Just hit my 100th dive—besides diving, what’s next for skill development?

[SelfDiver]

Just got back from hitting my 100th and 101st dive, and feeling proud and excited about how much I can still learn. Took about 4 years, with half of my dives on North Carolina wreck charters, a quarter in Cozumel / Yucatán, and the rest spread across quarry, lakes, and random dives like black water in Kona.

I’ve really grown to appreciate the diver that NC conditions have made me. Honestly, it blew my mind how much chiller it was in Cozumel the first time I went. I didn’t even realize following a dive guide was a thing. NC charters take you out 1-2 hours to a site, dump you in the water in pairs, and say see ya later. Thankfully the charter season is about to open back up, so I’ll be right back at it!

Aside from more dives, which is a given, what are ways I can continue to grow my skills? I intend to go tech at some point in my career, and I feel cave calling my name, so I’m also curious about any courses that will help focus and refine my growing skills.

What is your current diving skill evel?
Do you have video of you and your buddy doing skills underwater?
Can you frog kick, back kick and helicopter turns? No fins..
Deploy a bouy on a reel from 3 meters?
Have you ever tried diving with a stage/Pony/Deco tank?

Can you plan a dive with a simulated decompression?
Do you assemble gear with a checklist? What is on the checklist?
What does your comprehensive pre-dive briefing look like?
Can you perform a simulated deco dive with a watch and depth guage. No computer.
Can you hang at 6 meters with nearly empty tanks and maintain within 0.5 meters? same but with No fins?

I think that Rescue and deep certifications are prerequisites for technical and advanced certifications. So you might want to do those.
There is a knee jerk reaction on theses forums to "GUE Fundies" as a cure-all. Sure. Yes. But not everyone wants to be 3km in the back of a cave going through a restriction.

 

[tursiops]

I think that Rescue and deep certifications are prerequisites for technical and advanced certifications.

Nope. It's not a bad idea to take those courses, but they are not prereqs for (for example in TDI) tech courses. Not sure what you mean by "and advanced certifications" other than technical certs.

 

[SelfDiver]

Nope. It's not a bad idea to take those courses, but they are not prereqs for (for example in TDI) tech courses. Not sure what you mean by "and advanced certifications" other than technical certs.

Apologies, I should communicate more clearly.
Divemaster and instructor are advanced certifications that are not on the tech route.
Public safety diving requires rescue diver certification.
Some operators limit diver depth based on experience, but some require deep c-card for dived deeper than 30m.
Egypt and Jordan (and other countries) restrict depth based on c-card.
PADI tec 45 requires rescue and it is not in the instructional route

PADI Tec 45 and Tec 45 Trimix Compression Gases Course

Extend your depth limit to 45 metres/150 ft. Learn to plan and execute repetitive decompression dives using a single stage/decompression cylinder.

store.padi.com

To the OP- do a DPV class. They are fun!

 

[tursiops]

Apologies, I should communicate more clearly.

Yes, it would have helped if you had said you were talking just PADI, not tech diving in general.

Divemaster and instructor are advanced certifications that are not on the tech route.

Correct, but they are usually called professional certs rather than advanced certs.

Some operators limit diver depth based on experience, but some require deep c-card for dived deeper than 30m.

Who requires that?

 

[DANDM]

Do you have video of you and your buddy doing skills underwater?
Can you frog kick, back kick and helicopter turns? No fins..
Deploy a bouy on a reel from 3 meters?

Can you plan a dive with a simulated decompression?
What does your comprehensive pre-dive briefing look like?
Can you perform a simulated deco dive with a watch and depth guage. No computer.
Can you hang at 6 meters with nearly empty tanks and maintain within 0.5 meters? same but with No fins?

---

There is a knee jerk reaction on theses forums to "GUE Fundies" as a cure-all. Sure. Yes. But not everyone wants to be 3km in the back of a cave going through a restriction.

Most of the questions you asked OP are covered under GUE fundies. It's not the only available route of course, but it's quite comprehensive, and if you are geographically lucky it is fairly accessible. It's not about cave restrictions, it's pretty broad when most divers end up agreeing on such similar foundational skills. Not sure if knee jerk reaction is a fair comment when it's such a valuable option.

 

[Kimela]

Just got back from hitting my 100th and 101st dive, and feeling proud and excited about how much I can still learn. Took about 4 years, with half of my dives on North Carolina wreck charters, a quarter in Cozumel / Yucatán, and the rest spread across quarry, lakes, and random dives like black water in Kona.

I’ve really grown to appreciate the diver that NC conditions have made me. Honestly, it blew my mind how much chiller it was in Cozumel the first time I went. I didn’t even realize following a dive guide was a thing. NC charters take you out 1-2 hours to a site, dump you in the water in pairs, and say see ya later. Thankfully the charter season is about to open back up, so I’ll be right back at it!

Aside from more dives, which is a given, what are ways I can continue to grow my skills? I intend to go tech at some point in my career, and I feel cave calling my name, so I’m also curious about any courses that will help focus and refine my growing skills.

I have so much respect for the people who do wreck and tech diving - it’s not in my blood but I’m thrilled that others like to do it and I can hear the stories. I wish you all the best on that track.

Next up is perfecting the buoyancy. In my opinion, good buoyancy is like working on communication skills. No matter how good you are you can always be better. I’d guess nav is super important for your plans as well.

Congrats on 100 and good luck!

 

[jbandre]

Congrats on 100 dives! that felt like a milestone for me as well - I def started to tune things more after gear wise and then as others have said continued to learning more. Rescue and drysuit were some of the highlights. Now I'm starting to get more into the photograph, setting up a rig which is really interesting and new gear is fun.

 

[p_kos]

Thanks! No doubles yet—do you have any thoughts on doubles vs side mount, w cave in mind for the future?

IMHO you should learn doubles first then move onto sidemount when specific cave dives call for it. Doubles will also be better for boat charter diving in the mean time. Either way some kind of “intro to tech” (doesn’t have to be GUE but highly recommended) would be a great course to take next (assuming you already have AOW, Nitrox, Rescue, Deep diver, etc).

 

[Blackcrusader]

I wouldn't say Fundies is the destination either, but it's definitely a great waypoint whilst on that journey.

I don't think being horizontal is "THE" end goal, but I would definitely say it is "A" goal to have.

We had a thread on this before

Thread 'THE "PERFECT ( being horizontal ) TRIM" HOAX'

Dec 27, 2020

I often get into discourse with people who see my videos and go oh so you changed from horizontal and are not in perfect trim. My reply is that whatever position I am comfortable in is perfect trim for me. I hate that restricted view and get a sore neck from being in the "perfect trim" position so many think I should have. Sometimes I get in that vertical position in a nice drift to let my body act as a sail and be pushed along siting there not moving my fins. I can sit there watching those in horizontal trim finning along and wasting air as I pass them by on my magic water carpet. Often...

• Blackcrusader

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