Should There Be a "Cold Water" Course (not Ice Diving)?

[String]

So what's wrong with extending the course? Frankly I'd rather pay for something that was all inclusive, rather than breaking it up into 50 sub courses.

Most people wouldnt. 90%+ of divers want to take 2-3 days out of a holiday to learn to dive in gentle conditions on holiday and do that whilst remaining in budget. Its for this reason all the main agencies tailor the courses for that.

Follow-the-leader resort diving doesnt need more than 3 days and most people only want that sort of diving.

As for cold water, its the "local conditions" thing again. All of that is perfectly possible on the main syllabus.

 

[scubadiver888]

I don't know if there should be a cold water course, but there should be a course teaching divers how to dive in a dry suit, and what the difference is between a cold water reg and a warm water reg, and other major distinctions

There is a course offered by PADI on dry suit diving. I would imagine all other agencies offer something as well. I'm not sure if it is an official course but when I asked a local dive shop about the difference between regs they said they had a course on that. They even show you how to take it apart and put it back together.

 

[ucfdiver]

Most people wouldnt. 90%+ of divers want to take 2-3 days out of a holiday to learn to dive in gentle conditions on holiday and do that whilst remaining in budget. Its for this reason all the main agencies tailor the courses for that.

Follow-the-leader resort diving doesnt need more than 3 days and most people only want that sort of diving.

As for cold water, its the "local conditions" thing again. All of that is perfectly possible on the main syllabus.

Vacation divers do *NOT* need to be diving cold water, where many tech diving skills are needed, in my opinion.

 

[Saltair]

I think Vixtor is on the money with this. I trained and did my OW dives in April in Maine. Very Cold, but I trained for the conditions I dive in. My wife took her OW course up here but we went to the Keys for her checkouts. Her first few coldwater dives were shocking for her to say the least.

 

[spectrum]

I think the OP has a splendid idea. The cold water orientation is often covered by mentors or maybe a Discover Local Diving" engagement but the structure of these solutions is limited and some will benefit from a more formal approach. Some friends that certified warm water and had been warm water divers broke into local (cold water) diving by doing AOW locally and that seemed to work. There are many ways that divers cross this bridge including dumb luck and reading ScubaBoard. Unfortunately they don't always do their homework and if the transition is bungled they are likely to blow off a lifetime of local diving pleasure.

Regardless of what may be in the OW course if you have not been in cold water there is a lot to learn or maybe re-learn and it's only going to happen where the water is cold. Not every course is for everybody but these are real valid dive skills and related knowledge that would have value to a diver transitioning from different conditions.

Yes some of the skills are redundant and my experience has been that most courses largely repeat and amplify things I have heard before. Bringing them together front and center and putting them into practice is where it comes together. Also while we may say that a diver "should have had that in OW", the sad fact is that curriculum's get butchered and many gaps get left open, plus people forget. I have taken courses where I did not hear anything I had not heard before however having it presented in context as a body of information still had real value. People have different learning styles.

Frankly IMO this if far more suited to be specialty or AOW content than activity based classes like photography and naturalist. Those are all fine endeavors as an adjunct to actual dive skill certifications but there are plenty of dive centric things to learn first.

Pete

 

[Boxcar Overkill]

I agree with the OP.

I'm a warm water diver. Right now, I have zero interest in learning to dive in the cold. But I know that I don't know how to dive in the cold.

So if I ever move to someplace where there's cold water diving, (shudder) I would want to pay a professional to help get me up to speed. I think that's a useful idea.

 

[String]

Vacation divers do *NOT* need to be diving cold water, where many tech diving skills are needed, in my opinion.

Why not? They go on holiday to somewhere with good diving and decide to dive there to see things. Most divers dive for 1-2 weeks a year on holiday and no more. Why should they be excluded?

 

[ucfdiver]

Why not? They go on holiday to somewhere with good diving and decide to dive there to see things. Most divers dive for 1-2 weeks a year on holiday and no more. Why should they be excluded?

Using that logic, why don't they go cave diving or shipwreck penetration while they're at it? I mean if they want to see the caves or insides of the wrecks, why should they be excluded?

 

[Twistedarts]

I did my checkouts in a quarry in PA. Suffice to say it was cold. Being mostly a warm water person before that, I can say I'm grateful for the experience. Now I want to dive here in the northeast! I will do all my checkout dives in the cold from now on. I think it makes you more prepared as a diver. IF you actually want to be a diver and not a holiday warrior.

 

[dannobee]

I have mixed feelings on this one. I agree with most of the OP's points, but why not make it a package deal?

Cold Water Diving: Drysuit Speciality, Advanced Navigation, Rough Surf entry/exit, and something else, perhaps diving in kelp or low visibility environments. Reading the ocean/waves/tides/swell model should be in there, too.

That would be something worthwhile.

Oh, and when I do go on warm water vacations, and the DM asks those three questions (how many dives, when was your last dive, where do you normally dive?), invariably, when I answer the last one, "Monterey and Carmel," they pretty much say, "oh," and go on to the next diver. No more questions, you get the green light.

It means something the world over.