Redo open water or take delux refresher course?

[Web Monkey]

I've been looking at getting back into scuba diving, after a 12 year absence.

I've been to two shops so far in Vancouver and I've had two separate answers as to what I should do.

I'd take the class over again. If nothing else it will get you the pool sessions and skills practice you need before going out into open water again, along with some dives.

This is good information on finding a class:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ne...ng/287780-how-find-excellent-scuba-class.html

If it had only been a few years, I'd recommend hiring an instructor to take you diving, but given how long it's been, you'll be better off starting out in a pool, and taking the class will give you access to a pool.

If you happen to actually own a pool, you could probably find someone who would be very happy to come over and work with you 1:1 then take you diving.

Not sure what a "deluxe refresher" includes. It might be a good deal, might not. It's like the "deluxe sushi". It all depends on what it comes with.

Terry

 

[Beyond_Diving]

take the course all over again.. much has changed in 12 years (including yourself). it can only help you in the long run

 

[String]

Do the open water but save a bit of cash by not having to buy a PIC (and maybe manual)

 

[kb8lxc]

At the beginning of this year I was in much the same boat is yourself. I had done 6 dives 11 years ago. My wife and I took a 1 on 1 refresher which I can't swear exactly what it entailed, but I'll give you the rundown of what I felt it covered. The "classroom" work was done with the instructor at our house as he an I live 2 block apart and the shop he is an instructor through is 30 miles away. We did our "check out" pool dive and then we did 4 dives under his supervision (2 separate weekends).

The reason I say I don't know officially what all was covered in the refresher course is that our instructor is also a friend of ours. I don't know how many of the non-pool dives were actually part of the course but it felt good for us to have that extra safety blanket there to watch out for the "did I forget anything that my buddy didn't notice either" types of things. Because he is a personal friend, he asked me to send him dive reports for probably the next 3 outings I went on as well. I really liked this too because it made me really think about my dive, my planning, and what I felt went well or what I could improve on in my next dive.

I guess given the amount of time I spent in the water (number of dives) with my instructor, it probably did equal out to an OW but at a fraction of the cost.

In the grand scheme of things, including the total time I have had my card, I have now done 70% of my dives in 3% of my cert time. It's still not much but it is getting there.