First dive of AOW class... Yukon 10/1/05, NOT fun.

[Skytzo_Marc]

I am not putting the blame for this incident on you but keep in mind that becoming a certified OW diver means that you can take care of yourself for the most part. After 7 years of no diving at all with very little diving experience before that, I would have recommended possibly taking the course again and a more in-depth refresher course. Refresher courses are designed for those people who haven't been diving in 6 months to maybe 2 years. Especially if you get certified and then have a big lapse right after. If you get certified and then spend two years diving constantly and then take a five year vacation from it, then I can see a refresher as possibly being enough With the little experience you have and the huge lapse in time since your last real dive, I would say that redoing your OW would have been the best thing for you to do. I got certified and then didn't dive at all for 5 years. When I decided to get back into it, I got newly certified and it's a good thing I did because when I was doing OW for the 2nd time, I realized that I didn't remember most of the things I had originally learned. Your instructor should have done a very shallow dive also knowing that you had such a big gap in time between your diving.

Diving is not like riding a bike if you stop riding right after you learn. You have to get comfortable riding the bike before taking off the training wheels. Good luck to you and keep us posted on your experiences.

When I took the refresher course, I also MADE them sell me the books for OW again and I read the thing cover to cover before going out with them. My refresher course also had an hour pool session where we practiced all of the dive skills (according to the instructor I was more confident and calm in the water than most people he knew) and I went on two boat dives after that.

I had a lot of fun doing that.

So much for confident and calm. :|

In the very least I'm going to read several portions of the OW book again and again until I know the thing by heart.

I actually just got an offer from a very nice person to take me under his wing so I think I'm going to pursue that. I'm going to hold off on buying equipment at the moment (I don't have the cash, plain and simple) but I'll buy my own ASAP from a dive shop that I like (I'm not buying that kind of stuff on the internet).

 

[DandyDon]

When I took the refresher course, I also MADE them sell me the books for OW again and I read the thing cover to cover before going out with them. My refresher course also had an hour pool session where we practiced all of the dive skills (according to the instructor I was more confident and calm in the water than most people he knew) and I went on two boat dives after that.

Here is a thread on a very good dive manual, The Certified Diver's Handbook by Clay Coleman. here

 

[keysguy28]

how many times did you mention how uncomfortable you were?? CALL THE DIVE!!!!!!!!

 

[jkandls]

I see this happen all too often. Beginner divers with little or no experience going straight for an advance cert. Get experience diving in different conditions before taking on more classes. Experience will help you as a diver, where certain classes
( not all ) may give a diver over-confidence. Always make sure your instructor knows what there doing, ask questions and get references. Glad nobody got hurt.

 

[HilaryRN71]

Well...it's great that 1. You are still here. and 2. That the more you go over this, the more you process and see where things went wrong and how to fix them and avoid them. RE: getting your own gear...and practicing in a pool, you are 100 percent right. I struggled to amass my gear over a couple of years time. And it's a huge investment but it's very worth it if you want to make diving a part of your life. CA diving is TOUGH. And the Yukon is a challenge in that viz is almost never good and it's always pretty cold. It's a neat-o wreck for an old hunk of metal if you can get comfy. Good luck...and keep diving. If you still want to dive after a dive like that one...then you have the fire. DSDO. Hilary

 

[donooo]

I'am a little surprised that with the number of instructors participating in this discussion that no one has pointed out that Padi has been trying to take the "advanced" label out of this class. Adventures in Diving, going out in the dark, going deeper then you have, maybe getting lost, maybe working on your bouyancy. Just completing the class does not make you advanced, just more experienced.

There is an assumption that when you take the class, you are "ready to go diving". You were not ready to go diving. I wasn't either when I took my AOW class, but my instructor did a much better job of dealing with it. At least I think so now.

At the time, I shopped for the low bidder/best deal in San Diego. I had ten dives in Akumal under my belt and a year in between. First dive, Deep dive, shore dive at La Jolla. Beat the daylights out of me in the surf, cold, pee green water, 15 foot vis. I lost a fin, depth gauge froze at 100 feet. All rental gear. Did 9 dives with the instructor befor he signed me off.

You instructor should be unemployed. He had a bad plan befor you got on the boat and then it got worse. If it was the shops plan, add them to the blacklist.

Buy your equiptment a piece at a time as it makes sense.

adios don O