PADI OW Passed - What next?

[Edward3c]

Hi @Des P welcome to our fantastic underwater world.

Have a look at our club finder, there are a few BSAC clubs in, and around, London.

As a club member you get your training free, but pay for training materials. Or you can continue to train with PADI, your choice. If you do join a BSAC club then do the crossover course for Sports Diver, that will give you Nitrox, rescue, navigation, dive leading, assistant dive manager all part of the core syllabus.

 

[KenGordon]

Thanks for all replies.

Marie13 - I've done that a few times already and I tend to do it every 3 months or so. I feel very comfortable in the pool and I constantly do drills like no mask swim, regulator recovery, safe ascent, etc. However, I don't feel any pressure there as the pool is just 3 meters deep so it's always at the back of my mind that no matter what happens I can surface safely (never holding breath ofc) but I'm not so used to 15+ meters in open sea.

When you say “club” do you really mean a pool session run by a shop? A genuine club, a branch of BSAC, the SAA or ScotSAC, will be trying to get you diving in the U.K. to fill spaces on boats rather than trying to sell holidays. In London there are several large BSAC branches (eg http://www.hellfins.com/, Clidive.org, Bermondsey (my branch)). The point of a club is to enable diving, get people together as buddies and generally have advice and information. If it tries to sell you stuff it is not a club but a shop. The club on the side of a shop is a common thing but a bit of a con often, providing upselling opportunities.

if you join an actual club they’d want you to do BSAC Sports Diver, learn to use a drysuit and get out on boats as often as possible. The have fees of the order of £150 to £300 per year which pays for pool hire, training kit maintenance and purchase and covers empty spaces on boats (we burned £300 that way on Sunday) or the cost of owning a boat,

in your specific case, of being apparently qualified but only having done shallow dives in easy conditions, the plan would be to do a few local lake dives as somewhere like Wraysbury or Stoney Cove and then get you on easy trips suitable for Ocean Divers - we regularly go to Pembrokeshire, St Abbs, and sometimes aim for shallow depths out of Brighton.

Clubs are specialists in taking non divers and making actual divers. There is more to diving than a plastic card. Because the relationship is a long term one, rather than here today gone tomorrow, and because the club needs to retain members it has to look after people and not scare them.

If you turn up at some commercial holiday resort they will try to fit you in with the dives that are happening. Those will be to whichever sites are popular and most spectacular, they might be deeper (see all the arguments on here about how deep a OW diver can go to) than comfortable for you and the result may be quite unpleasant if you are worried by the depth.

if you don’t want to join a club then maybe call Wraysbury and do a drysuit course and then some of their “new diver deal” guided dives. Just to get some time in, then maybe do AOW. Another option would be to do a bunch of one to one guided dives in Malta. Ring up dive centres and have a full and frank conversation.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I would recommend taking GUE fundamentals as your next course as soon as possible. This course will give you a solid foundation for recreational skills. You can find instructors who will match the quality of instruction, but they are hard to come by.

Here's a list of GUE instructors in the UK that teach fundamentals. GUE Instructors

 

[Wibble]

Find a club. Go diving. Do it regularly.

Get enough experience to go diving in the sea. Wraysbury really isn't that pleasant; great for training but diving is a lot better than a murky lake.

Living in London, you've easy access to the south coast. We've thousands of wrecks and tremendous sea life. You will need a drysuit.

Being blunt, you're better off with a good BSAC club (that's one that goes diving regularly, has a lot of active members, has their own RIB and has plenty of instructors and mentors available). A problem with some "clubs" is they tend to just meet over a beer -- NATO (No Action, Talk Only) -- wonderful stories of diving abroad, but not going out in UK waters.

You'll need to get yourself some kit. The drysuit's personal; you may be able to find a second-hand one that fits. Other stuff you need will be the regulators, basics like mask, fins, etc., SMB + reel. A cylinder can be good (definitely second-hand!), but you need to have somewhere to fill it and it must be in test.

I would recommend taking GUE fundamentals as your next course as soon as possible. This course will give you a solid foundation for recreational skills. You can find instructors who will match the quality of instruction, but they are hard to come by.

Here's a list of GUE instructors in the UK that teach fundamentals. GUE Instructors

You left off your smiley face. Fundies is good, but not until you've got some experience otherwise Findies is a horrible experience.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

You left off your smiley face. Fundies is good, but not until you've got some experience otherwise Findies is a horrible experience.

I disagree. Having ingrained bad habits and having to break them is a horrible experience.

Wish I took fundies right after OW. One of my OW/AOW students took fundies at 20-ish dives, earned T1 certification after 2 years/230 dives. Establishing a solid skills foundation early is important IMO.

 

[Wibble]

I disagree. Having ingrained bad habits and having to break them is a horrible experience.

Wish I took fundies right after OW. One of my OW/AOW students took fundies at 20-ish dives, earned T1 certification after 2 years/230 dives. Establishing a solid skills foundation early is important IMO.

In danger of going off topic...

I don't disagree and thoroughly recommend Fundies, but you must have some experience before doing it. If you don't, it's incredibly frustrating because you don't have the buoyancy control to hold your stops during the never-ending drills. Struggling with basic finning too.

Those skills need practice; let the new diver get into the water and understand more about what's going on before they're taken into the world of high standards and endless drills. Otherwise Fun dies.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

because you don't have the buoyancy control to hold your stops during the never-ending drills. Struggling with basic finning too.

YES!!!!!!!

In my fundies course weighting was the start. Getting that nailed down is critical. Being able to hover motionless is key. After that is achieved then move onto finning.

Those skills need practice; let the new diver get into the water and understand more about what's going on before they're taken into the world of high standards and endless drills. Otherwise Fun dies.

What you describe does not reflect my experience with fundies. I'm not a GUE instructor but that is the approach I take when teaching OW. Once I developed the program I teach, I believe this is achievable.

 

[Vitesse2l]

It seems to be that fundies after OW is often recommended by US members. In the UK it's doesn't seem to be that way. Just my understanding.

OP - nothing like regular diving for getting comfortable and being ready for the holiday destinations! Have fun.

 

[johnkendall]

It seems to be that fundies after OW is often recommended by US members. In the UK it's doesn't seem to be that way. Just my understanding.

OP - nothing like regular diving for getting comfortable and being ready for the holiday destinations! Have fun.

Absolutely no problems with taking Fundamentals as a new OW diver. I've had many students who are in that kind of bracket. You won't necessarily pass straight off the bat on a 4 day class, but diving skill, comfort and confidence will all improve and give a great foundation to build future diving on.
What I will say though is if you want to dive the UK, then a drysuit is almost mandatory, and it needs to be a good, correctly fitting drysuit otherwise it'll just cause you problems.

HTH
John

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Absolutely no problems with taking Fundamentals as a new OW diver. I've had many students who are in that kind of bracket. You won't necessarily pass straight off the bat on a 4 day class, but diving skill, comfort and confidence will all improve and give a great foundation to build future diving on.

Bingo. The focus should be on skills improvement. And there is a great network of GUE divers that will help others with practicing skills so that they achieve their dive goals.