Continuing Ed. or just paying to dive..

[fisherdvm]

What do you need a snorkel for?

Better swimming ability in rough sea. Not every one is as good of a swimmer as you are.


[/QUOTE]
Well, you can get certified now without even knowing how to swim. .[/QUOTE] Sad isn't it. What if you are snagged, and had to swimm to the surface without your scuba.



[/QUOTE]
Divers should be diving in buddy teams. Not in flocks. Diving classes should teach the difference.[/QUOTE]

I don't like my buddies. I am attracted to handsome muscular DM's.

 

[fisherdvm]

Depending on your BC and exposure suit, and amount of lead you have.... You don't always have the luxury of streamline swimming... A snorkel can help you salvage your gears without dumping your lead.

 

[squidster]

I Have been told that you will have a hard time finding a dive master who will take you on any dive deeper than 60 ft unless you have a AOW card,when i learned to dive in 1982 i was certified for up to 130ft.
My question is this,is it true that many will not take you on deeper dives unless you have AOW card or will they if you have logged more than 24 dives.
I think this is how they get you to take more course because most wrecks and interesting dives are deeper.
Do i have to have this AOW card or just keep logging more dives.

 

[fisherdvm]

I Have been told that you will have a hard time finding a dive master who will take you on any dive deeper than 60 ft unless you have a AOW card,when i learned to dive in 1982 i was certified for up to 130ft.
My question is this,is it true that many will not take you on deeper dives unless you have AOW card or will they if you have logged more than 24 dives.
I think this is how they get you to take more course because most wrecks and interesting dives are deeper.
Do i have to have this AOW card or just keep logging more dives.

In my experience, no one wanted to look at my dive log. They just ask, when was the last time you dove to this depth?? Some places simply assume having an AOW card will qualify you for advanced dives (drift, dive through, greater than 60 ft).

 

[Ann Marie]

What do you need a snorkel for?

Duh Mike, it's for shooting a mouth full of water at someone with more accuracy while at the surface!

 

[noobascooba]

Seriously, Brits make the best music.
Zeplin, Who, Stones, Clapton, Police, Beatles, Pink Floyd, Kinks, etc.

Very good point. But you missed out Queen, tut tut. I'm sure we have some decent bands from the last 30 years too!

Noobascuba...seeing as how I like Brits, and PADI, and the Con-Ed opportunities, what say you for learning to drysuit dive pretty soon?

Nice sales pitch, nothing like sucking up to the customer first .
Our dry suits haven't arrived yet, there was a screw up with the order. Shouldn't be long now. We aren't definately going to do the course with Alpine though, I think it might be cheaper with a store in Casper. Although it would be good to meet you- sounds like there wouldn't be too many arguments over which music to play during surface intervals!

 

[Thalassamania]

Seriously, Brits make the best music.
Zeplin, Who, Stones, Clapton, Police, Beatles, Pink Floyd, Kinks, etc.

Noobascuba...seeing as how I like Brits, and PADI, and the Con-Ed opportunities, what say you for learning to drysuit dive pretty soon?

Hardly: Buddy Holly, Elvis, etc. then Motown then Byrds and all their offshoots through CSN&Y, Flying Burritto Bros., etc. San Francisco including Airplane, Dead, Big Brother, Youngbloods, etc. and lets not forget Dylan, the Band, Baez, etc. Sure the Brits made some good music, but "the best?" Hardly.

 

[Jon C]

I am a little confused by some of the course offering by PADI and presumably other programs. A few that come to mind would be boat diver, night diver, naturalist diver etc. The reason for my confusion is the cost to do these dives and the prerequisite of a certain number of "specialty" dives before you can move "up" the chain.

A number of these "specialty" dives are done during AOW or one of the other courses with PADI and yet you have to pay for that one extra dive that gets you the certification or that little bit of extra instruction that gets you the same.

Instructors on this board are always suggesting that this cert or that cert should be done to help improve on this or that and frankly it feels like the diver is being hustled. Several of these specialty courses could and SHOULD be combined into one educational dive program. The only real reason for not doing so is so that somebody (wether it be dive shop or dive instructor) wants to make more money...

The concept of to much information over to little time comes to mind but really for some of these specialty courses the majority of the requirement really falls on the student to learn the book work, the dives could easily be incorporated into say the AOW weekend.

It truly is my belief that this type of instruction endangers divers lives. You make people take courses seperately that should already be included in instruction already paid for, so you can make more money. If the student cant afford to pay for all these "specialties" they basically take their chances on there own because you didnt get your dollar. In addition it places rediculous course requirements on people who might want to become dive masters or asst instructors but dont have thousands of additional dollars to spend on superfulous class "specialties".

Diver cost to date:
My classes 0W $425, A0W $125.00, Altitude $125.00 Gear to do what I have been taught $2000 = $2675.00 for a total of 12 dives (not including CERT cards...)

Wifes Classes and gear same

Sons classes same x (2) gear basics $275.00 fins, mask, yada yada

Total to teach a family of four to dive and equip two of them with mid to low range gear $7000 Dollars yea um okay.....

You want more qualified divers?? Stop taking all your students to the bank at every opportunity.

I'm $orry...What i$ it you are confu$ed about? If you could be more $pecific, $omeone on $cubaboard $urley will $tep up and $hare their $olution.

$incerely,

 

[noobascooba]

Lol!

BTW not heard of most of those bands! I do love a bit of Motown though... Please don't flame me, I'm not 30 yet

 

[fisherdvm]

Total to teach a family of four to dive and equip two of them with mid to low range gear $7000 Dollars yea um okay.....

You want more qualified divers?? Stop taking all your students to the bank at every opportunity.

Jeepers, look at how much dive instructors make on the poll, and we should quit whining about cost... Since you got gears, just go out and dive ... Who really want to move up the chain anyhow??