What certifications would you say are a "must have"?

[Imla]

If you live in canada, I would do these in this priority:
1.Drysuit - Water is cold. Being warm = more watertime = more fun
2. Advanced Open Water with: Navigation, Deep, Night, PPB and Nitrox specialties. -> This combo will give you access to the tools you need to be a confident (if you practice) diver in colder/darker/murkier waters and it will grant you access to the benefits and safety factors of nitrox (If you don't ride your NDL) and give you access to most warm water destinations. It will also ensure that you can use that drysuit into the darkness when winter comes. Winter is coming!
3. GUE - Fundamentals: When you have built some familiarity with the drysuit, book a Fundamentals class. It will fine tune your skills and make you an aware, buddy/team oriented diver with skills to keep you out of trouble. (There is no such thing as too early for fundamentals, but do your drysuit and AOW first because it gives you better outcome of fundamentals to have dived a drysuit first, and having deep and night keeps you diving through the year)

 

[_john]

The tldr; Nitrox, deep, drysuit, rescue.

Personally, the "must-haves" were nitrox and deep. Those 2 lift several restrictions that you have as a fresh OW diver. Ironically, they complement each other and exclude each other. Both deal with partial pressures and gas effects, and you can't go deep on nitrox.

The ones that are right up there with them and do not lift any restrictions, but have a significant impact on the flexibility and safety of diving, are drysuit and rescue. Rescue has a lot of very good material and enhances safety significantly. Drysuit makes cold water more enjoyable, and there are a lot of additional issues to consider in drysuit diving that you don't usually experience. For example, floaty feet or a flooded suit. Both are problems, and training helps you deal with both.

I got my AOW through specialties rather than a dedicated course. I bundled several, so it worked out to more of an à la carte certification.

I get the training for the kind of diving that I want to do, and I practice those skills and dive as much as I can.

 

[The Chairman]

AOW & NitrOx.

 

[pkchu_]

AOW and Nitrox

 

[LFMarm]

I have just completed my first few dives with just my open water and have been looking into continuing my dive education. Which certifications do you think really open up what experiences you can have while diving? Of those which do you think would be the best to get as a new diver? I personally have been considering either drysuit certification or night diving.

The ones that make you feel comfortable doing the dives you want to do. At a minimum nitrox as air is never the best gas for any dive.

 

[Wibble]

Rescue. The only one that’s universally accepted.

 

[MarkA]

Rescue. The only one that’s universally accepted.

Could you expand on “universally accepted”. I don’t understand what you mean by this in relation to rescue.

 

[Wibble]

Could you expand on “universally accepted”. I don’t understand what you mean by this in relation to rescue.

If you've a ton of technical certifications, the only one that seems to work is Rescue. Solo, Trimix, CCR, cave... all aren't much use if someone asks for a card; they simply don't care. PADI Rescue is on their "OK" list and that's that.

Whilst going forward in your diving career, Rescue is by far the most useful course too as it is the first course where you think of others. Challenging and very satisfying. Solo Diver was the most fun on an assessment I've ever had, but few places accept it.

 

[RussL]

I'll echo what a few others have said, as a recreational diver (which is me), the only certs I'd get are OW, AOW, Nitrox, and perhaps Rescue.

Personally, I'm not a believer in piling on certs at the beginning of your diving "career." Get some diving experience (50+ dives) first. I think you'll get more benefit from other certs once you have some experience on board.

I got my PADI OW cert in 1979. Needless to say, I got a whole lot of low visibility, deep dives (below 60') and night dives under my belt before I got my AOW in 1985...and I survived just fine. A lot of those dives were with tables, not computers.

Now that I'm "old," I finally succumbed to getting my Nitrox certification a few years ago. The only other cert I may get is my Rescue Diver.

 

[MarkA]

If you've a ton of technical certifications, the only one that seems to work is Rescue. Solo, Trimix, CCR, cave... all aren't much use if someone asks for a card; they simply don't care. PADI Rescue is on their "OK" list and that's that.

Whilst going forward in your diving career, Rescue is by far the most useful course too as it is the first course where you think of others. Challenging and very satisfying. Solo Diver was the most fun on an assessment I've ever had, but few places accept it.

Thank you for the reply. Agree that having rescue skills is a worthwhile endeavor. Different organisations do it slightly differently (BSAC being one)