question about open water advanced courses

[zdawgnight]

My fiance and I are both open water divers with very little diving experience. I personally have only taken the class and have yet to dive outside of an instructors supervision. My lady friend as done one more dive than me and it was a very simple less than 30ft reef dive with a guide. So we are very green. We went on vacation a couple weeks ago and we were caught up in an unfortunate mishap on a dive excursion where one of the divers past away. It was supposed to be an "easy dive" and perhaps to some people with experience it would be. Long story short we are looking to take more classes because we dont feel comfortable on our own and to be honest with you we had such a bad experience with the dive place that I dont know if I can trust or even want to trust places trying to setup dives.

any who we called a place in our hometown and they said we should work on doing some dives on our own to get some experience prior to taking the advanced classes..... problem is we kind of feel trapped since we are not comfortable leading ourselves in a dive but we want more experience...... would it be over our heads to do the advanced classes without do more simple dives?..I dont know if that makes sense but any thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rivers]

Join a club and dive with more experienced divers if you are not comfortable diving on your own. Inland dive site are also a great place to get more experience. I am not sure of any in/near Dublin, but I'm sure you can google it.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I agree with your shop. It's about time some of them started to give real solid advice. If you are not comfortable planning and conducting dives on your own in conditions similar to what you trained in your intial instruction was incomplete and a rip off. I don't blame you for not wanting to go back to them. They sound like they suck. You should not be allowing anyone to plan your dives for you. Those are called "trust me dives". And we all know what "trust me" often means. It means you are likely to get screwed in some way. Join a dive club or find an instructor who will reteach the OW course to you the way it should be taught.

Find one who will go over all the basics and then not only show you how, but allow you to plan your own dives. Taking an AOW course with no real foundation in the basics is a waste of money. The it's 5 more dives with an instructor is a poor reason to take the course. An advacned course is likely to have you being led places you have no business being by an instructor who may or may not be any good. Instead of calling that local shop get in the car and go over there and talk to them face to face. Explain what your problems are in detail and tell them you need help. Tell them you need tutoring and ask if they will tailor a class for you. I do it whenever I can for people who have been shortchanged by their initial training. I bet they'd be glad to help if they saw that you want to be divers. Not underwatwer tourists.

 

[diveprof]

I agree with Jim. I recommend additional dives beyond OW before beginning AOW for the reasons explained by Jim. Gaining experience allows you the opportunity to gain basic needed experience before tackling more advanced training. Give yourself time to master the basic skills. OW training is like a learner's permit with driving. It provides you with the basic knowledge to be safe. However, very new divers are still in the equipment operator mindset. To really benefit from the AOW course you need a good grasp of the basic skills. Only then will you obtain the full value of the training offered in AOW. When new divers join us, I recommend that they do several dives with our local group before doing AOW.

 

[scubadiveilat]

Excellent inquiry!!!

"Before anyone can run they must learn to walk"

Just like in anything to grasp anything you need to start somewhere. Start in an environment a place where your comfortable, a place where you know. try in a small area such as a shallow area 50 by 50 meters. or so. under 10 meters. Stay relaxed and calm. Dive around enjoy the atmosphere, blend into the element.

When you reach 50 -100 dives or once your more comfortable start an Adv. Open Water Course. If you start a course now you'll need to build the confidence immediately. This way take your time and enjoy.

Diving is not a racetrack sport it takes time to build the physical and psychological aspect. The rest flows smoothly. Have some fun diving enjoy the sport and time with your other.

Have fun diving and enjoy....

 

[k ellis]

In reference to the diver who passed away you did not give much detail. Though it may have very well been scuba related dont just assume it was a dive accident. Some people do have under lying medical conditions and these creap up on divers just as easily as someone walking down the street. Ive seen divers who have suffered heart attacks while under water and those are not always a result of the diving. It just so happend to strike while they are under water.

Like say I am not saying this is what happend because I was not there but dont let an accident deter you from diving. Just do what your trying to do and learn more about diving to be a safe diver.

 

[zdawgnight]

Thank you all for your responses. Looks like I am going to be spending a fair amount of time in the Ohio quarries this summer. If I plan on making it to aow (which I do) would it make sense to have my own equipment by then?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

It certainly would not hurt to have your own gear. You don't need to take out a second mortgage to do it but having your own gear and being familiar with it is always a good thing. If you want some examples PM me.

 

[TSandM]

You know, it's all very well and good for folks to tell you the shop was right, and that you need to get out and do some diving on your own. But if you are uneasy and apprehensive about doing that, it's a setup for a bad experience.

What you CAN do, for the first time or two, is hire a DM to dive with you. If you aren't familiar with your local diving, such a person can orient you to the site and the best ways to dive it. They can supervise you going through your own dive planning and setup, and correct anything that might be off. All you have to do is tell them that what you want is to try to plan and execute your own dive, but with someone there to help you avoid any mistakes. After a couple of dives like that, I'll bet you'll have the confidence to do some more on your own.

 

[zdawgnight]

k ellis-- the trip I went on didn't deter me from diving, but it definitely made me much more aware of how little I am prepared. It gave me a good scare and now I just want to make sure that my fiance and I are as safe as we can be.