Nitrox Now or Later

[Genesis]

another dollar in.

It ain't about what you know, what you've done, or what you can demonstrate - its all about selling courses.

Sigh...

 

[Zept]

grunzster said...
Can you do some of dives that count towards AOW without doing the whole class? Although I want to hold on AOW, it seems there are some classes that count towards AOW that would make sese to take now (Peak Performance Buoyancy, Underwater Navigator)

My buddy and I did exactly what you suggest: PPB and Nav shortly after our OW course, then Deep and Multilevel a couple of months later when we were more confident. I finished the course by doing Drift while I was on holiday, and did Night as an extra dive later on. Altogether it took me six months to do six dives.

I thought we got better value from the course by spreading out the dives. I've seen lots of people go through it in a weekend, but it always seems a bit rushed. We were able to focus on a couple of dives, do them, think about them, go off and practise, and then start the cycle again. Worked for me, anyway.

Zept

 

[AquaTec]

its all about paying for courses with PADI

why would it be wrong to teach a Drysuit, wreck and Nitrox course all as one combination.

the reason, it is against standards

the reason, seperate courses means more money

 

[otter-cat]

AquaTec once bubbled...
its all about paying for courses with PADI

why would it be wrong to teach a Drysuit, wreck and Nitrox course all as one combination.

Although I agree that PADI sets up a lot of the things that they do to make more money by teaching more courses, and that their profit-driven philosophies sometimes are at odds with improving diver education, I do think it is a good idea to keep training dives for various specialties separate from each other.

I would not want to have a student working on controlling their buoyancy with a drysuit at the same time as they are doing a wreck training dive. That could be disastrous. If each dive is separate, focusing on developing one set of skills at a time, it is safer as the student is less likely to get overloaded, and can concentrate on the skill they are learning. There are some combinations that might be OK, for example using nitrox while working on other skills underwater, but not at a depth anywhere close to MOD, so that if the student is distracted by working on their other skills, and forgets to watch their depth, there is no chance of them accidentally exceeding the MOD for their nitrox mix. When doing a deep dive (especially for the first time, as in a deep dive for AOW or the deep dive specialty course) it would be unwise to task load the student with other unfamiliar things. I think it might be OK in some circumstances to combine underwater nav with night diving, since visibility is lower in most places at night, but then again, for a student's first night dive they may very likely be apprehensive, and adding other skills to the mix might make the whole thing much more stressful, which in turn might make panic more likely.

If you are doing training in a particular specialty, I think it is almost always best to work on only a few new skills at a time. Add other skills on other dives.

 

[Genesis]

depends on where you're trained.

In my case, "deep" was a joke.

I mean, ok, my computer registered "more" than it has before. But we did that ON PURPOSE. Was I really any deeper? No; I don't usually stick my computer in the sand just to get the deepest possible reading from it

Within a week of having my C-card I was doing 80' profiles and had zero trouble with it. Then again we did our certs in 57 feet - just under the "maximum" the agencies call "ok" for their certifications.

Since there's like one or two things you can do around here without exceeding that 60' barrier, guess how fast you break it after you get certified? Yep....

Anyway, there's no "immediate answer" to the question "what do you know" after you dive for a while with your cert. You might only dive on vacation, and be REAL rusty in a few years. You also might dive a few times a week, and be quite competent in a few months, to the point that the so-called "AOW" poses little of a challenge or learning experience in any way. Or you might be somewhere in the middle....