Speaking as someone who got recently certified too, AOW opens the most doors for sites, but I felt like I got nothing from the course aside from the certification on my app. Nitrox is very nice too, especially if you're planning to do multiple dives in a day since you have lower surface interval times.
What certifications would you say are a "must have"?
- Thread starter 807pailer
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
A bit late in the discussion but
- to open doors (to be allowed) to dive anywhere: AOW and nitrox. No guarantee of competency, but it opens doors...
- for increased general competency and confidence: rescue diver for sure would be very transformative for most divers. Wait till you have at least ... (we can argue about number here but) +/- 40 dives under your belt, so as to benefit more...
- If you really want to improve skills I would suggest GUE fundamentals. Pros and cons of doing as a junior diver: less bad habits learned vs not as easy to maintain skills if you don't dive often (ex. a once a year vacation diver) ...
- to open doors (to be allowed) to dive anywhere: AOW and nitrox. No guarantee of competency, but it opens doors...
- for increased general competency and confidence: rescue diver for sure would be very transformative for most divers. Wait till you have at least ... (we can argue about number here but) +/- 40 dives under your belt, so as to benefit more...
- If you really want to improve skills I would suggest GUE fundamentals. Pros and cons of doing as a junior diver: less bad habits learned vs not as easy to maintain skills if you don't dive often (ex. a once a year vacation diver) ...
boqurant
Contributor
Everyone's early diving career path will be slightly different due to water temps and local dive sites etc, but I'd concur with all the above!
My path so far for warm-water rec with DIR / GUE compliant rig has been (nearly all PADI): OW -> AOW -> Nitrox (SSI) -> Rescue. Next up will be Deep and Wreck, since my preferred local operator wants them before opening some new interesting sites to me.
Am on the fence about GUE Basic Fundamentals (the renamed / reorganised Rec Fundies): it seems like a really good idea, but for the same money I could get nearly 20 dives done locally, and that's a substantial amount more practice.
My path so far for warm-water rec with DIR / GUE compliant rig has been (nearly all PADI): OW -> AOW -> Nitrox (SSI) -> Rescue. Next up will be Deep and Wreck, since my preferred local operator wants them before opening some new interesting sites to me.
Am on the fence about GUE Basic Fundamentals (the renamed / reorganised Rec Fundies): it seems like a really good idea, but for the same money I could get nearly 20 dives done locally, and that's a substantial amount more practice.
I concur! A lot will depend on where you dive/ plan to dive.
For sure I would say deep is a must early on especially if you travel. It's also good early on because of the important differences you get with depth (air consumption, light changes, narcosis and for some people being able not to be scared to be "so deep" ).
Wreck really depends on where/ what you dive. I find there is a huge difference based on the instructor, especially a positive one if the instructor also has tech wreck qualifications. But that's me, I like systematic approaches to the more (potentially) difficult stuff.
As has been stated earlier, there is also great value in simply acquiring experience. So +20-40 dives can make a big difference too...
Similar threads
- Question
