Learning to dive in a Spring vs a pool

[The Chairman]

Most, but not all of the shops utilizing springs for the OW dives will be using a pool prior to driving to their favorite spring. There are a ton of springs in FLorida which offer depths in excess of 20 ft, so I wouldn't worry about the quality of your experience.

As an instructor, unless the student will be confining themselves to fresh water diving, I prefer to do the first two dives in a spring (like Alexander Springs) and then trot out to the ocean for the final two dives. This way you get a mix of the diving available here in our beautiful state.

 

[ScubaTodd77]

My OW consisted of 6 weeks. We went through a lot of stuff, that included some rescue techniques such as dealing with an unconscious diver, out of air situations (an assistant instructor would sneak up behind us and turn our valves off and then we would have to signal out of air and either buddy breath, or utilize an octo etc). We did two dives in the gulf and two dives in the springs, and we all felt very comfortable with our equipment by then....I would stick to the pool and get comfortable with all the drills and equipment before doing an open water dive, even in a spring....my two cents

 

[Chris Horn]

I took a 6 week course (1 day a week) that consisted of all pool lessons (3' shelf for learning, 12' depth for application), then on the cert dive we went to a local lake (I live in MO), on day one we did a snorkle course, a skills dive, and a shallow dive (all done in like 15' of water). On day two we did our compass usage, and tired diver tows, then went on a deeper dive to about 30 feet so that everyone could get a quick feel of the "colder" layer of water.....then we fed the fish hotdogs...that was worth the whole trip. hehe... I felt good about our training though. We got (still get) unlimited pool usage. I dive a couple times a month in the pool as its close and when I get off work early its easy to swing in and jump in.