Cert. Dives

[camuhrun]

I am starting my ow cert class next monday. Temps here are of course freezing. When i do my certification dives at the end of the class, can they be postponed to a later date?? I'm not really sure what the dives entail...does my instructor go with me? I would most likely be more comfortable with the people that i know and have been instructed by. The class is 8 weeks long and a few weeks after the class is over i plan on going to california for spring break. Do you think cert. dives can be scheduled there? I'm so excited to get into this sport and gaining all the knowledge and experience possible. I just get so nervous about jumping into something new.

Thanks!!!

-camuhrun

 

[HammerNoMore]

I am starting my ow cert class next monday. Temps here are of course freezing. When i do my certification dives at the end of the class, can they be postponed to a later date?? I'm not really sure what the dives entail...does my instructor go with me? I would most likely be more comfortable with the people that i know and have been instructed by. The class is 8 weeks long and a few weeks after the class is over i plan on going to california for spring break. Do you think cert. dives can be scheduled there? I'm so excited to get into this sport and gaining all the knowledge and experience possible. I just get so nervous about jumping into something new.

Thanks!!!

-camuhrun

You can do your certification dives anwhere via referral. Once you finish the confined water portion, you just need to ask your instructor for referral paperwork. You present this paperwork to the instructor doing your open water dives.

James

 

[Dive-aholic]

PADI allows a year after pool and classroom sessions to do your checkout dives. The sooner the better because it will still be fresh, but you can wait. My wife and I waited a month and a half after confined water and had no problems. Chances are you'll have to complete it with other people, though. You should also make sure you can do the checkouts where you want to. There may not be an instructor where you're going in CA with the agency you're doing your confined water.

 

[Parrothead_Diver]

When i do my certification dives at the end of the class, can they be postponed to a later date??

Yes, if you are going through PADI then you have up to one year to complete them.

I'm not really sure what the dives entail...does my instructor go with me? I would most likely be more comfortable with the people that i know and have been instructed by.

Your instruct will cover what you will be doing on each of your dives, and YES the instructor will be with you.

The class is 8 weeks long and a few weeks after the class is over i plan on going to California for spring break. Do you think cert. dives can be scheduled there?

Yes your dives can be scheduled here in California. Just get a referral form from your instructor.

My advise is to do your certification dives at home with you original instructor. This is for a couple of reasons: 1) You should learn to dive in the environment that you will be diving in the most often. 2) It will cost you less in the long run. It often costs as much as 50% more to do half your lessons in one location and then the other half at another location. (If you want a better explaination as to why then PM me and I'll try to explain).

Lastly, if you are worried about water temperature then California is not your solution. Right now the temp is hovering at about 57*F in Southern California. This will drop to the low 50's by February and warm up to the low-mid 60's in the summer. And as you move to the north the temperature drops significantly.

 

[dabiz7]

Have been in your shoes recently and will tell you what we did
Took our OW class at local community college thru local dive shop
Class finished first week in Dec, our dive shop sponsored a trip to norther FL a couple of weeks later, but we couldnt go...so we decided to go to Key West for vacation between Christmas and New Years and do our OW cert. there. (Captains Corner was a great op, would recommend if you are ever down there.) The instructor was very knowledgable and friendly and was just a super guy. Did our cert dives with one other person, so it was only the three of us. If doing your cert dives with someone other thatn your pool instructor, be prepared for different styles,methods, even skills that your pool instructor didn't have you do in the pool. We had to do shared air breathing in the ocean whereas our pool instructor told us he didn't train people to do that anymore. So be prepared for little things like that. But, if you just relax, HAVE FUN!, and go with the flow, getting your cert dives in anywhere is pretty easy. I think Florida or Texas coast would be warmer than Cali.

 

[parrottheaddiver]

wifey and I are in the same boat...completed our OW course early last month and are now planning to do the cert dives down in florida...tooo cold to dive in NJ waters
like everyone else has said so far, getting the referral is no problem...
may as well go someplace warm if you can...can only help to be comfortable, especially during the mask clearing skills....

 

[theskull]

I am starting my ow cert class next monday. Temps here are of course freezing. When i do my certification dives at the end of the class, can they be postponed to a later date?? I'm not really sure what the dives entail...does my instructor go with me? I would most likely be more comfortable with the people that i know and have been instructed by. The class is 8 weeks long and a few weeks after the class is over i plan on going to california for spring break. Do you think cert. dives can be scheduled there? I'm so excited to get into this sport and gaining all the knowledge and experience possible. I just get so nervous about jumping into something new.

Thanks!!!

-camuhrun

Not that there's anything wrong with asking this question of a few thousand strangers, and you received some good answers -- but -- why did you not first ask this of YOUR instructor, who knows the local conditions, probably knows a little about you, knows and can explain exactly how he/she plans and conducts the open water cert dives, knows what techniques he/she uses to keep divers warm between dives, and can discuss all these great referral options with you in person?

theskull

 

[m7scuba]

SSI only allows you 6 months to do your cert dives.

 

[Wristshot]

Camuhrun,
I second the advice given by Parrothead Diver. It would be good to get certified where you will be diving. Unless you plan to have all your dives in tropical locations, it could be good to get some experience in the local conditions. Otherwise when you try to dive locally at some later date, will you have someone there to help you through the new conditions?

In addition, your pool instructor will know you and you will know them so the cert dives will be less stressfull and less intimidating. As you will learn, being relaxed a a very important thing.

If you never dive the different local conditions, how will you know whether you can handle them? How will you know whether you like them or hate them. My buddy and I got certified in 51 degree Monterey Bay. Diving warm was an easy adjustment. Someone who learned in bath water would have a harder time adjusting to diving California afterwards. I know people that have gotten certified locally, and then dove tropical later. Many eventually become WWW (Warm Water Wussies), but at least they know. I know others that were certified in tropical locations and refuse to dive locally, so they will never know A) if they could handle it or B) what they are missing.

You know, another good reason to get certified locally is this: The best way to improve as a diver is to practice practice practice. Someone on ScubaBoard once said that someone who hammers in two nails a year is not a Carpenter, and someone that dives two dives a year is not a diver. Unless you plan to travel a lot, the best way to practice is to dive locally.

Just some random thoughts.
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theskull,
perhaps he didn't ask the instructor because he doesn't start the classes until next Monday and he may not know or have access to the Instructor before then.
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Wristshot