Finished my Open Water certification today

[TheHuth]

Yay me!

I had an ongoing thread about Beach Cities Scuba to blog my experience. But I figured I'd start a new thread. I finished up today. 2 boat dives yesterday, and 2 more today. Brian was my instructor, and he was really cool. I'm stoked I learned from him. And all around I was very pleased with my Beach Cities Scuba course.

I'll tell you, this is a very active sport. I could not believe how physically worked I was at the end of the last two days. Its a good worked though. I feel like I really accomplished something. Yesterdays conditions were really bad. I got super sea sick, and visibility was only a couple of feet. But I fought through it, and showed up again today. Today was way cool. I got ahead of the sea sickness by taking bonine, and visibility was way better. Since we knocked out most of the skills yesterday, today was mostly cruising in the kelp, and swimming with fish. Today's skills were probably the toughest though. We had to remove our weight belt at the surface, and remove our BCD at the surface. With those steady waves coming, those two were very hard to pull off.

So will I stick with it? I think I will. I've heard repeatedly that Rescue Diver is where it all really begins. I'll probably work on Advanced Open water this summer, and then look to do Rescue Diver down the road. But I can say that this is unlikely to become a career for me. I do like it, but couldnt see myself doing it every day. I'm already 20 years in to my IT career, so this will likely stay just a hobby.

Thank you everyone for the awesome advice. This was very rewarding. I'm pretty stoked to be able to update my stats to no longer read "Student".

 

[TMHeimer]

Yeah, I can just see you struggling with those two skills in waves!!! Putting the unit back on in waves can be just nasty. It's good to keep practising a skill or two now and then. Many don't. Congrats on finishing despite the sea sickness. I like your goal of getting to Rescue--I always recommend that. I think you will feel less "physically worked" as you get more diving in. The thing is you will know what to expect. There are times when I'm a little pooped after a course dive at age 61, then a 20-some student will kind of crawl by me on his death bed....Anyway, welcome and keep us posted.

 

[undrwater]

Even if it's a hobby, keep diving. Congrats!

 

[Stoo]

Funny thing about that gear ditching thing... I used to have students complain how they would never need to do that... But as someone who dives out of a RHIB about 90% of the time, removing gear at the surface and clipping it off to a line is how we do it! Real men don't use ladders... we just haul our butts out and in. (I've never tried it, but I'm pretty certain if would be hard to do with twin steel tanks!

Congrats on earning your certification. Look at it as a ticket to START learning... and get out and dive!

 

[TMHeimer]

I have removed my unit a time or two -- one time I was cramping and had to exit in fairly rough water up a rock ledge of sorts. Taking it off and shoving it up the rock was the solution, as I was then able to climb out without dealing with a tank on my back. Other times I have elected to put the unit on in the water on a shore dive for whatever reason. I'm sure there are situations where divers have taken it off and put it back on while on the surface--I just can't imagine doing that with the type of diving I do. Entanglement would seem to be the only reason to do it at depth. But, if you can do this skill, others should be easy--I've always felt this is the hardest skill.

 

[Reku]

It makes for an awesome hobby - I'm in IT as well and honestly I picked scuba diving as a hobby because it got me away from the screen and into the world. Enjoy your new fun! There is lots to be had.

 

[Land Fish]

Welcome to team rookie! I'm feeling less lonely all of sudden

 

[Carl T]

Congratulations and well done. The more you dive the easier and more routine the prep becomes. Rescue is an excellent course and I thoroughly enjoyed mine and learnt a great deal about my own abilities and those of others around me, so I would recommend it. Perhaps you should set your target as Master scuba diver (Rescue/ first aid plus 5 completed Specialties.

 

[Bob DBF]

Congratulations!

Nothing wrong with diving as a hobby, I've been doing that for over fifty years and enjoy it to this day.

When you look for an AOW class, find out how much class time is involved. The one I went to was read the book and do the dive, without hardly any overview or discussion of the materials. Since I took the class for a ticket punch (I'd been diving for decades) it made no difference to me, but I believed the new students out of OW were shortchanged.
Also find out the dives that will be done, although something like boat diving may be acceptable, it will not help your actual diving.

I feel that AOW, Rescue, and Nitrox are the minimum a diver should learn after OW.


Bob

 

[Dive Right In Scuba.]

Congratulations! One sign that you are off to a good start is the number of good questions you have already asked on ScubaBoard.