Pleasantly Humbled

[durian]

I am a university lecturer at a women's university in Seoul, Korea. Today was the first day of classes and I had all new students. The students were asking me questions about myself so they asked me about my hobbies. One student said that she heard I liked SCUBA diving. I stated that I quite enjoyed diving. A student about 21 years old raised her hand, stating that she also dived. We both took out our cards. I still had my AOW, as I have not received my RESCUE card yet. We exchanged cards. This little girl was an SDI Open Water Instructor with over 200 dives. I am RESCUE Diver with 16 dives. When it comes to diving, I am the baby. Whew, I was impressed. Can't wait to have some discussions with her.

I loved it!

 

[oceancrest67]

You live and you learn. Experiences of all kinds teach us something new everyday.

Sixteen dives...and you are now working on your Rescue certification? I hope things work out.

It does pay to rack up a bunch of diving while working on your certifications.

 

[Jeddah Aquanaut]

You live and you learn. Experiences of all kinds teach us something new everyday.

Sixteen dives...and you are now working on your Rescue certification? I hope things work out.

It does pay to rack up a bunch of diving while working on your certifications.

Obviously it's possible to do Rescue with 16 dives. Of course some people are just natural in the water. Confidence, after all, is of utmost importance. It's hard to tell what this diver's water background is, but I must agree that the best way to learn is by diving, diving, diving. I did my AOW at about 25 dives, Rescue at +/- 50, and DM at about 100. I currently have 203 under my weight belt, still a "babe" compared to my AOW instructor, who has over 1,000 in 7 years. Cheers!

 

[RIDIVER501]

People seem to forget it takes 25 years to get 25 years worth of experience. You can't pass all that experience to another through osmosis. And having a dive card doesn't gain you experience if you aren't out there diving.
I ran into a scuba student I had when I first became an inctructor in 95, she has been a diver for almost 10 years and has only logged 10 dives. My most recent DM candidate Has been diving for 2 years and has logged 350 dive, plus lots of pool time assisting with classes as part of his apprenticeship.

need I ask who is the more experienced diver?

 

[Mako Mark]

I think it is good to get the rescue training as early as possible. It can only make you a better diver, and imagine that you decided to wait and were involved in an incident or accident and hadnt got the training to resopnd to yet.

 

[DORSETBOY]

deff agree with Mark, just wish new divers were taught rescue skills earlier on but that's another story!...

 

[durian]

hmmm, I am a baby diver who is atill very much in diapers. Basically I get 4 months holiday and year and go to Thailand. My first trip I did my AOW with in Koh Samui, my second trip I did nothing. My third trip I did my AOW with an excellent school in Pattaya and on my fourth trip I did my RESCUE witht the same school in Pattaya (my RESCUE was not 3 days, it was 5 days in strong currents and bad weather.

My RESCUE Instructor had asked me how many fun dives I have been on? I replied that all of my dives were trainiong related. His reply was that I am doing it the hard way and need to do much more fun dives.

I have been diving less than a year.

 

[DORSETBOY]

My RESCUE Instructor had asked me how many fun dives I have been on? I replied that all of my dives were trainiong related. His reply was that I am doing it the hard way and need to do much more fun dives.

I have been diving less than a year.

Agreed, but I still feel that divers need to know rescue skills whatever their qual.. you can be an ow with a hundred dives but if the agency that teaches you doesn't teach rescue skills at ow level then you're not going to be able to do much to help your buddy. We practice our rescue skills one dive in four just to stop ourselves getting rusty, can be anything from tows, to search and recovery or a full rescue scenario.

 

[voop]

durian, you've imho done the "right thing": taken the lot of training, up to and including rescue. I like to think of OW+AOW+RD as the training that any autonomous diver should have to be able to take care of himself and his budies. Incidentially, I am sort of the kind of person who thinks that "OW+AOW+RD" should just be renamed "OW" and conducted as one course, since the rescue skills ought to be mandatory knowledge for any diver.

After rescue, in my opinion, is then the time to go do your "fun dives" and build experience. You've got your training, which means that you have a basis for continue to pratice your skills on every dive. The bulk of the dive should be spent on looking at pretty stuff, photographing -- or whatever gets you on under water -- but with a little time on each dive set asside to pratice skills. Doing RD, then logging a few houndred dives where you pratice some skills on each dive is, imho, much more prudent than doing OW+AOW, then logging a few houndred dives before doing RD.

 

[ZoCrowes255]

I am a university lecturer at a women's university in Seoul, Korea. Today was the first day of classes and I had all new students. The students were asking me questions about myself so they asked me about my hobbies. One student said that she heard I liked SCUBA diving. I stated that I quite enjoyed diving. A student about 21 years old raised her hand, stating that she also dived. We both took out our cards. I still had my AOW, as I have not received my RESCUE card yet. We exchanged cards. This little girl was an SDI Open Water Instructor with over 200 dives. I am RESCUE Diver with 16 dives. When it comes to diving, I am the baby. Whew, I was impressed. Can't wait to have some discussions with her.

I loved it!

Happens to me all the time on dive boats. I'm twenty years old (but look younger unfortuantely.) Someone will notice one of the dive shirts I always wear and comment on it. I don't usually advertise that I'm an instructor to people I have just met but if it does come up I usually get some suprised expressions.

One of my best divemasters is in his mid-30s and he was helping me with a Junior OW class and one of the kids asked him "How come you do what he says? He is younger than you!"

Chris