Wreck diving question

[Mountainturtle]

Hello Board walkers,

I'm new to diving, having only 10 dives under my belt. One of the reasons I got into this business was to wreck dive (the fantastic marine life I have seen so far has also mad e the plunge worth the money).
I plan to do an advanced open water next week because I was told that this would help me to dive wrecks. However, I realise that experience rather than certificates would be more beneficial to me at this stage. Does anybody out there have any suggestions or comments on whether it would be worth me following my advanced open water with a wreck divers course? Should I wait until I am a more experienced open water diver before tackling wrecks? Are there any other suggestions you might have to help me safely dive wrecks?

Thank you,

Peter.

 

[Mario S Caner]

Wreck diving is a blast. It's by far my favorite type of diving as well. I think it would be best if you continued your education through the traditional Advanced O/w then through wreck diver course. Then perhaps the Deep diver / extended range course through TDI would best suit your needs. Make sure you get plenty of training on reel use, gas switching etc. Nitrox, Advanced Nitrox and Mixed gas are also in the natural progession of the course you've chosen for yourself.

Anytime you have any questions, ask away!

Sea you in the Deep Blue!

 

[herman]

Hi Peter and welcome to the board.

I would suggest AOW as a minimum. Frankly it's my opinion that you should go on to Rescue as well and get both deep and wreck certs. I don't know where you intend to dive but many of the better operators here in Norh Carolina require at least AOW and deep or wreck to take you out and it's for a good reason. Many of our dives are 30+ miles out to sea in 100+ ft of water that often has strong current and 3 to 5 ft waves. Add to that that wrecks can be very dangerous if not dove with due respect and I think you can see that this is not exactly novice diving. As for waiting for AOW, opinions vary, but in my opinion, you need at least 20 to 30 dives before taking it (and another 20 to 30 before Rescue). This gives you time to get comfortable in the water and improve your skills, esp bouyancy.. There was a thread that discussed the time between OW and AOW a while back, you might want to do a word search and read over the comments. Then if you get into deep wreck, go on with the courses Mario suggested....More training and experience are never a bad thing!!

 

[scubabunny]

I would say definitely get more experience before you go for the wreck diving class. Most (not all, but most) new divers are still having problems with bouyancy, and need more bottom time to work on that. Even people that have good bouyancy control after open water, still don't have it good enough to penetrate wrecks. If you start to float up a few feet in the open water, thats no big deal. But if you do that in a narrow hallway of a ship...it could be a problem. Not only is there the silting factor, but you are normally dealing with big metal objects with sharp edges that can slice through your wetsuit, puncture you BC, and basically ruin your day!

Also, make sure you NEVER go into a wreck until you have taken that class! Ask around and talk to different instructors about wreck diving before you sign up for a class. Find an instructor who truly loves diving wrecks and has dove ALOT of them. Personally, I think it is too easy to get a certification (at least from PADI..don't know about the rest) to teach wreck diving. Find out how long they have been wreck diving, where and get a list of equipment that is (in the instructor's opinion) necessary to penetrate a wreck.

Hope this helps. Happy diving!

 

[greg somers]

Welcome to the boards.Not all wrecks are equal.There are the natural ones and the purposly sunken jobbies for divers.
I have 3 near me.They are a prefered introduction to the art of wreck diving and it is an art with its own practices, equipment and mentality that separtates it from other forms of diving.Look and see if there is a club in your area and also who is the most experienced wreck diving instructor.The more thorough the training the better.By the way,you did realise that all treasure found on the wrecks you dive on belong to the Gasman Salvage company?
I get 50% as a mandatory rate.Be very successful young grasshopper.
Cheers Big Ears,
The one and only,
Gasman.

 

[MichaelG]

Being new to diving myself, but correct me if i'm wrong. It is my understanding that AOW is actually 5 smaller individual classes. I plan on taking my AOW, the classes I will be taking is deep, wreck, night/low-vis diving, search and recovery and underwater navigation. Those are the classes I will be taking, but there are others as well.

Straight from "padi.com" :

The PADI Adventures In Diving program offers two certification options. Complete any three Adventure Dives to earn the PADI Adventure Diver rating. Complete the Deep and Underwater Navigation Adventure Dives and three additional Adventure Dives (five total) and earn a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver certification.


Because I live in NJ and about the only thing to see are wrecks, my LDS recommended that those are the classes I would best need to do wreck diving.


--MichaelG

 

[TexasMike]

MichaelG: We recently flogged the "PADI Advanced Open Water" horse to death again. You can read what we discussed by clicking on this link:

Essentially, the consensus boiled down to that what PADI is really doing is what can be called "Adventure Diving" by exposing you to 5 different types of diving (aka, the specialties). And remember, this is all you are getting is the barest exposure. You still need to take the specific specialty course to be officially certified (i.e. get the card) in that specialty.

After reading the thread, ask yourself this, "Do I consider myself an advanced diver by having less than 'x' dives and only being exposed to the specialties of diving?"

My answer to that was a firm "NO". I am still perfecting some of the basic techniques (safety stop hovering and buoyancy in all situations to mention two) and I don't feel I have had enough bottom time.

While I encourage you to continue your training by taking the next PADI (or NAUI or SSI or SDI) class, it's up to you to honestly claim the title of "Advanced Diver".

Oh, and before I leave this post, consider the Technical Diving Institute (TDI) cirriculum of advanced diving when you are ready. This is considered by many to be one of the better courses toward technical diving. You can get more information by clicking on http://www.tdisdi.com.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Peter,
Wrecks can be beginner dives, or they can be at the extreme end of technical, difficult diving, and anywhere in between - which makes your original question very hard to answer. For example, I take my students on a wreck dive during their certification dives. But there are wreck dives I wouldn't even think of attempting and I'm a certified deep, wreck and overhead environment diver. At your level of experience a very simple rule to follow around wrecks is "never let anything get between you and the surface." And no staged decompression stop diving.
Have fun,
Rick

 

[Mountainturtle]

Thank you everybody who replied. You have all been a great help. It seems that the most important thing I need is further experience, followed by appropriate certification (AOW, Wreck diver, Mixed gas, Deep diver etc) interspersed with truck loads more experience. I am at the start of a big adventure and it sounds as though the excitement and enjoyment (and maybe the Gasmans bank account) can only increase.
I realise that the award of an AOW certificate does not qualify me as an Advanced Diver and that only experience will allow that. It is good to know that there are wrecks out there that are diveable to all experience levels. I live 3 hrs inland from the north coast of New South Wales (Australia) and have been told of a few 'easy dive' wrecks within a days drive. After I get my AOW and Wreck Divers these should help me get the neccesary experience to dive wrecks requiring higher skills.

Peter

 

[greg somers]

Hey Turtle,
You would have to be in the Blue Mountains? I used to live in Oz for a year in a place called Cooma,NSW.I travelled through NSW,Queensland,ACT,South Oz,Alice Springs and did some of it in the 'Wet'.Man it's hard to find the roads when they're under 4ft of water.I'm from N.Z. (across the ditch).You can see now why I need the money....Currently i'm in Korea instructing for another 10 weeks then off to canuck land for a couple of months and then sunny Fiji for some R & R.
Cheers Big Ears,
Gasman