River certification & river diving

[Rick Inman]

I learned to dive the Spokane River from other crazy divers. There are some places where it is like diving a lake, and other places that are a full on white water (during the spring), heart pounding, adrenaline rushing thrill ride. This is really a solo dive 'cause it's impossible to stay together, much less help your buddy.

I think the closest I ever got to getting killed was on this dive. The law is you have to have a dive flag, and my 20' line got caught at the top of a huge boulder and I got sucked down. The line got wrapped around my valve and I couldn't get to it as I was being slammed over and over against the boulder. I was struggling trying to reach it, running out of energy fast, over-breathing the reg thinking, I can't believe I'm going to buy it in 15' of water 2 miles from my house, when the line came loose and off I roared down river.

I've made this dive several times since then, without the stupid flag. It's a blast!

 

[DeepSeaDan]

I've been river diving for 30 years...it's about all I do. Never had a course, didn't know there was one. Best thing is to hook up with an experienced river rat and go for it. Pick a nice blackwater river with fair viz and get used to the current, bottom features, snag possibilites, etc. Cooper is a good place to start....now you wanta get adventurous, try the Ashepoo, about 50 miles South of Charleston..... BAA-AAD viz - (like chocolate milk) most of the time you can't read your guages, a ripping current and BIG ol' alley-gators.

...Chocky-Moo vis., current to be undressed by & large-mouthed reptilian diver-nibblers to keep you company - now thats a fun dive!

Actually Novi, once upon a yesteryear they use to pay me quite well to work in those conditions, yet you do it for kicks...that puts you high on my list of wonderfully twisted u/w thrill mongers! Congratulations!

Now me? Give me the deep, cold black of the N. Atlantic, hundreds of feet down, trying to stab a 90lb. s.s. lift pin through a two-point lift padeye, while simultaneously positioning the eye of a 3 1/2" wire rope that rises & falls 10' with every heave of the oilrig, floating hundreds of feet overhead...

...and, bonus of bonus's - they PAID me to do it! It was almost criminal to be having that much fun & a paycheque too!

Best,
D.S.D.

 

[Lead_carrier]

Greetings to all!

My question is, SSI has a river diving certification. Is it useful to have? I would like to do Cooper River this year and want to make sure that I can have fun and not spend all my time keeping from being a three bottom plow. Also, there are scads of rivers in PA and they don't charge you to swim in them...

I like the idea of looking at different stuff. I have a friend that told me diving around bridges is a great place to find stuff that people toss into the water. He found a diamond engagment ring and on one dive a 2004 Ford F250, that ended up in an insurance scam!!

Anyway, I might not find any prizes but free is good!!

Dive often, dive safe

Jack

I'm not familiar with the rivers in Pa. but I do know if you go into the Cooper you DO want to be a 3 bottom plow. That way you'lll be able to crawl around and look for the teeth.

 

[Spratman]

Thanks to all of you! I know I can count on getting sound advice from the divers up here.

I'll 86 the river certification and head on down to Cooper River with the LDS. I'll wait until I find some crazy river diver around here to go out with, since I think being crazy is part of the criteria. The rivers around me vary in vis. but most are slow currents, but have plenty of dead-fall.

Now, once last question, again to the SSI people out there. SSI recommends "Stress & Rescue Management" before taking the Advanced course. Any advice on this.

Jack

 

[scubatwinned]

Bear in mind that you don't want to be in the water beneath the bridge when the *next* Ford F250 gets dumped over the side.

I don't know how useful the river certification would actually be for you, but I know there are enough hazards in a river that you won't find in the ocean or a big lake that, if I were going to be diving in a river with serious currents and visibility issues, plus debris (trees and parts of trees, and other flotsam and jetsam) bearing down on me, I think I'd take the instruction before taking up this kind of diving. And that goes double for any river like the Cooper River, which is (from reading only - never been) notorious for the lousy visibility.

Or maybe start in a river that you know and has a current thats not so strong. Then work your way up to the St. Clair, Niagara and the Detroit rivers( these are in my neck of the woods) or the bigger rivers in youir area...

 

[scubatwinned]

Thanks to all of you! I know I can count on getting sound advice from the divers up here.
Now, once last question, again to the SSI people out there. SSI recommends "Stress & Rescue Management" before taking the Advanced course. Any advice on this.

Jack

Here is an alternative way to look at things than the business man, course conscious, instructors view.

I would break down the advanced course and ask myself,

1- can I do/handle these situations as a diver...

2 - do I need a course to help me do/handle these situations... Thus spending time, money in a class or

3 - get more dives under my belt to bring my experience, confidence, user gear friendly levels by actually diving to where I can/will take myself to the next level as a diver.

Not saying don't ask... asking is good. Also doing some courses is good. BUT DO SOME DIVING - which is the reason for getting certed ?!?! yes?? - between going from course to course and/or worring about what course level one is.

 

[Spratman]

Sure, I agree that I need more diving and will be doing that this summer. I don't have a regular dive buddy and by nature I am "DIR" type person. I want to do it right the first time, and go from there. I'm not into diving because I want to make the LDS wealthier (not that the vast majority of these people are), but rather learning new stuff that I don't have much knowledge of.

Having been in the military for fourteen years, I'm also a fast track type person and a fast learner. I progress by knowledge accumulation and then practical application. If I can find a knowledgable and experienced diver for mentoring, then I agree with your premises. I'm cautious with every new exploit I take on. I take diving very seriously and if my cert. says I am certified to sixty feet, then I'll stay above that limit. If I'm told don't do this, and you must do that, I'll be the first to being doing it.

I have a high school buddy that lives down the road from me. He's been diving for over five years and has never certed beyond O/W. He's dove to 100 ft and has been skin bent. He says it's not a big deal. He's dove overheads, wrecks and such. Needless to say, I'm very skeptical about diving with him. And thus far has been a good bad example, and I've never been in the water with him....

I just want to optimize my diving skills. If I can find a good dive book, I can gain information that way. I know that I'm going to get flamed for saying this, but I don't think I need a hundred dives doing the same basic OW skills before moving on. Nor am I saying that at 25 dives I will be an expert. But the more knowledge I have, the better diver and dive buddy I'm going to be.

Thanks for the advice! I take opinions of people up here seriously, if I didn't I wouldn't be posting with you all.

Keep the advice coming...I'm all eyes!

Jack

Here is an alternative way to look at things than the business man, course conscious, instructors view.

I would break down the advanced course and ask myself,

1- can I do/handle these situations as a diver...

2 - do I need a course to help me do/handle these situations... Thus spending time, money in a class or

3 - get more dives under my belt to bring my experience, confidence, user gear friendly levels by actually diving to where I can/will take myself to the next level as a diver.

Not saying don't ask... asking is good. Also doing some courses is good. BUT DO SOME DIVING - which is the reason for getting certed ?!?! yes?? - between going from course to course and/or worring about what course level one is.

 

[scubatwinned]

Hey, thats a drag not having a reg buddy. Is there a club at the local dive shop you can hook up with? Maybe use the forum here to find a group to go out with.
It sounds like your guy down the road did not use what he learnt in his OW cert...

I guess why I push the diving is that I've seen guys go from course to course and are instructors with less dives than the people they now have under their wing. I witnessed one such animal with another group on the same boat while I was doing the dive master course that had to be rescued by a student... now thats embarrassing! I have seen these folks shunned by other divers because yes they have the ticket but really should not be attepting the dives they are.
Same with folks who start strapping on every bell and whistle that they can get their hands on. This one guy had a pony for just his bc, one for just in case... was a walking shop, took forever to get ready. He had less than 20 dives. I was new to the group at the time and was buddied with him, the conditions were rough, I was stuck on the boat waiting dive ready while the others went diving. They were finishing their dives when we finally got in the water. The whole dive was spent adjusting his gear needless to say I never dove with him after that weekend.

Now I am not saying you are either of these. Please don't think that. Just a heads up I guess to a new diver about these traps.

But having those hundred dives you are a better diver than just having 25. Thats 75 more different conditions, shore, boat, drift, good vis, sh ty vis, river... practiced in timing the dive, knowing and using the tables( look at your friends example)... now better able to move on to the next level. A book cannot give you this experience!!!

Good luck in finding a buddy.

 

[BabyDuck]

Is bath tub certification far away? Just about everything else has been covered so got to make another buck some how.

ooh, we could charge more for a jacuzzi cert than bathtub. ripping current, heat stress, bad viz due to the bubbles, all those legs as obstacles...

 

[Spratman]

I'm sure I'll find one or several. I just submitted to join wreckvalley dive club. They are over three states and well...wreck dive. Maybe something will pan out there. I don't know about the current dive shop, either.

I don't know if he didn't learn anything or he figures he can be careless and it hasn't killed him yet.

Man, if I were that instructor, I'd pull in my shingle. Hehe. During my first three dives in Cancun, I saw two people who I think were certified and one guy was so old that he couldn't get into the water, except by going down the ladder and having a DM strap his weights and stuff back on. The other was from Italy, I think. He didn't speak English or Spanish. The DM did a forward flip off the boat and the guy DOVE in right behind him. Ripped his mask off, well, that was only the beginning. When we were below, the DM had to have him right by his side, because he didn't understand the signals for telling him our tank pressure. The DM and another photographer were playing around with a Scorpion Fish, and most of us knew "hands off". This guy tried to grab it as it was heading for the reef. It was later that I learned that if you're paying and have a cert, they'll take you out. Damn glad he wasn't my buddy....

I agree with the experience factor. I think it will be difficult around here, since you have your choice of two quarries, one is 0-10ft vis. during the summer, the other is definitely the cold one and has vis 30-50 on good days. I want to try getting some other places in, but I don't know how much.

Thanks for the input and I hope you don't run into any of the above mentioned students...

Have a prosperous diving session!

Jack

Hey, thats a drag not having a reg buddy. Is there a club at the local dive shop you can hook up with? Maybe use the forum here to find a group to go out with.
It sounds like your guy down the road did not use what he learnt in his OW cert...

I guess why I push the diving is that I've seen guys go from course to course and are instructors with less dives than the people they now have under their wing. I witnessed one such animal with another group on the same boat while I was doing the dive master course that had to be rescued by a student... now thats embarrassing! I have seen these folks shunned by other divers because yes they have the ticket but really should not be attepting the dives they are.
Same with folks who start strapping on every bell and whistle that they can get their hands on. This one guy had a pony for just his bc, one for just in case... was a walking shop, took forever to get ready. He had less than 20 dives. I was new to the group at the time and was buddied with him, the conditions were rough, I was stuck on the boat waiting dive ready while the others went diving. They were finishing their dives when we finally got in the water. The whole dive was spent adjusting his gear needless to say I never dove with him after that weekend.

Now I am not saying you are either of these. Please don't think that. Just a heads up I guess to a new diver about these traps.

But having those hundred dives you are a better diver than just having 25. Thats 75 more different conditions, shore, boat, drift, good vis, sh ty vis, river... practiced in timing the dive, knowing and using the tables( look at your friends example)... now better able to move on to the next level. A book cannot give you this experience!!!

Good luck in finding a buddy.