Completed OW Certification

[GeraldBarber]

I completed my OW certification dives over the weekend and am now looking forward to many enjoyable dives in the future. My confined water dives were done in an indoor pool wearing a 3 mm wetsuit and no hood or gloves. The open water dives were done in a quarry in PA. The water temperature was mid 50's to 60's depending on depth with visibility varying from 15 to 20 feet. Consequently, the OW dives were done wearing a rented 7 mm 2 piece wetsuit with full hood and gloves and two and a half times the weight I used during the pool sessions. The change in diving conditions from my training and the physical restrictions I felt from all the exposure protection was initially very troublesome and had me questioning whether I was really adequately prepared for the open water dives. Fortunately, I had a great instructor that I trust completely so I just tried to ignore the conditions, stay close to the instuctor, and focus on demonstrating the skills I had learned in the pool and everything worked out fine. However, I am wondering if there could have somehow been a better way to prepare for the OW dives when the conditions are very different from the confined water training dives.

 

[gcbryan]

In a word, no. Everyone does their OW confined training in a pool and actual open water conditions are always different than a pool environment. The idea is to learn all skills in a pool first so that during the open water dives the open water environment is the only new variable.

 

[Damselfish]

It helps to wear the hood and gloves for at least part of the pool time to get used to them and doing skills with them, even though you don't need them for the temp. We did that in my class. It wouldn't be bad to be able to try the wetsuit with all the weight in the pool once too, so it's not a completely new thing on your first OW dive.

 

[JimHar99]

Yeah, you're right, it's quite a change to go from the 3mm suit you used in the pool to the 7mm, with gloves and hood, plus the extra weight.
When I did my OW last year, the dive shop let us get used to the additional gear in the pool before we headed off to the quary a couple of days later. It made the first quary dive much easier, since you knew that you had already tried the gear you would be using.
Anyway...Congrats on your OW!

 

[BrianS]

We wore the 7mm suit for the Pool and OW dives, so it was nice to be able to be used to it all before we went into the ocean. Same with the weight, we used the same amount as well.

 

[ronpriskie]

I too am newly certified. I bought a 7mm wetsuit and tried it in the pool first. Also bought my own BC and reg and used them in the pool (for 1 session only) before Dutch Springs. It helped not having to deal w/ too many issues for my cert dives!

 

[GeraldBarber]

I too am newly certified. I bought a 7mm wetsuit and tried it in the pool first. Also bought my own BC and reg and used them in the pool (for 1 session only) before Dutch Springs. It helped not having to deal w/ too many issues for my cert dives!

That's an interesting thought. I considered buying my own equipment before the OW dives so that I wouldn't have to use rental equipment that I was not familiar with but decided that I didn't know enough yet to decide exactly what features I needed or wanted in my own equipment. I'm still not sure I know the answer to that one but at least I got a better idea over the weekend looking at what my instructor was using compared to what I was using.