A Choice to make..

[Greeny]

So after taking SB Member advice I looked around my local area for the best place for me to learn to dive..

I settled on a local BSAC club where i will pay a yearly fee and in this i'll receive all the training i need, (Initially a 1 hour theory session, and 1 hour pool session every Saturday until i gain my Ocean Diver's Cert), afterwards i'll meet with the club every week to practise skills in the pool, which i thought would be great to master buoyancy etc.

With me being only 15 me and my dad went to talk to one of the club leaders who said the the price included all the equipment and air i'd need throughout the year which suits perfectly, he even said they have some memebers of a similar age to me.. all the better.

He said they only accept 6 "pupils" per intake, and the next intakes were in October, and February next year. My parents have offered to help me a little financially to pay for this, so all that's left to do is to decide which time is best..

So in your opinion, would it be a more enjoyable experience diving in the Spring? Here in England Winter's can get damn cold.. Do you think I should wait for the new year and, fingers crossed, warmer weather or just take the earliest course and hope for the best?

I want to enjoy the diving as much as possible and although i'd like to start as soon as possible, the idea of doing my Open Water divesin the winter does seem a little daunting..

So what do you guys think about this? And any other tips for a newbie diver are, as always, much appreciated!

Thanks

EDIT: My Original post can be found here http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=108880

 

[piikki]

Hi,

How many hours does your organization require (minimum) for you to be able to do your so called check-outs? I don’t know the particular org but I assume they require them in open water with BSAC too. 1+1 hour/week can take a while but even then you are right - it must end in the middle of the winter if you start now or Oct. Having lived in Britain for 5 yrs I am kinda sure you won’t find warm waters right after your course. I would kind of assume they won't even do the check-outs right after those courses – are you sure? Unless – did you find out if they maybe planning to train you to use drysuit too? Would be great deal when equipment rental is part of the course but I don't know if they would do it with juniors. Another surprise might be they do check-outs as a little excursion to the continent – but that surely would be mentioned since it’s not cheap.

I did my PADI OW this year. All course work was done during Jan-March, then we had to wait for the waters to warm up. We finally did our check-outs in June. It was a looooong wait. Unlike you, our group had no chance of pool rehearsals throughout the waiting time, so for some people it was really hard. (Our instructor did kind of hint though that the winter courses seem to be the most motivated ones – in summer there might be more impulse buyers around).

I think in your case you should consider ‘who’ you are – do you want to get started now and can you keep your momentum going with the offered pool sessions till you can certify (great deal, possible buddies too) or will you get too enraged/bored waiting for the real deal and rather do something totally different now and start later when you can quickly proceed through the whole deal and get going.

Personally, I think starting now and having all that extra time in the pool over the winter before cold water exposure can’t hurt would most likely be my choice (with group who didn’t mind starting against winter either!). I don’t know what the financial differential is between the later courses and this but you get way more pool time and probably the first check-out come feasible weather.

I notice I wrote this under the assumption that you won’t have the check-outs in freezing water. Maybe you will but even then opting for the pool sessions against the winter would sound like the best deal if you anyway pay for this course. If you paid for a years deal in Feb, you might not be using it as much (dipping in pool don’t feel so great after having been to great outdoors but is great in preparation). If the option is between warmer check-out vs colder and it is really a big issue for you, I would listen to myself and choose accordingly. It is no use picking something that feels terrifying right off the bat - better ease into this the way you see best. And if they all will be in cold, remember those check-outs aren't going to be too long dives, so you'll make it even in the British chill!

Cheers

piikki

 

[cpe111]

I remember someone telling me that the waters in the Solent are coldest in March - so spring diving would be chilly

Paul

 

[mossym]

if you plan on diving year round, take the course in winter, if you do your training in the cold, you'll be a better diver for it, If you can do the skills in full gear, they get easier in less gear. If you learn in colder water, you'll be a better diver..

 

[Greeny]

Thanks for the replies!

The instructor i spoke to was saying that BSAC offers training for mianly diving in British waters and so all Open Water dives are done in Dry Suits at a local quarry, the vast majority of training is done in drysuits, to prepare members for the club trips for diving in Scotland etc..

So i think the Open Water dives will go ahead without taking the time of year into account, as all memebers are trained in using Drysuits, infact diving in a wetsuit in Britain doesnt seem at all sensible to me, no matter what time of year it is! =)

 

[outback]

I went through the BSAC training a good number of years ago. It essentially evolved from miltary training and still has some of the aspects of that, and is very thorough. It takes a while before they let you out of the pool and into open water. It may have changed in the last 15 years or so, but the general scheme was : theory session/pool sessions for up to about 8 weeks, then you had to go out on a dive but be a spotter/dogsbody without actualy getting to gear up, then on the following dive trip you took your first open water dive.

If you're going to be diving in the UK, you're probably best just sucking it up now and diving in whatever the conditions are at the time you dive. UK water is cold year round, so you'll need to get used to that. A drysuit will be required at some stage.

One thing about learning to dive in the UK is that it definitely trains you well, regardless of which agency you go through, to dive in poor conditions. This will stand you in good stead no matter where you end up diving.

 

[mossym]

i learnt to dive here, in california, where temps are about as cold as the UK, year round, it doesn't change much. i just had a friend over from Ireland, who dive in summer there with a 7mm no gloves, you'd freeze in that in california. If you get seasonal temps like that, you'll likely need a drysuit in winter, but summer wetsuit should be fine..unless your water temps are far different than ireland. which i guess on the north coast, or over on the north east it probably is!!

 

[Mike7]

"the club leaders who said the the price included all the equipment and air i'd need throughout the year"

Free rental of gear and air, you got a good deal there. When I was looking around on who to dive with one reason why I turned down BSAC was because we needed to buy our own gear to do the openwater dives inc a dry suit.

Maybe its because the club is not as big as others I dont know.