Have PADI OW C-Card want to take SDI refresher course, any issues?

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BORG

Contributor
Messages
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Location
Tucker, Georgia, just northeast of Atlanta
# of dives
100 - 199
Hi guys,
I was certified PADI OW back in the 80s. Have been diving since then, about 4-10 dives a summer. I was thinking of taking a SDI Refresher course soon just to see if there is anything new I'm missing and to have an SDI instructor give me any pointers on my basic skills.
My local dive store here in Atlanta, Divers Supply, an SDI shop, states in their refresher course info. that anyone with an SDI OW C-Card can take a refresher course there. I haven't asked them yet if by having a PADI OW C-Card, if that would be be an issue.
I do own and have used an AERIS AI dive computer for the last 3-5 yrs. since I know SDI teaches on dive computers now.

Or is this probably just a generic thing since they were once a PADI shop a few years ago, too?


Thanks,

John
 
There should be no problem. If there is, it is because of the shop or the instructor, not the agencies.
 
Thanks for the reply.

Just curious, anything different in the SDI OW Refresher course than what I learned in PADI OW( Mask removal and clear, swim with no mask, alternate air drill with a buddy, bc removal on surface and at depth, Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent, etc.
I practice those often with my buddy each season.
 
Depends. SDI Standards call for (these are from the manual that I have next to me)
1. Plan the dive.
a. Equalization techniques review
b. Communication signals
c. Lung over expansion problems review
d. Review of computer
2. Assemble the scuba unit
3. Weight adjustment
4. Mask defogging
5. Don scuba unit
6. Adequate entry for site conditions (personally I'll only do a review in open water if I know you. Otherwise we are in the pool first. Then we'll go to open water)
7.Controlled descent
8. Computer check
9. Reg clearing
10. Reg recovery
11. Mask clearing
12. Fins use
13. Buoyancy control/hovering
14. Underwater tour
15. Computer check
16. Controlled ascent: Computer assisted
17. Exit
18. Disassemble scuba unit
19. Log dive.

The instructor has some discretion and may add skills to meet local conditions to insure your are safe and good to go.

The CESA is not required and some agencies are moving away from it altogether.
 
@BORG I have a friend that is getting certified with Diver Supply Marietta at the end of this month. They are a pretty good group of people and have a good selection of equipment on hand. In the north Georgia area SDI instruction is rather sparse. If you do happen to want to do a PADI refresher, Diver Georgia is a good group of people and they do their stuff up at the quarry in White, GA.
 
BTW, Jim what are they going to replace CESA's with if they are moving away from those?
I know one agency that does not teach it because they say they get divers so committed to the buddy system that there is no need for it. They teach divers that if there is ever a major failure during a dive, they are to end the dive immediately, and losing contact with the buddy is a major failure. Since a diver trained by them will go to the surface upon realizing that he or she had lost contact with a buddy, there is no possibility of a diver going OOA with no buddy nearby for an air share.

Another agency that does not teach it teaches divers to use the buddy system and carry a redundant air source as well. I asked a leader of that agency what a diver trained by them should do if they found themselves, despite all that training, alone and with no buddy. He said that he supposed they would go to the surface, and they should know to exhale when they do. Another member of that agency who was very active on ScubaBoard for a while was very critical of CESA and supported his agency's stand on it. He only wished they would teach buddy breathing instead. I asked him if he meant that an OOA diver who has no redundant air source or no buddy nearby should not go to the surface but should instead swim around hoping to find another diver with no alternate so they could buddy breathe, but he did not dignify that question with an answer.

Another agency teaches the idea of the CESA and (I believe) does a horizontal CESA in the pool, but it does not teach it in the open water because, as it was explained here several times, they don't want students to see an instructor modeling the behavior of going to the surface and coming back down again repeatedly. Going up and down is not how we dive, so students should not see someone doing it and thus becoming confused about proper diving technique.
 
There is also the issue of instructors doing repeated CESA's and having to deal with the physical effects of that. Ears was one of the issues cited.

On a personal note after a severe reverse block a few years ago where the right side of my face was paralyzed for a few days I have to say I don't miss having to do them at all.

Usually my classes are one on one or I have two students. When that was the case and the CESA was still required I'd do one on the second dive and one on the third.

Everyone would come up with the diver doing the CESA. That was usually the end of the dive. My last OW class had 4 and I was happy not to have to do it. We did it horizontal in the pool but not in open water.
 
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