PADI Wreck dive course

[headhunter]

Make sense?

Kathy,

Thanks for adding that perspective. I think that it will be very helpful to anyone that reads this thread. It sounds like the kind of information that the original poster was looking for in the first place.

Christian

 

[jerryn]

I took the PADI course eons ago and it was useful. What it does is to give you an introduction to wreck diving, some of the equipment that you need and some of the dive planning you need. The course does not train you to penetrate any real wreck so you should not feel that once past the course you can go and do wreck penetration diving...this is another skill altogether and it can be more than a little dangerous for those not prepared. The wrecks often used for wreck diving training here in So Ca are the Yukon and Ruby E. and the Sue Jac, and Kismet. These have all been cleaned for divers and do not represent what an untouched wreck will look like. (tight passages, cables and wires hanging down, fallen over cabinets, silt, silt, silt and silt, dark)

The good news is that most of the wrecks within recreational depth in Southern California have limited to no penetration (Hogan, Olympic, Ace I, Dominator, Gregory, Diosa Del Mar, Star of Scotland, Winfield Scott....etc). When diving these the keys are: buoyancy control, watch for hazards such as monofiliment, fishing net, sharp objects, and navigation (your compass will not work so well and the site can be disorienting.

Wreck diving is fantastic and this course is a good way to start if you view it as a survey course rather than a specific qualification course.

Jerry

 

[Godly_Diver]

Thanks a lot for all the great information you guys & gals provided. Yes, I will take the PADI course but absolutely will not take a risk of "penetrating" any wrecks until I am properly trained. Not only I am old enough but also smart enough not to take unprepared risks anymore and I will assist as many new divers as I can to think the same way...like you experienced divers assisted me. I guess there is no stupid questions but it is stupid not to ask questions.
Happy & safe diving everyone...
R.Duzel

 

[MoonWrasse]

PADI penetration is defined as 1/3 air to get in 1/3 to exit, 1/3 in reserve. Also no more than 40 meters total travel including descent, and you must see the natural light of your entrance at all times during penetration. Those guidlines would limit you to just basic penetration (but you can still get in trouble).

I suggest getting the speciality crewpack including video - it's about $25-$30 and worth it IMO. Wrecks are just fascinating

 

[KingStroke]

One of KingStroke's threads got edited. Probably because he insulted poor Roy on his very first post. I would have at least waited until I posted 5 or 10 times first.

I wouldn't consider a direct response to someone's post an insult just because I disagreed with what was stated. However, I do find others selectively editing posts insulting.

I don't understand what waiting 5-10 post has to do with expressing a view point.

 

[SoCalAngel]

I wouldn't consider a direct response to someone's post an insult just because I disagreed with what was stated. However, I do find others selectively editing posts insulting.

I don't understand what waiting 5-10 post has to do with expressing a view point.

He was joking...sheesh...lighten up! Seriously...have some fun and play nice...or I'll have to turn you over my knee and spank you! :gr1:

 

[Diver_Jan]

I think it's cool that you want to take the Wreck Specialty course. However, for safety purposes, I would HIGHLY recommend that you take Rescue Diver and even Nitrox BEFORE you do your Wreck Specialty. Also, I don't know how many dives you have logged, but you might want to log in a few 'deep' dives before you take the class as well. Everyone reacts differently at depth and it would probably be good to see how you react yourself at depths greater than 100'.

You really don't need a class to do the little wrecks off Casino Point. There isn't much left of them, plus, they aren't that deep. The swim platform is one of my favorite sites to check out. Lots of marine life including dozens of Scorpion Fish. Just get one of the little Franko Maps there from the fill station and you can basically find the items listed yourself. It's alot of fun, kind of a scavenger hunt!

Just my .02 cents worth.

 

[Godly_Diver]

Hi Jan,
I appreciate your suggestions and yes, I have already completed my AOW certification course and did a couple of 100' dives and yes, I am also planning on taking the Rescue class but not to crazy about Nitrox right now.... I think I can live with air only dives until I have a pretty good number of logged dives and I am not too crazy about penetrating any wrecks at this point either, again until I am trained for it and have enough experience. When I got OW certified in the Mediterranean waters of Turkey last summer, my instructor didn't mention anything about a wreck we're about see during one of our dives....the slowly appearing sight of a single engine WWII Italian fighter plane wreck just got my breath away....since then I wanted to see more and more wrecks, so my interest is in more seeing the wrecks from outside than penetrating at this point. And, I am going to complete a Rescue class as I believe that any serious diver should be prepared to properly assist fellow divers if necessary.
....Also, Casino Point sounds like fun and yes, I will try on one of my next Catalina dives to check out the site.
Take care Jan & Enjoy the weekend...
R.Duzel

 

[Hinalo]

Reviving this thread to ask for informed pointers to good PADI wreck specialty instructors in SAn Diego.

I have just completed my PADI Rescue Diver cert and have AOW as well as Nitrox. I think the next steps for me are going to be the Wreck and Deep Specialties. I think I read above that someone was doing Wreck and Deep in parallel, but I'm not sure what that means. It would be great to somehow do these two courses either simultaneously or one after the other. It would be great to learn what options area available.

At this early point in my diving career I'm not interested in more than an introduction to wreck diving, which seems like what the PADI specialty is for. But after reading this thread I'm also convinced that it's important to have a very accomplished and experienced instructor, even if you are only going to do minimum penetration on the last dive.

I have family in San Diego and visit now and then, would like to find a shop/instructor to contact to figure out what is involved in doing these specialties so I can budget time on one of my trips south.

Thanks for the info.

 

[BigTuna]

Some wreck courses are roughly equivalent to swimming around a wreck safely. These are worthless IMO.

IMO, a good wreck course would involve learning and doing techniques for: pentetration, buoyancy, finning, signaling, gas planning, shooting bags and SMBs, emergencies and emergency ascents, and use of teams. What'd I miss?

Ask your intended instructor which of these items are covered....