Question Options for OW Course

[Billg68bg]

Looking to get open water certified soon.
I primarily want to dive in warmer waters on trips abroad to places such as Florida/Australia/Red Sea/Canary Islands.
Obviously I can do a course in these locations.
Where I live (Scotland, cold water) there is an excellent dive centre.
If I go there, it will be using a drysuit.
Since I'm unlikely to do much diving here is it worth getting certified using a drysuit?
Thoughts?
Thanks

I did my written stuff through elearning at home and did my pool and OW dives on vacation. Just bear in mind, it does take up some vacation time. May be a factor if traveling with a nondiving companion.

 

[OMyMyOHellYes]

Plenty of what looks like Orcas swimming off local beach some mornings

Lots of folks here down south like fried Okra.

 

[mrdee]

You might want to consider doing your OW dives in a warm water location.
An alternative would be an open water referral where you do the pool dives locally and complete the open water dives in a warmer location

 

[Lorenzoid]

The OW course presents an opportunity to see what local diving is like, and to challenge yourself with a drysuit (hire/rent one for the course). As others have said, if you can dive in cold water with a drysuit, you can dive anywhere. I don't agree with the analogy upthread that learning to dive in challenging conditions with a drysuit when you really only want to dive clear tropical waters is like learning to fly a helicopter when you really want to fly a plane. If you take the OW course locally, you will learn exactly the same things as you would if you were to take the course in, say, the Red Sea, except that you will also learn to handle the drysuit and to be more aware of your environment (due to lower visibility, etc.). The drysuit and need to be more situationally aware add what we refer to as "task loading"--more things to juggle simultaneously. Any type of task loading is good training. When you later dive in tropical waters and find yourself less task loaded, it will feel like a piece of cake. The bonus is that you may actually find you enjoy the local diving and go back for more at some point. You may even catch the rusty metal bug and find yourself drawn to world-famous Scapa. Who knows.

 

[Scuba Pilot777]

The OW course presents an opportunity to see what local diving is like, and to challenge yourself with a drysuit (hire/rent one for the course). As others have said, if you can dive in cold water with a drysuit, you can dive anywhere. I don't agree with the analogy upthread that learning to dive in challenging conditions with a drysuit when you really only want to dive clear tropical waters is like learning to fly a helicopter when you really want to fly a plane. If you take the OW course locally, you will learn exactly the same things as you would if you were to take the course in, say, the Red Sea, except that you will also learn to handle the drysuit and to be more aware of your environment (due to lower visibility, etc.). The drysuit and need to be more situationally aware add what we refer to as "task loading"--more things to juggle simultaneously. Any type of task loading is good training. When you later dive in tropical waters and find yourself less task loaded, it will feel like a piece of cake. The bonus is that you may actually find you enjoy the local diving and go back for more at some point. You may even catch the rusty metal bug and find yourself drawn to world-famous Scapa. Who knows.

Thanks Lorenzoid, you make some good points.

 

[rick00001967]

Point taken, but ...

Flying helicopters is harder than fixed-wing A/C, but I never, ever, ever want to get on a helicopter (they don't really fly), so why would I train in one if all I ever wanted to fly is fixed-wing AC?

(pendantic curve: "fixed-wing" does not imply that the wings were broken, just that they are fixed in place and don't move much within the flight envelope).

in fairness i dont think that is a fair comparison

diving is diving. flying a heli vs. an airplane are two different things.

when learning in cold it takes more gear, tends to have lower viz, typically has a higher gas consumption rate, and takes a bit more focus on gear skills etc due to having a hood and heavy gloves on.

but the skills are the same.

we find that many of our divers that do their ow dives with us, report back that they found the tropics diving to be much simpler and less stressful. but the skills were the same.

maybe we should compare learning to fly an airplane in normal conditions to learning with boxing gloves on, a hockey helmet with face mask, and one eye patch on in a blizzard

 

[Scuba Pilot777]

Thanks to all who replied.
I think I'll do my course here in the drysuit, as it gives options for diving locally. Snorkelled one of the sites yesterday and would have liked to dive it.
Cheers

 

[Scuba Pilot777]

Thought I would update this thread.
After months of faff running around getting medical cert sorted, I finally got to do my OW course.
Did it at home in our cold local conditions and also got drysuit cert as part of the package.
Having done some try dives in warm waters, it was definitely more challenging doing the course here. Dive centre were brilliant, course was thorough and well instructed.
So as of yesterday I'm now a certified diver inc drysuit.

 

[KenE]

You will now find that when vacation diving you will enjoy it much more. Less to task loading, warmer, and a better experience. Keep diving, the addiction only gets better!

 

[landphil]

Scotland has some spectacular cold water diving! It’s on my someday travel list along with Tasmania and British Columbia. It would be sad if you live there and never got to dive it.

Now is your chance to start connecting with local dive clubs and maybe schedule some guided ocean dives. Especially since this is the start of ocean diving season, with the kelp all growing back for the summer. You will be spoiled by the density, variety and scale of your marine life (obviously not by the comfortable water temperatures, though)