Timing of OW class - end or beginning of dive season?

[Marie13]

I did a road trip this weekend and had a lot of time to think. Does it make more sense to do my OW class at the end of this diving season (September) or early next spring? A tropical vacation over the winter is not part of my plans, so that's no part of the reason to do it now. Doing it in the spring would make sure it was all fresh in my mind for next year's diving season.

Thanks!

 

[DogDiver]

It's dive season every day here in Florida.

 

[tbzep]

I did a road trip this weekend and had a lot of time to think. Does it make more sense to do my OW class at the end of this diving season (September) or early next spring? A tropical vacation over the winter is not part of my plans, so that's no part of the reason to do it now. Doing it in the spring would make sure it was all fresh in my mind for next year's diving season.

Thanks!

Will your instructor allow you to come back to the pool and practice your skills in the months after you complete your pool sessions? Is he/she slammed with students in the spring where it's hard to schedule time? If yes to both, do it now. If no to either, you should wait until you can do the open water sessions. If you do it now and have to wait until spring to get into the water again, you will forget things.

 

[Marie13]

I'd be able to do my check out dives before the season ended.

 

[fmerkel]

If you can't dive at LEAST once a month after OW1 you WILL absolutely lose your skills. If you can and will practice, now is fine. If not, wait until spring when you can and will dive.

One of the most common problems I see with new divers is.....rust. No diving for long periods of time leads to really poor skills.

 

[CptTightPants21]

I think different circumstances affect the answer. In a vacuum, I say getting certified at the beginning of the season is better just because you do have so much of diving season left, but for your situation getting certified sooner (Sept) is more beneficial for a couple of reasons:

1. You are already on this site and have 14 posts. Even in a wetsuit you can dive until the end of Oct (that's 4-6 weeks of diving). Reading and research is one thing, but there is no substitute for actual experience. You can get certified, gain some real world experience, and then ask questions and do research on this site with a MUCH better grasp of things

2. Financially, scuba is never cheap. Getting certified in September gives you time to save money and research what gear to buy in the off season before diving beings in April/May.

3. Scuba is a continuous learning exercise. There are a lot of different courses (Night, Nav, Nitrox, etc) that you will taken after getting certified. I wouldn't put the highest emphasis on "losing" skills in the off season, review your notes, take it slow. You would be surprised what comes back to you. I had over 200 dives at the beginning of this season, first dive back after not diving for 4 months I felt like a complete mess.; a couple of dives and you will be back to your old form.

PS...Are you going to be diving in a local quarry? A bunch of places of specials where if you get certified in Sept/Oct and buy a season pass, the pass will be good for all of the next dive season....saves a little money and gives you another reason to dive.

 

[Marie13]

1. You are already on this site and have 14 posts. Even in a wetsuit you can dive until the end of Oct (that's 4-6 weeks of diving). Reading and research is one thing, but there is no substitute for actual experience. You can get certified, gain some real world experience, and then ask questions and do research on this site with a MUCH better grasp of things

In other words, don't bother asking any more questions until I've had some underwater time. Thank you for making that very clear.

 

[CptTightPants21]

In other words, don't bother asking any more questions until I've had some underwater time. Thank you for making that very clear.

Well someone completely misunderstood the point.......

 

[cmrangel]

With diving, you can never have too much learning or experience. Getting certified early and getting some experience will only be a good thing. If you need to, you can take a refresher class later in the spring. During that refresher, you can even have the opportunity to ask questions or clarify anything that you did not feel solid on during your OW class.

 

[Neilwood]

In other words, don't bother asking any more questions until I've had some underwater time. Thank you for making that very clear.

Marie - I think @CptTightPants21 was meaning that you were already ahead of the curve that a huge amount of divers follow in that by coming on here you will pick up huge amounts of knowledge that some might take years to pick up if in fact they ever do pick it up. Here you can find out about a huge variety of different diving styles and approaches to diving (GUE, sidemount etc) that most people will never get.

Back to your original post, I did mine in August last year but immediately booked on a weekend trip that the school were doing to try to fix the knowledge & skills in my mind. I think it did make a difference as I could immediately get a few "independent" (as in without instructor or DM shadowing) dives in. That got me a bit more relaxed and comfortable in the water. Then when I came back in spring I went straight into my AOW but due to doing the dives before the winter off season, I still had a decent handle on my skills.