After assessing the PADSI AOW and SSI options I chose to do SSI Deep Diver & Nitrox. This gave me the quickest route to 40m (130 ft) dives and extended time shallower dives.
I found the SSI courses really enjoyable. Bearing in mind that I have been diving for less than a year and only took my OW 4 months ago I am well pleased. If 5 months ago, just before my OW anybody had suggested that before the end of the year I would go inside wrecks at 30 + m I would have said “no way, not ever, just the though of it scared me, but now I am really glad I have done it.
I will not bother discussing the nitrox course because I assume most are familiar with it.
The deep dive course focussed on buoyancy, gas consumption management, ascent and decent rate control and narcosis effects.
The instructor was a very accomplished diver. He could hover in mid water without reference to within a few inches or hover just of the bottom without touching it whilst doing tasks. He had a very compact well tucked in twin tank, wing and backplate set up, the value of which I came to appreciate during the dives. I was on 12L tank of nitrox 32. I did 4 dives with him for the qualification and 2 after. All the dives were from a boat, wreck dives at just over 29 to 32m.
Visibility was not good, we were on torches from as little as 15m at times and down by the side of the wrecks it could be down to 2m with a torch. Inside the wrecks sometimes when only 1 to 1.5 m apart unless he shone his torch at me I could not even tell where he was. Just to add to the fun there was a reasonable current at the surface, potentially aggressive triggerfish and scorpion fish around and in the wrecks which were covered in sharp shellfish and had jagged metal edges.
We swam very close to the seabed along wrecks where the inclined hulls were above us, this was to practice buoyancy in an overhead environment. We would then go into the wrecks and work our way through compartments, along passages, through holes, hatches, stairways etc. I could only just fit through some of the holes, they were narrower than me and even with my shoulders drawn in I was rubbing both sides, at the same time I had only a few inches under me and my tank nearly scraping. I bumped and cut my head several times. I had to get my breathing / buoyancy spot on to align with the holes so I could just drift through. One of the wrecks was inclined at about 45 degrees and had hatches of the sort you have to step over the bottom, duck your head and turn sideways to get through even when the ship is at its normal position on the surface. Incline these hatches at 45 degrees, reduce visibility and they are a tricky to get through. I had visions of knocking my primary reg off and flying round like a deflating balloon but it never happened. Even after six dives I had never even scratched my reg but had bumped the tank several times and put a number of scratches in the face of my new dive computer. There were other places where we went into a room or shaft and then used slight positive buoyancy by inhaling to rise through them instead of finning which could stir up silt. As our gas ran down we moved higher up the wreck swimming between and under obstructions on the deck. The aim being to move gently and accurately.
At one stage I thought I had been bitten / injected by something poisonous. I felt a sudden pain in my middle finger and looking at it there was what looked like black smoke tinged with green pouring from it. I could see this part of my finger was black inside and thinking it was poison I squeezed it until the blackness disappeared. When I released the pressure the black and green smoke started again. I then realised the black and green smoke was blood coming from a large flap of skin. This would be at about 24m so it brought home to me what colour distortion can occur at that depth.
From the way you describe the dives you didn’t have a good instructor, but a show-off. To be entering enclosed spaces without lines and other redundant equipment is foolhardy, at best. But in your case, it appears irresponsible as it has left you with the impression these type of dives can be done without the proper training, preparation or equipment.
On Nitrox 32 you were near the MOD for that mix. I don’t like riding the line. At 32m the extra time isn’t much use as the gas in a 12Lt is your limiting factor; either that or you incurred mandatory deco without the, again, training and equipment.
Malta is one place in the world I wouldn’t deviate from training standards because of their ‘stringent’ laws on recreational diving.