New to diving

[Jrob4449]

Yup

Yeah we will have to agree to disagree on that. Professionally , experience regardless of time will trump just general time with lack of experience of doing.

 

[formernuke]

Yeah we will have to agree to disagree on that. Professionally , experience regardless of time will trump just general time with lack of experience of doing.

Your right we will. You don't know what you don't know. I'm not the only one who told you it's not enough time.

But your not going to listen so hopefully you don't kill or injure someone because of your arrogance and ignorance.

 

[Seaweed Doc]

Yeah we will have to agree to disagree on that. Professionally , experience regardless of time will trump just general time with lack of experience of doing.

Experience is a strange thing. Doing the same dive 100 times is not the same as diving 100 times in multiple locations, with different goals, and with different groups of people.

In my neck of the woods you could dive a half dozen popular sites for a total of 100 dives, then try a different site not knowing details about it and, well, die.

If you dive 100 times with the same small group of people you know how they're going to react and may assume everybody is the same. You may assume local S.O.P. is global.

If you always dive in tropical or subtropical water, you may not be ready for the cold water diving. Or vice versa. (Ask me about how much lead I carried for years on vacations before somebody finally said "you idiot, you're overweighted." I knew what was good locally, and I knew I could drop some lead in the tropics, but never had time to really dial it in. I'll tell you about tropical divemasters who didn't have good situational awareness in my local murkier waters and created problems in classes I taught. )

If you're always diving coral reefs, are you ready for muck? If you only dive off a boat, can you do surf entries?

I suspect a part of the issue is that if you're getting to 100 dives quickly, you're not getting the diversity of experiences that you really need. I was lucky: My first 100 dives were primarily in cold murky water, but in both placid Puget Sound and high-current San Juan Islands of Washington State, USA. I also did beach dives in California and Hawai'i, and dove from boats large and small. (Mostly very small.) I got to do a bit of tropical diving in Mexico (Cozumel) and Belize as well. A lot of it was research diving, carrying equipment and collecting data. And after 100 dives I can guarantee you I wasn't ready to be a DM, though I ended up acting as one in a lot of situations since I had more experience than anybody else on the team.

 

[Rob9876]

Have skimmed through these posts, so maybe it's not been said, but in addition to the "100 of the same dive" concerns I'd say there are probably a good bit of people here (probably including myself, though I'm no dive pro) that think 100 dives is a pretty darn light requirement for the responsibilities of being a DM. However, that's what the dive agencies have settled on, and in fact any 18 year old with $2-3K can go from uncertified to Divemaster ("Zero to Hero") diving in only warm, clear water, in less than six weeks.

The good news for the OP (congrats on your OW cert!) is that the Atlanta area is actually in a very good location to get a variety of diving to broaden your experience, all within weekend driving distances:

• Lakes in the Atlanta area -- closest, and likely cheapest, just the cost of tank rental or air fills, but from what I hear fairly low viz and boat traffic can be a serious hazard, suggest only going with divers experienced with the specific lake;
• Quarries in Tennessee -- Less than a 3 hour drive (so day trips possible) and also a cheap option, there are a couple of quarries 30-45 minutes south of me (Knoxville) that Atlanta divers sometimes come up to dive/train in: Loch Lo Minn in Athens, TN and Philadelphia Quarry in Philadelphia, TN. Both are set up pretty nicely for training. Let me know if you need a buddy up here, and I'd be happy to dive with you. Quarries are good to dial in your buoyancy, get comfortable in the water (reducing air consumption), practice skills (SMB deployment, share-air, etc.), watch some freshwater fish, get some lower viz experience, all in an environment with no boaters to run you over or fishermen to snag you.
• Quarries in Alabama -- Blue Water Park in Pelham, AL and Dive Land Park in Glencoe, AL. I have not been to either yet.
• Myrtle Beach, SC -- 5-6 hours from Atlanta, you can get some experience diving ship wrecks in the Atlantic. Viz not the best, seems to be prone to weather cancelations, but some decent diving. These are mostly dives around artificial structures, descending down a mooring line, and not drift dives.
• Panama City, FL -- ~5 hours from Atlanta, Gulf diving = water is usually green with particulates and not great viz, however there are still interesting creatures to see and the entire FL panhandle has been sinking ships and reef modules like crazy, really going all in to make habitats interesting for divers and fishing. These are mostly dives around artificial structures, descending down a mooring line, and not drift dives. This can be said for (slightly farther) Destin and Pensacola also, and there are a number of shore diving opportunities all along the FL panhandle also.
• Florida cavern/cave diving starts about 5 hours away from Atlanta. Not really my thing, but if interesting to you be sure to go with qualified divers/instructors and stay within the limits of your training.
• A little more than 8 hours from Atlanta, you start to find generally blue water, usually good viz, real reef diving starting in Jupiter, FL and south of there along the SE Florida coast. These are mostly drift dives (so have your SMB skills ready),most dive profiles are perfect for Nitrox cert, and some dive ops require AOW cert, so those certs would be good to have prior or get on your trip.
• If you're down in SE Florida and look at the tide chart before a trip down there, you may be able to do boat trips in the morning, then just rent a tank for afternoon or night shore dives at Blue Heron Bridge (a fairly famous shore dive spot) and get some shore dive experience towing a flag float.

So, the OP does have a lot of options to do a variety of diving all within weekend driving distance. Be safe and have fun!