OW Course - Weight belt retrieval

[Babs-Would-Be-Diver]

Well, I PASSED the first part of OW and now have my referral card!

I did well on the exam but was beaten by 1 mark by a 14 year-old :-(

My experience of the PADI OW 3-day course.
The mask clearing, alternative air source sharing, freeflow regulator breathing; controlled emergency ascent swimming horizontally, swimming without mask, pivot fins and neutral buoyancy were fine - particularly the neutral buoyancy but I suppose doing 12 resort dives beforehand helped with that!

However, weight belt retrieval underwater.
I am left handed and it is not natural for me to release or hold the weight belt in my right hand so I did have a problem with the removal and replacement of the weight belt underwater. Including dropping the weight at one point by holding the belt from the non buckly end. Not clever. I then had to rethread it.

We did not practise this skill beforehand. We were just shown it and then asked to do it just once. No one else had a problem.

Threading the free end into the buckle with my right hand is hard for me. I did "pass" the skill because I did not panic and go to the surface but sorted myself out eventually underwater. It did take me about 3 minutes and some help to get it right. By January I will have saved up for my own BCD with integrated weights but for now will have to rely on hired stuff.

Our instructor was trying to give us instructions on the surface whilst 12 other people were practicing the rescue divers course involving a lot of shouting and screaming! (they were acting out a "divers in trouble" scenario). So I did find it difficult to understand the instructor sometimes and he got a bit impatient when I asked him to repeat it.

I am now really looking forward to the referral 4 OW dives. This will be with a divemaster I have gone out with before on resort dives and I feel fairly confident. However, I will be asking him to review my skills on the scuba unit, weight belt retrieval etc. We are in touch by email at the moment.

I think that the 3-day PADI intense course doesn't really prepare you properly. This is just a personal opinion. I am fortunate in that I had practised buoyancy and quite a lot of the skills on my various resort dives and felt relaxed in the water. Even after my buddy and I passed the test on the alternative air source sharing and pool "ascent" (horizontally) we asked to do it again several times to make sure we really did know what we were doing. Again the instructor said we didn't have time. However,at the end of the pool session the other instructor who was assisting let my buddy and I run through it a few times and we felt a lot happier.

Anyway, happy diving to everyone and I am going to start saving the pennies for an integrated BCD - and also lose another 2 stone in weight.

Babs

 

[Damselfish]

congrats! WI BCs can be nice, but note that if you are diving cold water, you may be using more weight than you can put in it. So you might still need to use some weight on a belt (though there are other places to put weight too.) If you are using a regular weight belt, weight keepers are a good thing to have to keep weights from sliding around or off. They hardly ever have them on rentals but they're cheap so you might want to get some if you will be using a weight belt. (Here's an example - http://www.leisurepro.com/Prod/AQUWSS.html)

Another trick to accomplish the same thing is to thread the belt through one weight slot, make a half twist, then thread it through the other slot (making sure the funny bumps you get this way are on the outside.) Yet another option is a weight belt with pockets to put individual weights in.

You're far from alone in thinking a 3 day course isn't enough.

 

[Babs-Would-Be-Diver]

Wow, an instant reply just like that. I am impressed with this board.

Thanks for the advice Damselfish, I will certainly look into this. My dive centre (land based) is only 10 minutes from where I live so I will go to the shop next weekend and see if they have the same.

don't get me wrong, the 3 day course was definitely worth it for me and I understand a lot more about the theory now. I got 47/50 on the exam so not too bad. It was also good to practise my practical skills and get more confidence. But 4 hours a day in the pool over two days is a lot of work although fun. I could have slept for a week afterwards. I just feel that if this had been my first introduction to diving I would have not felt confident. When I do qualify there is no way I am diving without a Divemaster. I am keen to do night diving once i have some more experience.

Still 3 weeks to go before my OW referral!!

Babs

 

[plwtwo]

Babs- Congrats--but I hope your Divemaster is really an Instructor, so they can do your OW referral checkout. If the weight belt is the only thing you had a problem with you'll do fine. GOOD LUCK. and welcome to the DIVING WORLD

 

[sasscuba]

Congrats!

 

[Babs-Would-Be-Diver]

Hi

To plw2, thanks for your concern but yes, he is a qualified instructor, sorry to have been misleading. I also checked up on him through my friend who owns the resort he works at and he is cool. When I was emailing the various instructors that I knew he was the only one that told me off for diving to 60-70 feet on my last resort dive, which wasn't with him!!

Thanks everyone for their encouraging comments and I will report back in one months time.

B

 

[lil sis]

I too think the 3 day course wasn't very good. I was the only one in my class w/ a weight belt but

 

[lil sis]

I did really good. About the 14 year old comment I beat alot of people in my class on the test and I was 14.

 

[Babs-Would-Be-Diver]

lil sis, well done! I wasn't moaning about the 14 year old, honestly! Actually I was buddied up with him and I wonder what he thought about ME. At the end of the pool session we practised the aternative air source shared swim until we felt confident as both of us felt that, even though we had "passed" we needed more time to do this properly.

I think the weight belt with pockets might be the way to go for me. I will look into this and do some more practice before my referral.

I have also been in touch with my referral instructor via email about the Controlled Emergency Ascent. My instructor on the OW 1st part suggested that I check that they have the right thickness of line for safety to stop my ascent if I start going up too fast. My referral instructor assures me that they have this!

Thanks everyone.

 

[underachiever]

I am still new to diving so I do not have all the answers but here is my $.02. You will (or should) still work on skills in your checkout dives and your instructor will evaluate your skills before they sign off on your cert. If you are still a little unsure about some skills then see if you can get some additional pool time before you do your checkout dives. My wife and I went through class together and went back to the pool 3 times between our class and the CO dives. We worked on many things as she was having a little trouble with the mask removable but by the end of the second extra pool session she had it down. Then we worked on bouancy and kicking, air sharing and signals. It was very helpful. Our LDS has its own pool and allows free pool time for practice.