Wanting to get PADI certified

[DiverBuoy]

mierin once bubbled...
I travel once or twice a year to Hedonism II in Jamaica it's a Superclubs AI resort.

Last Wednesday when the vis was shot in Montego due to rain, my father and I taxied over to Negril 85 kilometers away -Dive Negril with Sun Divers.

Not bad - 60+ foot visibility while the rest of the island had none. Nude bathers everywhere, and after our two dives we jetskied around the bay for an hour. We Actually ended up rescuing a newly married couple who wed the night before. Her new husband didn't know how to sail one of those little sun fish and had drifted the two of them almost a mile out to sea. When we offered - without hesitation she leaped onto the back of the jetski and we took her back to the rental shop. They dispatched a boat to save the husband.

I got a chance to see the Hedonism II camp site and the other really awesome resorts they have in Negril. Wonderful dive site - and Sun Divers is a great shop too, really friendly. They offered me a job actually, but with a family and corporate responsibilies I don't know when I'd be able to get a month off.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Here's a post dealing with that subject

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=951&highlight=lasik

Remember, these are your eyes so the most conservative approach to diving after this surgery is probably wise. Since you've already had one eye problem I'm sure you realize nothing is worth risking the loss of your sight. Additional threads on this subject advise a 2 week wait before getting in the pool and one month before diving. You can find these other threads by doing a search with the word "lasik" under the Diving Medicine forum.

Congratulations on your weight loss and good luck with your training!
Ber

 

[mierin]

Yep I am a nude beach junkie. They say you can technically scuba nude but I don't want my piercings looking like fish bait.

Well I made the step and call and have a consultation for surgery tomorrow. I will have lasik surgery in Windsor either on the 14th or the 21st and we are possibly looking at classes starting on March 4th.

I have to say that the classes thing has me buggered right now. If we could get fully certified here before going I am all for the extra expenditure of my time. I work 40-50 hours full time, run an internet business on the side and a small jewelry hobby. Add in to that the 10-20 hours a week I spend at the gym and adding in 6-8 hours a week for scuba classes is just stretching the bullet a lot. We won't give up the workout time so it would mean hitting the gym after scuba class. So that would have me up at 5 am and not back home til almost 11pm 2 nights a week for 3 weeks and would cost double what it will to be resort certified.

I realize the book is a lot of material to take in in a few days at the resort. And I am not trying to cheat peter to pay paul with a sport that is life threatening but why couldn't I get the book at a dive shop and read it between now and then.

Diverbuoy mentioned the place in Negril, they as well offer 3 or 4 day certifications. As it appears many places offer that turn around on PADI certs. What process are the cutting out to make that possible and how could they keep their license if it was not thorough? I have no plans within 6 months to dive except this May trip and September trip to the resort.

Just curious as to the it would be better to do it here. So far the only real comment about that has been because the book is so large. Well why couldn't you read that ahead of the class.

mierin
"not trying to be difficult just trying to keep her life going"

ps. For those who may comment that surely I could miss 6 workouts, please look at it from the standpoint of the fact that a medical condition packed almost 300 pounds on my body that was not able to come off for many years. I now have a tool that is letting me have my body back. I would give up family and friends before I abused or did not use that tool effectively. I worked out before the surgery and I do afterwards. I work out when I am ill. I was walking laps at the hospital when I had pneumonia in December. Some of you are fanatical about diving. I am more than fanatical about my weight loss and toning. YOu don't lose 300 pounds in 2 years and not have to do something to not look like a sharpei.

 

[Arnaud]

I was trying to find a comparaison and came up with that one, for better or worth:

When you learn to drive (not dive, drive), you could probably have read the manual in a few hours. Surely, after you sat in the car and turned on the ignition, it probably moved. Did that make you a driver right away?

Diving (and learning how to dive) is a little similar. There's a lot to learn, nothing really difficult, but it takes a while to digest it and acquire automatism (actually, way beyond your certification).

Yes, you can do a crash course, but most of us here don't like that. The best way to learn is to read a chapter, think and remember it, then have the session relating to the chapter with your instructor. You'll find that each time, you'll want to ask tens of questions that are not necessarily in the manual. If you do this over only four days, it definitely won't be as beneficial.

In addition, most good instructors will go beyond the basic requirements of the agency, adding more sessions, either in the classroom, the pool or the ocean. Obviously, a crash course will most likely stick to the minimum, sometimes even less.

I wouldn't say that scuba diving is life threatening. But it does involve more risks than, say tennis. Most of the accidents are the result of human errors. That's where training comes handy.

Now, I don't want to stir the sh@*#t, but if your goal is only to be diving 5 days in the year, always with an instructor, maybe a crash course is enough. The problem comes from the fact that at the end of the certification process, you're supposed to be able to dive with just a buddy. We tend to believe that it takes more than 4 days to get to that point.

My $.02.

 

[mierin]

Here's my thinking and please I am enjoying the comments. I got a thick skin and still enough padding I bounce well.

I spend 2-3 weeks a year at Hedo. It's the only place I vacation. When I go I am around friends who do dive. Plus on every dive trip they send down a dive Master with the group. Now granted I believe diving can be life threatening with human error or mother nature. YOu never know when diving conditions in the carribbean can go from good or fair to poor or awful with a storm or what not. Just last year they had a guy surface a few hundred yards from the boat in big swells and couldn't find him for a good while.

All that said I am a good swimmer. I swim a mile+ when I do swimming as my exercise. Granted I am stronger backstroking than anything but I grew up practically living half in the water on a lake. I've gotten myself caught underwater trying to dislodge my Dad's jet drive on his boat. I've got fouled in ski rope and pulled under. In a perfect world I would want to do the course and checkouts here but I don't know that I am willing to pay the cost(time+money+energy+misc) to do that here. Plus my eye surgeon who moved my surgery up to the 14th has said I will need to not dive for 3 months.

All that puts my window right around when I go. I foresee me diving potentially 5 days in May and maybe 7 days when I go back in September. My first 4 dives will be my cert dives so a dive Master will be my buddy. They will also be at about 25 feet I believe. I might have two days I get to really dive dive and if I am not comfortable I am not too proud to say I want to finish this another time.

Heck up until last night I couldn't go underwater without plugging my nose. And I went to the pool and practiced until I could. I still can only be under about 20 seconds but it's a start.

More advice is appreciated.
mierin

 

[Arnaud]

Well, these are only recommendations. It's obviously up to you to decide what's best, here. What you can do, at a minimum:

1. Buy the OW manual and video from an LDS now. Take the time to read the manual. Maybe, play the video several times.

2. Get some fins and a snorkel (no mask) and learn how to swim in the pool breathing through the snorkel, without pinching your nose. It's going to be a little challenging at first. Swim that way as much as you can.

Nothing will replace the time you spend learning with a good instructor, though.

For the rest, one important principle is to dive within your own limits. Remember that when you complete your OW cert.

 

[ladycute1]

Hi Mierin --

You've already gotten a lot of responses... but let me just see if I can add a couple of thoughts.

Lots of folks who are _very_ near sited do really well with prescription masks. My hubby's vision is 20/200 -- he's just shy of being legally blind -- but fully correctable with glasses or contacts. He uses a prescription mask with no problem. In one of the groups of plus size women that I lead last June I had a woman who needed a very strong mask -- I think it was a -8 -- that was no problem.

OK, now, for the short vs. long course... I think it really depends on what type of learner you are and how comforatble you are in the water. I'm naturally comfortable in the water -- partly because my extra <cough> adipose tissue (oh, hell -- just say it: fat) makes me more bouyant -- so it has always been easy for me to splash about in the water. Secondly, I have a fairly short attention span, and a lot of anxiety around being able to learn new physical skills-- even when I am capable (that's old PE trauma) -- So, for me, a resort course -- that actually took 4 days was great -- I got to get in the water right away and see that "Yes, I was going to be able to do this" -- then, I was able to proceed through the steps... and complete the course. If I had had to deal with all of the stuff at the pool, while still wondering if I could do it in the ocean... I probably would have given up.

Now, from another point of view, my hubby is not so comfortable in the water (he's an air person -- if it flys -he's into it) -- he took a local pool course, that gave him a lot of comfort knowing that the wall of the pool was there... or that he could stand up on the bottom, and that there was no wave action. Once he had a general sense of confidence about some of the most basic skills, he completed his ow certification with a resort referral. (by the way, he is of average weight and is reasonably athletic).

So, I'll say again, that the choice of short or long course depends on the person, their comfort with the water environment, and their learning style.

Good luck! (and I'd love to convince you to join me for some diving in Hawaii!)

 

[mierin]

What I learned on my summer vacation:

I'm not a scuba diver.
I cannot swim 60 feet completely below the surface of the water without help.
Don't believe everything you read.

So basically what happened was I did everything right or so I thought. I called the desk got the time to meet at the pool. I drank only lightly the night before and got to bed by 1 am. Normally I crash around 3 am or so. I went up to grab a bite of breakfast before the test. I see them in the pool and go ask and start running. The desk said 8:30-9:00, the test is at 8:00. I get in prepared to swim my lap in one breath only to be told I need to stay below the surface. I looked confused. I float. I have one DDD breast and one FF breast, I float. So I tried. The first time I did not do to badly but there was no stripe on the bottom of the pool so I made it about half way and swam in a 90 degree arc. I prepared to try again and only made it 1/3 the way, I was expending twice as much energy diving for the bottom as I was going forward.

We could of tried again on Tuesday but we would not have been able to finish the training. I have to say that as cool as scuba seems to be I think it may be too much hassle for me. I go on vacation to relax and rest and I did that this trip. I got to snorkle 3 times. I'm not sure if I will certify for September but if I do I will do the pretraining here in Detroit if I can find a shop that will work with me on the float issue.

Thanks for all the help
mierin

 

[ScubaSista]

Option 1 will give you a chance to get used to some things and overcome your fears in a very controlled situation - a pool! And you won't be using up vacation time to get this part done.

mierin, everyone's always worried about the mask skills. Have you ever dived down under water without a mask on and opened your eyes? Well, this time you'll get to breath while you're doing this! For tips in advance, you can watch the PADI Open Water video, but other than that, don't worry about learning to do things BEFORE your class. That's what the class is all about! find a local shop/instructor that you're comfortable with and who won't rush you. And don't worry about the extra money it will cost you to do it this way. It's just you're life we're talking about!

Once you've mastered the skills in the pool and completed your academic sessions, you'll really be able to enjoy your open water dives at the resort, and you'll already have the confidence that you can complete the same skills there.

Next: Yes, call ahead and see if your resort supplies prescription masks. If not, it would be will worth it to invest in one yourself. After all, we're down there to see stuff, aren't we?

And holy cow, I can't believe you've lost that much weight. Okay, maybe I'll knock off the bread for the next week or so! Congratulations!!!

Aloha,
ScubaSista

 

[wreckchick]

Mierin,

Your floating issue will be quickly resolved during your class sessions through the use of a magical device known as a weight belt. I would guess that, at a minimum, 90% of divers need some lead to get them down.

Take your time with diving locally and if you want to certify at home there are some lovely quarries where you can do your OW dives and go back to Jamaica and just dive and relax.

I had a similar experience to yours in St. Thomas a couple years ago, miscommunication meant that I couldn't do the resort course and dive and still leave myself enough time to fly home. The next time I knew I was going somewhere cool, I just did the training at home. Once you have the card you can just dive!

Rachel