How did you get into wreck?

[dutybooty]

Hey,

Now I'm not asking for opinions on what to do. I already dive wrecks with reasonable amounts of penetration (50m ish) but I'm interested in how people got into wreck diving?

Did you teach yourself?
Take a course?
Learn off a friend?
Or other? Please specify

Myself, I was a combination of all the above. I started off teaching myself. Figuring out reels were a good idea and following a roughly hogarthian gear set up due to what I'd seen/heard about. Then I started tagging along with more experienced wreck divers who showed me little tips, but when they'd realised I'd never been a course, they cajoled me into going on advanced wreck by TDI.

What about you?

Anway, gotta go, I'm on duty!

Dutybooty.

 

[jscott099]

Went with others initially (that knew what they were doing). This was easy since I live near the NC coast. Later took a specialty class for deep and wreck. Starting penetrating with other experienced divers. Did even more after cave training and deco training. So it was a gradual process of increasing training and skill to match what I wanted to do.

 

[Standingbear56]

My 1st dive off of a EDB was on a wreck, I liked it, and I just kept doing it.

 

[southjerseydiver]

well i wanted to dive and lived in jersey. the only smart thing to do would be to dive the huge amount of wrecks right off shore.

 

[jupitermermaid]

I took a course and was very disappointed. We never penetrated, and when I took my AOW course later (with a different op), I laid my first line. I learned more from that one dive than the entire wreck course.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I took a wreck course. I hope to eventually take advanced wreck as well.

With the right instructor, a wreck diving course can be valuable. It can also be a waste of time. Interview several instructors and select wisely.

 

[Nailer99]

How did I get into wreck?

-I saw hole in wreck

-I swam into hole..




Just kidding, sort of. I started diving in order to go see shipwrecks- it's what I wanted to do in the first place. I've been focused on it from day 1. I've never taken a formal "wreck penetration" class, and at this point, I don't know if I ever will- I'm doing everything I really want to right now. But if I start doing stuff with extensive penetration involved, I might consider it....

 

[dutybooty]

You sound like me when I started doing a bit of penetration!!!

Until you've had a blackout though (admittedly, my fault, the story won't be told here!) or experienced something going wrong, you will realise how useful they are!

Anyway, gotta go, I'm on duty!

Dutybooty

 

[DA Aquamaster]

The first real wreck I ever dove or penetrated was in 1987 - a sunken tug named the Haisch. That was enough to motivate me to take a wreck course. At one point I planned to take advanced wreck and while waiting for that I took cavern and intro to cave. As a result, I will not bother with advanced wreck as the line work is already covered the the remaining differences are academic and/or common sense in nature.

 

[Rick Inman]

Just finished a wreck Penetration class this fall in the St. Lawrence river. I took it because I wanted to go inside the Jodrey -which I did!