I am in my final day of pool dives for SSI Open Water, but I am nervous about the Open Water checkout dives. Does anyone know what type of things we will be doing? Are they dives or more like the pool just in open water? My main concern is mask replacement and swimming without my mask. I can do mask clears fine, just have issues with it completely off.
Checkout Dives
- Thread starter bgretzler
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
If you can, get into a pool with your mask and snorkel. start breathing through your snorkel with your mask on, get comfortable, then take your mask off, while still breathing through your snorkel. if you can't get into the pool, stick your face in a sink or bath tub while breathing through your snorkel, without your mask. there is no way around removing your mask, so try to get comfortable breathing in water without it on. it's a skill most new divers have trouble with. but it is completely do-able. i used to hate taking off my mask in water. a few weeks ago, i did an air share, mask-less ascent drill with one of my buddies. And just over the weekend, i had to do a 5 minute no mask swim.
I'm sure every checkout is a little different, but here's how we do it. Day one is a series of open water dives during which you do all the skills you did in the pool. The second day is "fun" dives, no specific skills, but watching how you perform and respond to the environment and whatever may happen naturally.
Scott Guidry
New
bgretzler -
When I am teaching students, I tell them to remove the mask slowly to let them adjust to now cooler water. It is usually the rush of the cold water hitting your face that startles you, thus creating a wanting to breath from your mouht and nose. It's just your body reacting to the sudden temperature change. The skills that you did in the pool session will be the same skills you do in the OW, just a lot more fun. However, since they are more fun keep an eye on your pressure. It's very easy to become distracted and want to look at all the cool things and forget about checking your guage. Concentrate and take it slow, nothing has to happen in the water at light speed.
When I am teaching students, I tell them to remove the mask slowly to let them adjust to now cooler water. It is usually the rush of the cold water hitting your face that startles you, thus creating a wanting to breath from your mouht and nose. It's just your body reacting to the sudden temperature change. The skills that you did in the pool session will be the same skills you do in the OW, just a lot more fun. However, since they are more fun keep an eye on your pressure. It's very easy to become distracted and want to look at all the cool things and forget about checking your guage. Concentrate and take it slow, nothing has to happen in the water at light speed.
It can depend a lot on where you are doing the checkout dives. It could be warm water and on a reef with 100 ft of visability. Or it could be cold water with 5 foot of viz. It could be from a boat (especially dives 3 and 4) or it could be walking into a quarry. It could be wading in through surf followed by a swim out to deeper water. I have seen every one of those happen.
Where you do it can have a BIG effect on the experience.
Where you do it can have a BIG effect on the experience.
I second Steve's thoughts. Around here, the quarries are just starting to warm up in the top 20 feet, although the viz will be decreasing from 7-10 feet as summer progresses. I will be in a three mil tomorrow, whereas a month ago it was a drysuit and the students were in 7 mil farmer Johns/Janes with 5 mil gloves and hoods. A lot different from 82 degrees and 100 foot visibility.
If you are not ready for the open water dive sequence, by all means let your instructor know you are not comfortable with these skills. I'd rather invest a little more time in someone's comfort than learn later I improperly assessed someone as ready which results in an "emotionally overstimulated experience" that could have been avoided.
I know that most students have an anxiety about one skill or another (typically mask related, but it can seemingly be anything) and I hope that I generally have a good idea about who is ready or who stays at the pool. No instructor can claim a foolproof judgment. As a rule, I don't remember a cirriculmn that includes mask off swimming in open water until overhead environment training, i.e. Cavern/Cave/Deco or solo diving. IOW I don't believe SSI requires such a feat at the OW level as it is usually reserved for more advanced training scenarios.
You should engage a conversation with your instructor about your concerns, and see what s/he plans to present in terms of skills in the open water environment. I'm confident your instructor can assist you with getting these skills completed in a safe and repeatable manner if you're willing to try.
Best of luck.
Last edited:
flots am
Contributor
- Messages
- 3,226
- Reaction score
- 1,861
- # of dives
- I just don't log dives
You'll be doing exactly the same things you did in the pool, only they'll be in a lake/ocean depending on where you are, and you'll get to see more cool stuff.
You don't have to (and shouldn't) do your own water dives until both you and your instructor are happy with your skills and you feel confident that none of them will be a problem.
If you need more pool time, tell your instructor.
flots.
My comments are in my blog "So now you are doing your open water Dives." Clijck on the blogs tab, look to the right for "most popular, and you will find it there.
DivemasterDennis
DivemasterDennis
With respect to the mask, at a minimum you will flood it in place, full removal may be required. This is all about exposure so go practice in the tub or at the local swimming hole,
Similar threads
