I am where I wanted to be

[spectrum]

Based PURELY on this one post as it is written....statistically speaking, he is a statistic waiting to happen. After AOW he feels he can wreck dive, drysuit dive, deep dive and wants to dive caves BUT doesn't want to take anymore courses? Darwin is rolling over in his grave.

I'm inclined to think the OP is simply pleased with his current state as a diver and mentioned some obvious experiences. I can see where you're coming from and it's interesting how 2 people can read a post and get different impressions.

I don't know if he did drysuit as part of AOW however more than a few perfectly competent DS divers were mentored and or figured it out for themselves. If he has reached a point of comfort, I'm good with that. Having done a DS course the vast majority of the material is about how to buy one (SSI) and the in-water activities were cursory.

Deep? What is he calling deep? Past 60 feet? If he's going into deco or real deep like >100 FSW in severe conditions I'm concerned.

Wreck? Is he talking real penetration or AOW peek in the door and don't get entangled? I hope it's the latter,

Cave, he's fuzzy there. I agree that takes a few levels of training past AOW and he is uncredentialed. Then again I was amazed at some of the places an AOW card entitled me to dive in Florida.

Stopping short of Rescue is leaving a lot on the table.

I agree that he could be pushing a lot of limits but gut tells me that Darwin will need to wait.

Pete

 

[emoreira]

Well, I think the question may come down to, "What do you need to know to be a "good" diver?" (Which, of course, then poses the question, "What IS a good diver?") There are a lot of people who come out of their houses every morning and get in their cars, and drive carefully and conservatively and defensively, but may not have any clue how a distributor works. They can operate the vehicle when it is working correctly, and recognize when it is not. They are safe drivers -- for their purposes, it's not necessary to know a great deal more.

Someone who is going to race their own car is likely to have to know a great deal more about driving, and about automobile design and maintenance and repair, than a commuter.

I don't think you have to be able to regurgitate the ideal gas law, or even name the various parts of it, to be a good diver. You DO have to have a good understanding of compression and expansion with depth. You don't have to understand m-values to plan and execute a safe dive, and you don't have to be able to field-strip a regulator, so long as you are willing to lose a dive now and then when something doesn't work. I know people who don't know anywhere near as much as I do about the physics and physiology of diving, but they are good divers and they know FAR more than I do about critters and marine ecology.

I think the OP was talking about being happy at having gotten the training and experience that allows him to do the dives he enjoys, and not feeling any need to go deeper or scarier or underground, and that's admirable. One of the best instructors I've been fortunate enough to work with told us, "Do all the diving you can do, with the certification that you have, and when you get bored, then go get more training." I remember, when I first came on ScubaBoard, there were articles on the front page, and one of them was, "What to do when you're tired of blowing bubbles." The authors thesis was that eventually, most people will get tired of just swimming around and looking at fish, and that when and if that happens to you, you have to find something else to invigorate your diving. That might be teaching, photography, or technical or cave diving, or REEF surveys, or any number of things. But until you get there . . . blow bubbles and enjoy it!

I think that you have just described what I feel.
Every new dive (and I do not dive as often as I would want) is an immense pleasure, even if there is low vis, cold water or nothing to be seen. I even enjoy those boring pool dives just to blow bubbles underwater.
I know that I will get bored someday (hopfully not) and that day I will consider going further.
Only two things are in my mind now : Nitrox and Rescue.
The arguments to do Rescue are valid and solid. The only point is that I'm not an endurance swimmer.

 

[emoreira]

I'm inclined to think the OP is simply pleased with his current state as a diver and mentioned some obvious experiences. I can see where you're coming from and it's interesting how 2 people can read a post and get different impressions.

I don't know if he did drysuit as part of AOW however more than a few perfectly competent DS divers were mentored and or figured it out for themselves. If he has reached a point of comfort, I'm good with that. Having done a DS course the vast majority of the material is about how to buy one (SSI) and the in-water activities were cursory.

Deep? What is he calling deep? Past 60 feet? If he's going into deco or real deep like >100 FSW in severe conditions I'm concerned.

Wreck? Is he talking real penetration or AOW peek in the door and don't get entangled? I hope it's the latter,

Cave, he's fuzzy there. I agree that takes a few levels of training past AOW and he is uncredentialed. Then again I was amazed at some of the places an AOW card entitled me to dive in Florida.

Stopping short of Rescue is leaving a lot on the table.

I agree that he could be pushing a lot of limits but gut tells me that Darwin will need to wait.

Pete

Let´s go by parts (said Jack).
SSI deep diving certification allows to dive up to 130 fsw without going into deco. The deeper I DIVED (yes, I've read the thread) was the Yukon in San Diego (100 fsw) with air no deco required.
SSI Drysuit certification, I agree, a lot of words and very little about diving with it.
SSI wreck certification, +1 to you, only touching the door of the wreck from the outside, do not go inside.
Cave, I don't know. I've seen those beautiful videos in Youtube from Mexico caves (Cenotes) and many other shows in NatGeo and Discovery Channel about dives in caves, that make me wish to be there. I agree that I'm too far away (measuring in terms of experience).

As for SSI, an AOWD is a diver certified with OWD with at least 24 dives and at least 4 specialties that qualify for Advanced. Off the whole set of possible specialties that qualify for Advanced I took "Onboard", "Drysuit", "Deep" and "Navigation" and also "Wreck". For SSI there is no Advanced examination or check-out dives.

 

[emoreira]

Based PURELY on this one post as it is written....statistically speaking, he is a statistic waiting to happen. After AOW he feels he can wreck dive, drysuit dive, deep dive and wants to dive caves BUT doesn't want to take anymore courses? Darwin is rolling over in his grave.

I did mention that I would want to dive caves. This implies that cave diving would be something interesting to dive, but I'm too far away of that, measured in terms of experience, distance and resources.
If I would live in Mexico, I'm surely would go beyond to become a cave diver, but things would be different. The whole picture should be seen.

 

[emoreira]

Did I mention a constant push to go beyond ?

 

[gypsyjim]

Did I mention a constant push to go beyond ?

As a diver I never let anyone push me where I do not wish to go. If I push myself, and seek new training it is because I wish to improve, not because anyone else is not happy with where my skill level is today.

I was happy for over 20 yrs as simply a Y Scuba Diver. I took an AOW a few years ago simply to hone skills, then Rescue to make me better able to prevent and correct the errors of myself and others, then, Wreck to face down a deep fear of tight places, and recently GUE training because I saw skill levels in their divers that I wanted for myself.

I am satisfied to be the diver that I am, and take no training because someone else thinks I should. I expect that I will do further training, as new paths open in front of me, and I see reason to follow those paths, but if I took not one more day of training I could be quite happy with my diving at the level I am now.

 

[on_two_wheels]

I don't know if he did drysuit as part of AOW however more than a few perfectly competent DS divers were mentored and or figured it out for themselves. I
Pete

Agreed. I'm one of them.

 

[TSandM]

Thanks, emoreira. I read your initial post as saying that caves interested you, but that taking cave training wouldn't make sense because you are too far away from them to get to dive them often enough to make it worthwhile. I did not read it as saying that you thought you were well enough trained to dive them as you are.

 

[emoreira]

I do not dive beyond my certification level and experience. Never.
That's part of the principles I follow as a religion, and the unique possibility because I must return home after every dive day or trip in one piece. That's important for myself (because I want to go on diving), for my family, for my dive buddy or insta-buddy and for this sport.
I'm not happy nor celebrate any of those histories that some divers tell breaking the rules, diving beyond their certification level and experience, how they survive in spite of going upside-down with the rules of this activity. I understand the harm that those divers make to this sport and how we, the respectful divers, are affected by this type of people.
I'm more than happy when a dive went as planned, when everything was done following the rules, when all went as it should. And when something goes wrong, no matter how minimal it could have been, I want to discuss the experience with the buddy, the DM or my teachers or here in SB.
I'm comfortable with my certification level, not with my experience. There is a lot of dives I can do that will enrich my experience as diver. Obtaining the certification level and the check-out dives is just the beginning. I'm just in that starting point and I do not want to charge myself with new tasks. In the future, when I reach to a comfortable point with my experience it will be the time to go on with formal training.
Something of this tells me not to do the Rescue course. I consider myself not a diver with enough experience, so I cannot be a good rescuer. Perhaps I'm wrong, the rescue course would give me new tools and knowledge. I prefer to take this course when I reach to that comfortable point of experience.

 

[gypsyjim]

Rescue is really not about becoming a "rescuer". It is designed in most part to help you develop the skills to spot and prevent incidents from ever requiring a rescue, and keeping you alive, if such an incident should ever occur. It greatly improved my diving, and added to the richness of the entire diving experience.
If you are reasonably confident in the water now, it will make you more so, and it certainly will make you a better buddy for everyone else. IMO.