Recommendations on courses?

[Gelirfella]

New diver working on my OW Cert. I bought a package of gear from my LDS. (Would kindly appreciate not detailing into a bunch of WTF would you do that? Posts, it’s done, nothing more to say about it) with the package comes “free” (read as markup on gear is huge) training. I get my owcert/nitrox and 4 specialties. SSI shop. Thoughts on high yield specialties?

I have a buddy who is a caver and am ultimately planning to head the tech route (I’m sure many more say it than do it). Right now planning:

Deep
Wreck
Nav
Buoyancy

With that and 24 logged dives I’ll have my advanced from SSI. Any substitutions or other thoughts?

 

[yle]

Add nitrox

Otherwise, what you have there is a good list. Make the most of it. Too many students approach their classes as if they're a checklist... get in, get it done, get another cert card. And unfortunately, too many instructors allow them to.

If you're serious about eventually moving on to tech, get as much experience and knowledge from those classes you have listed. Go beyond the basic requirements of the class. You're not doing the classes for a cert card; do them to really fine tune your skills and knowledge.

 

[eelnoraa]

GUE fundamental or equivalent if you care about learning diving, and not for the card.

 

[Gelirfella]

Add nitrox

Otherwise, what you have there is a good list. Make the most of it. Too many students approach their classes as if they're a checklist... get in, get it done, get another cert card. And unfortunately, too many instructors allow them to.

If you're serious about eventually moving on to tech, get as much experience and knowledge from those classes you have listed. Go beyond the basic requirements of the class. You're not doing the classes for a cert card; do them to really fine tune your skills and knowledge.

Nitrox is included. Getting that with my OW. Thanks for the feedback. Any thoughts on order of operations to make the most of the classes? Suspect deep wreck will be a combo class off the coast of NC here. But not sure when to do nav and buoyancy. And also not sure how many dives to shoot for before doing deep wreck. I should add that I’d like to optimize a trip I have planned in March of next year to Hawai’i in March.

 

[lowwall]

Bouyancy, Nav, and Deep are the ones I'd recommend for anyone. Start with bouyancy. The order doesn't matter for the next two.

For the fourth one. Is Stress and Rescue an option? If so, I'd grab that and do it last so you have a little more experience.

If not, these seem to be typical SSI specialty courses, your shop's offerings might vary:

Perfect Buoyancy Specialty Course
Navigation Specialty Course
Night & Limited Visibility Specialty Course
Deep Specialty Course
Wreck Specialty Course
Fish I.D Specialty Course
Boat Specialty Course
Marine Ecology Specialty Course
Photo & Video Specialty Course
(Local animal or coral ID/Ecology) Specialty Course
Search & Recovery Specialty Course
Waves, Tides & Currents Specialty Course
Drysuit Specialty Course

IMO, wreck isn't particularly useful in a non-tech course because they will mostly be telling you to stay out of them with the possible exception of swimthroughs where you can see the exit and the path had been specifically made safe for rec divers.

If you will be regularly diving cold water, then save yourself a lot of pain and do the drysuit now. Otherwise, Night and Limited Viz should be useful for everyone and would be my default if Drysuit doesn't apply. Maybe Waves and Tides if you are going to be shore diving in the ocean without a more experienced buddy.

 

[lexvil]

New diver working on my OW Cert. I bought a package of gear from my LDS. (Would kindly appreciate not detailing into a bunch of WTF would you do that? Posts, it’s done, nothing more to say about it) with the package comes “free” (read as markup on gear is huge) training. I get my owcert/nitrox and 4 specialties. SSI shop. Thoughts on high yield specialties?

I have a buddy who is a caver and am ultimately planning to head the tech route (I’m sure many more say it than do it). Right now planning:

Deep
Wreck
Nav
Buoyancy

With that and 24 logged dives I’ll have my advanced from SSI. Any substitutions or other thoughts?

Reverse your list, remove deep and wreck until you have the first two down so that you don’t think much about them, then plan other training once you decide what next to concentrate on.

 

[Belzelbub]

I have a buddy who is a caver and am ultimately planning to head the tech route (I’m sure many more say it than do it). Right now planning:

Deep
Wreck
Nav
Buoyancy

With that and 24 logged dives I’ll have my advanced from SSI. Any substitutions or other thoughts?

Those aren't bad choices. After Nitrox I did Deep and Nav. BTW, I think you'll actually qualify for AOW after only completing 3 of these. You mentioned you'll have Nitrox as well. That counts as a specialty.

Deep is good, Nav is good.
Wreck is probably not a bad choice either.
Buoyancy depends on how you feel after OW. You can get competent in buoyancy without taking this course.
For my AOW, I added Night/Limited Visibility.

If you get 4 specialties for "free" after Nitrox then look into Stress & Rescue as next. I'd recommend doing some diving between to let what you've learned settle before jumping in to the next ones. Assuming a good instructor, Stress & Rescue is a good course to take. Most people enjoy it a lot. If done right, you'll be tired after completion, but you'll feel it was absolutely worth it.

 

[rob.mwpropane]

or other thoughts?

Yes.. squeeze whatever certs were included then forget about certs for a while and go dive as much as you can.

 

[yle]

Nitrox is included. Getting that with my OW.

Acck. I just realized you did say that in your original post. My bad. I need to read better.

 

[yle]

For my AOW, I added Night/Limited Visibility.

+1 for Night!

Many people have a natural aversion to diving at night, they just never try it. But they don't realize what they're missing. If you're okay with trying it, do it within the context of the class (much easier to learn the helpful tips and procedures that way). I've never had a student try night diving and not like it... just a matter of getting over that initial psychological hurdle.