Sorry, yes, I forgot to mention there was a night dive included, for a total of six dives.
Dive#1-'refresher' dive
Dive#2-Naturalist dive
Dive#3-Photography dive
Dive#4-Nav. dive
Dive#5-Deep dive
The last two dives I have not done yet. Since this is a great opportunity to ask, I will: What are the most important skills I should take from these two dives? Obviously, the first four dives were for recreation, but the Deep and Nav. dives are critical skills. Thank you all for your input.
Well, I can tell you what critical skills my students take away from those two dives ... but I don't teach a "typical" AOW class.
For navigation - we first go over using a compass. That's pretty standard. Then we talk about what critical information is needed in order to use the compass to actually find your way around underwater. We talk about the necessity of keeping track of depth, time, and direction travelled. We discuss how to use visual "clues' for natural navigation. And then we go over the process of what I call "mental mapping" ... which is using the above information to build a little "map" in your head of where you are going relative to your starting point during a dive. We may do some dryland practice prior to a dive so the student has an idea of how to do it. Then we go dive. I use little flags with headings on them to lay out a course. The students follow each heading to the next flag ... and when they find the last flag it says, simply, "Home". Their task is to make their way back to the buoy line where they started.
For deep diving - we cover proper dive planning, including gas management skills. We discuss some basic deco theory, so the students understand how the increased pressure of going deeper accelerates the amount of gas they're dissolving in their body, and why it's important to ascend slowly and maintain an appropriate dive schedule. We talk about the potential risks of deep diving ... DCS, narcosis, CO2 loading, oxygen toxicity, hypothermia, and sensory deprivation ... and how to mitigate those risks. We discuss conditions that might predispose someone to the risks of deep diving, and what they can do about them (if anything, in some cases). We cover equipment considerations for deeper diving. Prior to the deep dive, we take some air consumption measurements, and I hand them a dive plan for the deep dive we'll be doing. Prior to the dive, they will need to do some calculations to figure out how much gas they need for the dive (I don't take anyone to 100 feet on an AL80, and I want them to see for themselves why it's not a good idea). The students write the dive plan on a slate, and their job during the dive is to stick to the dive plan and show me some good buddy skills. After the dive, we calculate how much air they actually used, compare it to what they predicted they'd need, and have a discussion on why there may be a difference between predicted and actual gas usage. And, BTW ... my "narcosis test" is an OOA drill at some point during the deep part of the dive. I'll spit my reg out and signal my student that I'm OOA ... I want to see (a) how long it takes them to recognize the problem, and (b) how they respond to it.
As I said, mine isn't a typical AOW class. Diving in Puget Sound isn't easy, and we don't do dive guides here. Visibility is typically not all that great, and good navigational skills are essential if you don't want to end up doing long surface swims, or coming to shore a long distance from the parking lot where you left your car. A lot of new divers are fascinated with depth, and it's real easy to get crazy-deep here ... even on what might otherwise be easy shore dives. I try to prepare my students to deal with local conditions before telling them they're "good to go" for deeper dives.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)