turk.

 

[Skeptic14]

Our OW cert dives all had hard bottoms, but with only 12 dives completed we did the Grand Cayman North Wall which is a 6000 drop I believe.

Signing up for the dive my wife and I were a bit nervous but it was an awesome dive and definitely glad we signed up for it.

I could see how I might have felt differently during the cert dives though, there was definitely a general increase in comfort with diving even after only a dozen dives.

 

[Sevenrider860]

I have dived in locations with walls where initial Open Water training is performed. The bottom was not at 7,000ft, closer to 300ft...but the feeling is likely the same, you don't see the bottom. The max depth before the wall drop is in the 25 to 30 ft range in specific channels.

I can only dream of teaching in a locale like that, but I do not think I would have any issue taking OW students "over the edge" as I would expect their buoyancy control to be acceptable prior to taking that action.