bc214
Contributor
Howdy folks,
This past weekend, as many of you following my compass catastrophe and my Rhode Island inquiry likely already know, was the last portion of my SSI AOW certification. As many of you know, the SSI program requires training and experience as opposed to just taking a class and doing the requisite training dives. My instructor, an old time NASDS instructor absorbed into SSI upon their merg, built an SSI AOW program that includes four of the requisite individual programs and dives. Basically, he used to teach AOW as one class under NASDS, and with SSI allows students to gather up the courses on their own, or take his package course combo.
What was really nice about this, is that he intentionally doesnt kill you on the cost. Each individual course can cost up to $100 plus dives (if necessary), and all four can end up costing well over $500. My instructor ran a couple of academic nights, a quarry day, and a trip to Rhode Island for three days of diving. All at a very, very fair price.
He explained many times how if he was going to put his instructor name on my AOW card, that it would not be easy. Rather, it was to be earned under stress, difficult conditions, and by employing necessary skills outside of calm quarries and clear water. His solution: Rhode Island shore diving! I thought I knew what I was getting into, boy was I understating it!
So after my academics, bookwork, homework, and a quarry day, my buddy and I (along with the assistance of my non-diving wife) headed up to RI for day one. I left the house around 430am and made it up there mid morning. We met up with the group and instructors at Fort Wetherill for a shore dive off the rocks. Looking down at the crashing waves and obvious current ripping through the channel, the instructors words about being able to dive under difficult conditions became clearly apparent.
So we had our dive briefing, geared up, and walked down for our entry. My buddy and I were given course headings to run for a specified time, then reverse course and surface. This was repeated on thrice crossing the channel. The current was pulling nicely and it was difficult to stay on the surface. Entry and exit was tough, and when we got out, it felt like someone had beaten me with a tennis racket! But, positive critique from the instructor indicated that we did quite well, especially being that one team was still out in the water looking like a tuna caught in a net (slight issue with the dive flag and rope!). Upon clearing site one, we had two divers quit due to conditions and head home. So, we had a 33% quit rate by the end of dive number 1!
We then took an extended SI and headed to Newport, RI for dive two. We met up at a protected cove at Fort Adams for night dive/night nav. Discovering the water by the boat ramp would give us only about 14 of depth, I was inquisitive about this location. In response I was told that the darkness combined with the turbid water at this location would be used to evaluate our night dive navigation. Vis was MAYBE 3 feet, and if you touched the bottom reduced easily to 1 foot. At one point, my compass in my hand was not visible when extended out fully. Buoyancy was also a challenge in such shallow water. The instructor monitored our dive flags and courses by the different colored chem sticks on the flags, and reported back our accuracy upon surfacing. This was probably the hardest nav of the weekend as it was entirely blind and only with a compass. My wife watched from shore as the different buddy team colors traveled their courses and back.
The next day we went to the windward side of Fort Adams where we were again met with current. We did a 4 man buddy snorkel chain out past the waves, where we met our assistant instructor for doffing and donning of gear on the less-than-calm surface. Once geared back up, it was time to deploy our flags and get down to the bottom for more nav work. The current was really significant here, and attacking the current while navigating back was extremely difficult. Even with that, everyone was blown at least a little off course. I had a terrific time after this dive, but man, I was exhausted after I exited.
That night we went back out to Fort Adams on the boat dock side (much calmer), where we did Giant Stride entries from the dock (about 5 feet up) and did night nav dog leg runs which, dare I say it, seemed easy in comparison to the previous current dives and zero vis night/turbid dives from the prior dives. After surfacing and reporting back, my buddy and I cruised around a bit for life, and saw a few squid, one of which was eating a fish. We dragged ourselves out, froze our you-know-whats off until we could get into warm clothes, and prepared to celebrate the completion of our AOW check dive weekend.
Overall it was a long weekend, but we did manage to squeeze in some sights and had fun with my wife at the local establishments. We stayed into Sunday for just that purpose.
Thanks to everyone on this site that helped me with my questions and answers. From the beginning of the summer, Ive completed my OW, logged thirty-something fresh and saltwater dives, and now met the requirements for the issuance of my SSI AOW card. Ive met a bunch of new people, learned some awesome skills, and gotten a decent amount of experience to go along with my training. I am heartily interested in where this goes in the future, and look forward to many more dives.
Thanks again for all the help, and reading my overly long story!
-BC
This past weekend, as many of you following my compass catastrophe and my Rhode Island inquiry likely already know, was the last portion of my SSI AOW certification. As many of you know, the SSI program requires training and experience as opposed to just taking a class and doing the requisite training dives. My instructor, an old time NASDS instructor absorbed into SSI upon their merg, built an SSI AOW program that includes four of the requisite individual programs and dives. Basically, he used to teach AOW as one class under NASDS, and with SSI allows students to gather up the courses on their own, or take his package course combo.
What was really nice about this, is that he intentionally doesnt kill you on the cost. Each individual course can cost up to $100 plus dives (if necessary), and all four can end up costing well over $500. My instructor ran a couple of academic nights, a quarry day, and a trip to Rhode Island for three days of diving. All at a very, very fair price.
He explained many times how if he was going to put his instructor name on my AOW card, that it would not be easy. Rather, it was to be earned under stress, difficult conditions, and by employing necessary skills outside of calm quarries and clear water. His solution: Rhode Island shore diving! I thought I knew what I was getting into, boy was I understating it!
So after my academics, bookwork, homework, and a quarry day, my buddy and I (along with the assistance of my non-diving wife) headed up to RI for day one. I left the house around 430am and made it up there mid morning. We met up with the group and instructors at Fort Wetherill for a shore dive off the rocks. Looking down at the crashing waves and obvious current ripping through the channel, the instructors words about being able to dive under difficult conditions became clearly apparent.
So we had our dive briefing, geared up, and walked down for our entry. My buddy and I were given course headings to run for a specified time, then reverse course and surface. This was repeated on thrice crossing the channel. The current was pulling nicely and it was difficult to stay on the surface. Entry and exit was tough, and when we got out, it felt like someone had beaten me with a tennis racket! But, positive critique from the instructor indicated that we did quite well, especially being that one team was still out in the water looking like a tuna caught in a net (slight issue with the dive flag and rope!). Upon clearing site one, we had two divers quit due to conditions and head home. So, we had a 33% quit rate by the end of dive number 1!
We then took an extended SI and headed to Newport, RI for dive two. We met up at a protected cove at Fort Adams for night dive/night nav. Discovering the water by the boat ramp would give us only about 14 of depth, I was inquisitive about this location. In response I was told that the darkness combined with the turbid water at this location would be used to evaluate our night dive navigation. Vis was MAYBE 3 feet, and if you touched the bottom reduced easily to 1 foot. At one point, my compass in my hand was not visible when extended out fully. Buoyancy was also a challenge in such shallow water. The instructor monitored our dive flags and courses by the different colored chem sticks on the flags, and reported back our accuracy upon surfacing. This was probably the hardest nav of the weekend as it was entirely blind and only with a compass. My wife watched from shore as the different buddy team colors traveled their courses and back.
The next day we went to the windward side of Fort Adams where we were again met with current. We did a 4 man buddy snorkel chain out past the waves, where we met our assistant instructor for doffing and donning of gear on the less-than-calm surface. Once geared back up, it was time to deploy our flags and get down to the bottom for more nav work. The current was really significant here, and attacking the current while navigating back was extremely difficult. Even with that, everyone was blown at least a little off course. I had a terrific time after this dive, but man, I was exhausted after I exited.
That night we went back out to Fort Adams on the boat dock side (much calmer), where we did Giant Stride entries from the dock (about 5 feet up) and did night nav dog leg runs which, dare I say it, seemed easy in comparison to the previous current dives and zero vis night/turbid dives from the prior dives. After surfacing and reporting back, my buddy and I cruised around a bit for life, and saw a few squid, one of which was eating a fish. We dragged ourselves out, froze our you-know-whats off until we could get into warm clothes, and prepared to celebrate the completion of our AOW check dive weekend.
Overall it was a long weekend, but we did manage to squeeze in some sights and had fun with my wife at the local establishments. We stayed into Sunday for just that purpose.
Thanks to everyone on this site that helped me with my questions and answers. From the beginning of the summer, Ive completed my OW, logged thirty-something fresh and saltwater dives, and now met the requirements for the issuance of my SSI AOW card. Ive met a bunch of new people, learned some awesome skills, and gotten a decent amount of experience to go along with my training. I am heartily interested in where this goes in the future, and look forward to many more dives.
Thanks again for all the help, and reading my overly long story!
-BC
