Intermittent diving - is it safe?... and a question about diving styles.

[Crowley]

To add my 2 bar...

(1) Yes, it is possible to be a safe and responsible diver with several months in between dives. This is dependent on you as a person and your retention of knowledge and skills. I disagree with Peter (with all due respect) that you really need to re-take the OW course - not a great deal has changed during the time you've had out of the water, some sort of refresher which includes the changes might suffice. If you have the time and money, I have no problem with people "re-certifying" - I just don't think it's essential. I do, however, agree very strongly with the other points - If you have a local dive club, maybe at your alma mater, even, get involved, do some pool sessions, every time you go underwater you will get better. I don't think 7 dives is enough to dive independently, but start easy, build up the experience, even if you have to follow the group tour, get some underwater time under your weight belt - we've all got to start somewhere.

(2) The whole guided tour thing is the mainstay of the recreational dive industry - it's what I do for a living and I am not in a hurry to get anywhere when I'm guiding but stopping for 10 minutes to observe a single coral head is not what the majority of customers want to do. We stop for a bit, take some pictures, then move on. In your case, you want to do something a bit different and there are ways and means to accommodate that but usually they involve extra money.

(3) Having said that, this is dependent on your competence as a diver. This is not a sales pitch, merely an example, but we offer some divers the possibility of diving in certain locations without a guide. Therefore, if you have a buddy and want to do your own thing, no worries, although in my location, this is mostly house reef stuff. We assess our divers constantly, and if we think a diver is good enough to dive without a guide, then this is not a problem. Look for a dive shop near you that has a similar policy, and a buddy who has similar interests. If you're good enough, experienced and confident enough, you might only need to visit your dive centre for a tank fill, then you and your buddy can go and do whatever you like.

Good luck and have fun!

C.

 

[Echinoidea]

OP -- Thank you for asking the questions. As someone who had a very long surface interval (much longer than yours but also more diving the first time around), I have a slightly different take.

a. Retake the Open Water course. There may well be new stuff in it, the gear may be somewhat different, who knows, you may find you key on very different stuff. In any event, it has been long enough, in my opinion, you should start over with the whole class -- not just a one night refresher.

b. IF you can, plan on going to a pool on a somewhat regular basis to go "blow bubbles." Working on buoyancy control, stability, basic skills, in a pool is a great way of keeping fresh -- even if you aren't going to do a "real dive" for some time.

c. Join a dive club, keep up with the folks in your class, etc. to find buddies who want to dive as you do -- that is, slow and friendly.

Good luck.

Thanks for your thoughts!

a. I'm thinking of going the BSAC route from the beginning and re-certifying - I like the club based approach, and 10 weeks of weekly pool sessions followed by five open water dives seems to me a lot more thorough grounding than most "two weekend" OW courses.

b. That's the advantage of BSAC - your training costs include a year's membership of the club where you train, and there are weekly pool sessions.

---------- Post Merged at 11:40 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 11:27 AM ----------

To add my 2 bar...

(1) Yes, it is possible to be a safe and responsible diver with several months in between dives. This is dependent on you as a person and your retention of knowledge and skills. I disagree with Peter (with all due respect) that you really need to re-take the OW course - not a great deal has changed during the time you've had out of the water, some sort of refresher which includes the changes might suffice. If you have the time and money, I have no problem with people "re-certifying" - I just don't think it's essential. I do, however, agree very strongly with the other points - If you have a local dive club, maybe at your alma mater, even, get involved, do some pool sessions, every time you go underwater you will get better. I don't think 7 dives is enough to dive independently, but start easy, build up the experience, even if you have to follow the group tour, get some underwater time under your weight belt - we've all got to start somewhere.

(2) The whole guided tour thing is the mainstay of the recreational dive industry - it's what I do for a living and I am not in a hurry to get anywhere when I'm guiding but stopping for 10 minutes to observe a single coral head is not what the majority of customers want to do. We stop for a bit, take some pictures, then move on. In your case, you want to do something a bit different and there are ways and means to accommodate that but usually they involve extra money.

(3) Having said that, this is dependent on your competence as a diver. This is not a sales pitch, merely an example, but we offer some divers the possibility of diving in certain locations without a guide. Therefore, if you have a buddy and want to do your own thing, no worries, although in my location, this is mostly house reef stuff. We assess our divers constantly, and if we think a diver is good enough to dive without a guide, then this is not a problem. Look for a dive shop near you that has a similar policy, and a buddy who has similar interests. If you're good enough, experienced and confident enough, you might only need to visit your dive centre for a tank fill, then you and your buddy can go and do whatever you like.

Good luck and have fun!

C.

Thanks for the thoughts!

I think I will recertify, as I want to join a BSAC club, and they do things a bit differently (e.g. there is much more focus on rescue techniques right from the beginning, at least as far as I can remember).

2) Yeh, I'm a bit atypical there! I sometimes think that I have the opposite of ADHD - I spent a significant proprotion of my last snorkling excursion looking at a single patch of barnacles on a slipway filter feeding - absolutely fascinating! I realise that I will probably need to compromise on this, and that it might involve extra money as well.

3) The advantage of having a long attention span and the fact that I'm interested in more or less everything and can get almost as excited by a mollusc as by a manta ray is that the house reef would probably keep me happy for a month long holiday! I'll look out for places with such a policy.

 

[DukeAMO]

Yes, in the last place we went shore diving, we went out with an instructor on the first dive, and he said we could go out on our own for the second dive. Buddy diving is great, but it's even better to get a guided tour with a DM or instructor for the first dive or two at a new place.

I like the idea of the club - nice!

 

[alan_lee]

When my wife and I went to Manado years ago, it was her first trip and I wanted her to enjoy myself, plus I wanted to take pictures. Knowing how difficult it would be if it was a group (not everyone understands why we need to hang around at the same area), we decided to hire a personal guide. It definitely cost more, but he'd always check with us on what we'd like to see, and he'd try to bring us to the areas where the critters might be. And while we are taking pictures, he'd scoot off quickly to look for more stuff and come back for us. It was great because we didn't feel pressured to have to rush along.