LDS recommendations for certification

[geraldp]

One of the skills you learn in your drysuit class is how to handle a run-away ascent. Swim hard for the bottom, roll, and put your exhaust valve at the top (making sure it's wide open). At the same time dump any air in your BC. We practiced that both in the pool and in the Open Water. I had a run-away ascent during my first night dive. My training paid off, and I had it under control pretty quickly.

As the others have said it's all in your bouyancy and your physical attitude in the water (and not being overweighted). As you become in tune with your attitude and neutrality you can immediately sense if you start to have a problem, and you can correct it long before it gets away from you. Ankle weights may help with your attitude if your feet have a tendancy to float up.

The SSI manual talks about sticky intake valves potentially causing run-away ascents, but with newer drysuits now-adays that isn't really an issue.

My LDS has a pool with a ring on the bottom. One of the things our instructor had us do (just for fun) is to grab the ring with one hand, and fill our drysuit valve with the other, until we could no longer hang on. We got a fast, short ride to the surface. That kind of gave us a feel for a worst case scenario.

re: wetsuits: I too got pretty cold when taking my class in the pool. Fortunately my LDS had a used sale rack of wetsuits. I tried a 1mil skin for an evening, and still ended up being cold. So I ended up buying a demo model 3-5-3 for $100. That has been a bit overkill for some of my warm water diving in Mexico, but overall has served me well (for Hawaii it would be about perfect).

One word of caution... you can run out to a sporting goods store or Costco and pick up a wetsuit for your pool use for pretty cheap (and several of my OW classmates did just that). However wetsuits designed for the typical watersports like surfing, skiing, etc. have a more of an open cell structure. When you get these suits down to depth in SCUBA some of the cells collapse and you could get cold spots.

One other point... after my drysuit class (which was about half-way through the course) we were in the pool exclusively with drysuits. So if a wetsuit isn't in your budget right now you may want to tough it out until the drysuit class, then you'll stay toasty warm.

Jerry

 

[JasonH20]

Training Update...

Last night was my 2nd pool session. After the first session, I was seriously debating getting a 3mm wet suit, but ultimately decided to just continue toughing it out in the buff (well, I had my swim trunks on) and save my money for now. Thankfully during drills I noticed the heater vent in the pool! It was pumping out gloriously hot water, so I just parked over top of that and it was great!

Same drills as the first night, plus the addition of OOA drills. It cracks me up when the instructor gives the hand signals for "You OK to be OOA?" Of course I always respond OK, but it seems like an odd question? I'm not sure what the hand signal is for, "No! I like having air, I don't want to be voluntarily OOA!"

Then we went to the "deep" end of the pool for the first time. Did some buoncy drills, and more or less just got to play around. My favorite was trying to do the upside down Budha.

Next session I think we we're doing a CESA! oh my!

Having fun!
Jason

 

[OE2X]

Jason,
Sounds like everything is going well. Good for you. It gets even better when you go out for a real dive. Pretty funny about the OOA. I wish everyone were so polite...

 

[rachelscott51]

I'll put my two cents in for Discount Divers. They do NAUI and PADI (depending on the month) and they are located on the Queen Anne side of the Fremont Bridge in Seattle. They also have a good website www.discountdivers.com and sell used gear pretty cheap. It's where I got certified.

 

[JasonH20]

I'll put my two cents in for Discount Divers. They do NAUI and PADI (depending on the month) and they are located on the Queen Anne side of the Fremont Bridge in Seattle. They also have a good website www.discountdivers.com and sell used gear pretty cheap. It's where I got certified.

Hehe, thanks for the recomendation, but I sudder at the thought of driving from Redmond to Queen Anne after work to catch my class!

 

[dlndavid]

Hey sounds like you our having fun...upside down budda? I can't understand the need for practicing that position anyhow, unless you want to practice yoga at depth.
So your LDS doesn't have wet suits for you to wear while getting certified, mine did, but the weather was hot so we got in the water to cool off. A 7 mil suit and 80 deg F can get pretty uncomfortable out of the water.
No fair about correcting your header, it was funny at LSD.
David

 

[JasonH20]

Probably should have started another thread for my "progress reports", but I guess I'll keep them here for now?

So last night we learned the diving tables. Fairly easy stuff, but now I really see the advantage of Nitrox for doing multiple dives. Among other things, the instructor would put up some hypothetical dive profiles and we'd have to figure the the minimum surface intervals to make it work. Try to do a few deep dives and you'd end up with 5/6 hour intervals! eek!

Pool session was a bunch of the same drills as before, except now it was all at 15' rather than in the shallow end. The eye opener for me though was the OOA drill. I was the OOA, my buddy helped me to the surface, and then I had to manually inflate the BC. Took the reg out of my mouth to start blowing and promptly sucked in a mouthfull of pool water! For a second I got the OMG feeling as I started to sink back down, but bobbed back up, coughed out the water, and inflated the BC without further excitement. I can see why so many accidents occur at the surface.

Thinking back, my theory is my brain was still in "scuba mode" which lets me override instincts and breath while submerged. The reg came out, but subconsciously I still thought it was OK to breath with my mouth below the surface? I grew up on a lake, and even with all the horsing around I've done in the water, can't remember the last time I sucked some down like last night.

We ended the night with a CESA....... from 5 feet! Basically we were suppose to swim horizontally for as far as we could while humming and then surface. Next week we get to do it from the deep end, which should be more exciting!

At the end of class the instructor let me try it out his gear for 5 minutes. His reg was awesome compared to the rental stuff. I think it was a SP Mark 25 (or something like that). Very nice. BC was easier too. It inflated in back rather than in front which made it much easier to stay horizontal in the water. With the rental equipment, if I relax my feet always start to sink pretty quickly. It wasn't nearly as noticable with his BC.

On more week to OW!
Jason

 

[JasonH20]

Hey sounds like you our having fun...upside down budda? I can't understand the need for practicing that position anyhow, unless you want to practice yoga at depth.
So your LDS doesn't have wet suits for you to wear while getting certified, mine did, but the weather was hot so we got in the water to cool off. A 7 mil suit and 80 deg F can get pretty uncomfortable out of the water.
No fair about correcting your header, it was funny at LSD.
David

Yea, are instructor can be quite humerous. During the "free time" he shows off a bunch of different poses and holds them steady in the water.

Actually last night we wore the hoods for the dry suites for the first time. I guess they're not joking when they say you loose the most heat from your head. I wasn't cold at all last night with just the hood on!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Jason, sounds like you're in an awesome class!

After you're certified, and before you go out and purchase a BC and reg, let's get together and I'll let you try out some gear.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)