Finch
Registered
Hi 
Long time lurker, second time poster. Happy to be here.
Life has thrown me a few exceptional circumstances lately and from August 2012 until late February 2013 I will be in a position to spend that time away from home.
For many years now I have wanted to spend many months in Thailand, on Koh Tao, training as an SSI Dive Control Specialist and to take an underwater videographer course, and this will be the perfect opportunity to do so.
I've been going to Koh Tao long enough to see it change (not necessarily for the better) over the years. However, I have friends there, I know and enjoy the lifestyle, I have a school to train with that I know and trust (and they're happy for me to use my backplate, wing, and long hose set up to do the course with!), and instructor at that school who I have trained with previously and who can teach either SSI or BSAC and whom I trust to deliver either course well, I have the skinny on where to live, and it's cheap enough and friendly enough and tropical enough. I can work a little of my current job from anywhere I have Internet access and the income from that will happily cover life over there. So basically I'm sold on Koh Tao In fact I bought the plane tickets today...
In the short to medium term I have no interest in using this qualification to work for a living (though I'm happy to use it on extended "vacations" in the future), and haven't thought about longer term work possibilities, so please disregard work prospects when giving advice. I dive infrequently at home here in Adelaide, Australia, with a university club.
My reasons for wanting to undertake this level of qualifications are:
- To become a better, more competent diver.
- To learn skills I wouldn't learn elsewhere.
- To gain experience and confidence handling a variety of different situations and conditions.
- The place I wish to take underwater videographer courses through recommends prospective students be DM qualified.
- I like learning.
My eventual goal is to pursue CDAA courses (CDAA Deep Cavern is pencilled in for next year) and further TDI courses (only intro so far but post DM/DC/DL course plan to be qualified deco procedures and advanced nitrox), and I think the skills and experience gained as part of either the SSI or BSAC course will be of great benefit to me if I do achieve my goal.
I've tried looking at the BSAC website and they have a nice summary of the Dive Leader course but I haven't been able to find much thorough information. I'm reasonably familiar with the content and structure and skills taught and required as part of the SSI course due to watching friends complete it over the years, but don't really have much idea about the fundamental differences in training differences, skill outcomes, or even fairly subjective things like which tends to produce more competent graduates
At the moment I am SSI Advanced Open Water but do not have the Stress and Rescue card, so obviously that's a first step before continuing with SSI or splitting to BSAC.
So please, tell me your experiences with either course or the graduates of either course... and perhaps even offer some advice or a nudge in one direction or the other. Or should I do one and then a crossover?
Thanks for your time,
--Finch.
Long time lurker, second time poster. Happy to be here.
Life has thrown me a few exceptional circumstances lately and from August 2012 until late February 2013 I will be in a position to spend that time away from home.
For many years now I have wanted to spend many months in Thailand, on Koh Tao, training as an SSI Dive Control Specialist and to take an underwater videographer course, and this will be the perfect opportunity to do so.
I've been going to Koh Tao long enough to see it change (not necessarily for the better) over the years. However, I have friends there, I know and enjoy the lifestyle, I have a school to train with that I know and trust (and they're happy for me to use my backplate, wing, and long hose set up to do the course with!), and instructor at that school who I have trained with previously and who can teach either SSI or BSAC and whom I trust to deliver either course well, I have the skinny on where to live, and it's cheap enough and friendly enough and tropical enough. I can work a little of my current job from anywhere I have Internet access and the income from that will happily cover life over there. So basically I'm sold on Koh Tao
In fact I bought the plane tickets today...In the short to medium term I have no interest in using this qualification to work for a living (though I'm happy to use it on extended "vacations" in the future), and haven't thought about longer term work possibilities, so please disregard work prospects when giving advice. I dive infrequently at home here in Adelaide, Australia, with a university club.
My reasons for wanting to undertake this level of qualifications are:
- To become a better, more competent diver.
- To learn skills I wouldn't learn elsewhere.
- To gain experience and confidence handling a variety of different situations and conditions.
- The place I wish to take underwater videographer courses through recommends prospective students be DM qualified.
- I like learning.
My eventual goal is to pursue CDAA courses (CDAA Deep Cavern is pencilled in for next year) and further TDI courses (only intro so far but post DM/DC/DL course plan to be qualified deco procedures and advanced nitrox), and I think the skills and experience gained as part of either the SSI or BSAC course will be of great benefit to me if I do achieve my goal.
I've tried looking at the BSAC website and they have a nice summary of the Dive Leader course but I haven't been able to find much thorough information. I'm reasonably familiar with the content and structure and skills taught and required as part of the SSI course due to watching friends complete it over the years, but don't really have much idea about the fundamental differences in training differences, skill outcomes, or even fairly subjective things like which tends to produce more competent graduates
At the moment I am SSI Advanced Open Water but do not have the Stress and Rescue card, so obviously that's a first step before continuing with SSI or splitting to BSAC.
So please, tell me your experiences with either course or the graduates of either course... and perhaps even offer some advice or a nudge in one direction or the other. Or should I do one and then a crossover?
Thanks for your time,
--Finch.
Edit: More or less as I posted this thread I received a response from my instructor. She's of the opinion that given my circumstances and experience and equipment and future goals, the SSI path is more suitable. But I'm still interested in feedback!
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