Need Advice on my Novice Training (15 dives) to my next 100 Dives and Certs?

[napDiver]

Background
I'm a novice planning my dive training/experience and would like some advice.

Funny, after my AOW, I realized how incompetent I was when I watched my buddy fail and bail to the surface during FFM don & clear skill. At that point, I realized if something happened to myself or my buddy, we were grossly unprepared to take care of ourselves or each other. I believe for my amount of training and dives I'm above average, but still completely incompetent.

My Experience
I have PADI AOW (for Deep, Navigation, Wreck, Peak Performance Buoyancy, FFM). I live in California, my 15 dives have all been via shore. Most of them are Catalina - Casino Point. A couple shore dives at Laguna Beach - Shaw's Cove and San Diego - La Jolla - Dive Park/Canyon.

My Competency
i) Equipment - I own all my gear except tanks. I would say I'm competent with understanding, using, maintaining my gear. If I have a problem, I can probably figure out what I need to trade to maintain my dive but not open equipment or replace o-rings.
ii) Buoyancy - I'd say I'm barely competent under 30 ft and calm/light current. I'm incompetent above ~15-25 ft, especially if there is a current/surge.
iii) SAC - I'm completely incompetent. I haven't met a person who has a higher SAC than myself.
iv) Propulsion - I'm terrible. I have a terrible flutter kick and that's about it.
v) Physical - I'm probably about 2 standard deviations above average in physical fitness.
vi) Any other skills or category I'm probably incompetent.

Training Plan
To be honest, after my experience, I could care less about a certification card. I feel like they are just introductions and do not take you to where I feel someone would be considered competent. I really care about developing my skills/experience/thinking to become the best diver I can. I'm open to doing anything to develop my skills: different training organizations, practice sessions, reading, etc.

I'm currently planning on how I'm going to the best diver I can be by the end of 2019. I'm trying to optimize for time and money when I can.
- During this time in my life, I'm going to live in Thailand for 3.5 months - Suggestions for other certs, where to dives, type of dives, how to cheaply dive in Thailand, etc?
- @Thailand, Planning on hitting 100 dives (probably will mostly be boat diving)
- @Thailand, Planning on getting PADI Self-Sufficient Diver Cert
- Considering PADI Deep Water Specialist - I do not know yet approximately when I get hit with narcosis and how I react. - Should I do it? Should I go with a different organization or program?
- Considering doing the LA County Advanced Diver Program (LAC) for 2019 - Worth it if I have 100 dives and self-sufficient diver? If I don't do it, where should I learn my Rescue/Search&Rescure?
- Vacation in Australia - Great Barrier Reef in September 2019 - Any Suggestions? I don't know if this allows me to learn any unique skills other than just building up more experience.
- Diving in Southern California Training - Any Suggestions for different type of dives, locations, how to minimize cost?
- During each dive, @ 15 ft safety stop I will be practicing a skill each time to increase competency
- Books, I have books on scuba equipment, starting scuba, and solo diving. - Any Recommendations
- Finally, Anything else you want to say, please advise.

THANKS FOR YOUR TIME!

 

[runsongas]

take fundies at hollywood divers to sort out your kicks and buoyancy. pick up nitrox as needed for if you do liveaboards or extended dive days with 3+ dives. then go dive outside of classes.

 

[yle]

Training Plan
To be honest, after my experience, I could care less about a certification card. I feel like they are just introductions and do not take you to where I feel someone would be considered competent. I really care about developing my skills/experience/thinking to become the best diver I can. I'm open to doing anything to develop my skills: different training organizations, practice sessions, reading, etc.

You are 100% correct. Getting a scuba cert card is like getting a driver's license: you have just been introduced to the basics and are by no means a competent driver / diver. Exactly what you said. Now comes the fun part: just dive dive dive, get lots of experience. Be conservative and don't rush it (just like gaining experience driving.)

I'm currently planning on how I'm going to the best diver I can be by the end of 2019. I'm trying to optimize for time and money when I can... - Diving in Southern California Training - Any Suggestions for different type of dives, locations, how to minimize cost?

Beach diving in Laguna or La Jolla is about as great a value I've found. My go-to spot to take OW students is Crescent Bay, which is right next to Shaw's in Laguna. Free parking, easy beach entry (comparatively speaking), and a fantastic reef structure with lots of life extending from 15 to 60 feet deep. Cost? Rent a tank. Of course if you get in the habit of doing this regularly, you should look into picking up a tank so you just pay for an air fill instead. If you're patient, you can probably find used AL80's on Craigslist for $60 or so.

Other than that, I have three bits of advice that I share with all my new students:

1. If you get the chance, take a trip and get in a lot of dives. Two or three dives a day for five or six days will do wonders for your skill development, just because everything you learn on a dive will be reinforced right away on the next dives. You don't need to be too ambitious either... keep it simple, find a place (you mentioned Thailand...) that can just take you for nice normal dives.

2. Focus on fixing the couple things (buoyancy and propulsion) that mentioned. It blows my mind that you could have exited OW class, let alone AOW, with the kind of buoyancy problems you describe, but what's done is done. Buoyancy control takes practice. So practice it... focus on learning how your breathing affects your buoyancy, how much a deep inhale makes you buoyant and how much a deep exhale makes you negative. Once you learn that, you can quickly progress to controlling your buoyancy with your breathing. Practice...

3. Join a scuba club. Power Scuba is active in the San Diego & LA area (as well as on Scubaboard.) Google the name to find the club website. They do a lot of La Jolla beach diving as well as boat trips out of Mission Bay in San Diego and San Pedro/Long Beach. The club encourages new divers to join and on most of their boat trips you'll find a range of divers from newly certified to been diving since before water existed. A lot can be learned from hanging around with divers that have been diving for decades (they must be doing something right if they're still diving...)

Hope this helps!

 

[yle]

Background

My Competency
i) Equipment - I own all my gear except tanks. I would say I'm competent with understanding, using, maintaining my gear. If I have a problem, I can probably figure out what I need to trade to maintain my dive but not open equipment or replace o-rings.
ii) Buoyancy - I'd say I'm barely competent under 30 ft and calm/light current. I'm incompetent above ~15-25 ft, especially if there is a current/surge.
iii) SAC - I'm completely incompetent. I haven't met a person who has a higher SAC than myself.
iv) Propulsion - I'm terrible. I have a terrible flutter kick and that's about it.
v) Physical - I'm probably about 2 standard deviations above average in physical fitness.
vi) Any other skills or category I'm probably incompetent.

Just read through your post again, and something about your self-eval struck me. And it prompted another bit of advice:

Diving is not a competitive endeavor. Make sure you take time to enjoy it. While it's good to identify skills that need improvement, if you're constantly criticizing everything you do... you will likely get so wrapped up in finding your faults that you'll forget to just enjoy the experience.

For what it's worth, I've met plenty of people that have a higher SAC than you. Maybe you just haven't met too many divers yet!

I guarantee that by the time you do your 25th dive, you'll notice a big difference from where you are now. And when you do your 50th dive you'll look back on this post and laugh at how "incompetent" you thought you were.

As for additional training... I would suggest you wait until you have more experience, maybe 40 to 50 dives total. Just my opinion, others will agree or disagree with me. I think you'll get more benefit from additional training after you have a bit more experience.

 

[PatW]

I am not sure what you mean about buoyancy. Buoyancy is still clear water is one thing. Buoyancy in turbid water with surge and large swells is something else altogether. Diving in southern Cal is pretty challenging... large swells, low visibility, and cold. If you dive in the Caribbean, it is a world of difference.

I don’t see rescue on your list. It is an excellent course. If you plan to continue diving, I highly recommend it.

 

[GJC]

I suggest you:

1-Find a pool you can use to practice buoyancy in. Do mask and reg switches while maintaining 5 ft depth and 10 ft depth.

2-Join a club and find a mentor.

3-Get more dives done in shallow good conditions before taking more courses.

4-Give the full face mask a rest until you get your buoyancy and skills down.

5-Take a rescue course after you have done the above.

 

[Scubagolf]

Talk to Steve Millington @ LA Scuba about GUE Primer.

GUE Primer Course - Global Underwater Explorers (GUE) :: L.A. SCUBA DIVING - Professional Scuba Instruction Los Angeles

 

[lamarpaulski]

Dive a lot. Turn 15 dives to 50. Keep self-criticism going. Try different gear configurations. Use a light. Navigate. Work on buoyancy and relaxing. It’s good to do a 3 day dive trip (Catalina) ? and mix practice with fun.

Then think next certificate /training. You may find Thailand pretty easy after Calif shore dives.

 

[txgoose]

I think that the pool advice is great stuff. The shallow water make it pretty dang tough to work on buoyancy. BUT it also gives you a ton of time to work on your skills. And for my pool it is $10 with a tank-o-air. I will tell you from my similar experience that your SAC will drop significantly when you are able to quiet your sculling and maintain depth with simple breath control. It takes time. And can be boring as sin if you aren't committed to the work. But it has helped me immensely. I have done probably hundreds of laps forward. It is not a big pool. Probably 60-80 laps backwards (a new exercise). Untold numbers of helicopter turns. It feels pretty rewarding when you stop using your hands. That isn't to brag that I have done tricks in the pool. It is to clarify that two weekends ago was the first time in 18+ months of diving that I entertained the thought that I might be getting my trim in check. Work is work, and I needed it. Cheap, cost effective, and productive.

 

[RainPilot]

There are few training tools with as much bang-for-buck as a focused pool session. If you can get someone with you that knows what they are doing to critique and help with the parts you can't see (video is amazingly useful) then it turns into a great investment.