What to do to start wreck diving?

[judestudio]

Great stuff, Azza! Moral of the story: never post anything thinking your instructor won't find out about it...

All of what these other posters have said is true, but it only goes a part of the way. What you need is a diving Mentor who will take their time with you to show you how all the training gets applied in the real world....

Am I lucky or what!

...One of our training grounds will be in a lake with a very silty bottom and some skills will be performed while others stir up the silt...there is no substitute for poor viz.

Viz at the lake is bad enough without kicking up silt....Arrh! The only place that one can do a night dive at 10 in the morning.

 

[Azza]

Am I lucky or what!

You are

I really wish I had a mentor when I started out instead of learning things the hard way

 

[judestudio]

You are

I really wish I had a mentor when I started out instead of learning things the hard way

I am a good (being conservative here :14 student, that should hopefully make it a pleasure to teach!

Well, I consider I've paid my dues for skimping on the OW course I'm hoping they're not gonna see this which I neither learned anything useful nor did I enjoyed the course. In a matter of fact, I was put on a rough boat through them for my first sea dive. Weather was bad to start with, it was raining hard, big swells, the gear I hired from them weren't fitting properly + I was put on too much weight deliberately so that I can "get down" - didn't know what I was doing and obviously have no opinion of myself at the time, I went for it and went straight into panic That scared me off diving for nearly a year. So for everyone else out there, a quality course means a lot, but unfortunately there's not a lot of good instructors that care enough. Thought I'd give it another try, bought my own gear this time and learn the basics again from scratch...so yea, I may not be a good diver, but at least I'm keen to learn.

Back to the topic, are there laws / rules governing the recovery of artifacts from shipwrecks? ...just wondering.

 

[Azza]

Acyually its nice to have a student that is keen and willing to learn and not just get the "Card"

Back to the topic, are there laws / rules governing the recovery of artifacts from shipwrecks? ...just wondering.

Oh yes

Thats all covered in the Wreck course but feel free to get the international view on this

 

[Sas]

I was reminded of the advice I got in this thread recently as I have just done my first wreck dives in the last month. Anyway, they have been absolutely amazing!!! I got to go inside the J4 submarine in Melbourne (that was the best experience I have had diving so far!) and also this weekend I dived around the Eliza Ramsden wreck, a shallow very old wreck that was quite beautiful. Only three wreck dives so far I know, but yea I think they have further confirmed for me that wreck diving is the direction I want to take.

Anyway, the advice here has proven to be really good so if anybody else is looking to get into diving on wrecks, the people who have posted here know their stuff I have decided to skip the Intro to Wreck specialty and get some more experience and then do a Cavern course next year to see how I go with that. That course can lead on to Cave and Penetration courses eventually and I thought it would be far more useful than just an Intro to Wreck given what I have read of the course content. Also booked in to do Rescue next month as well, which was also advised here.

Have enough gear now so I don't have to rent but not a BP/W set up yet, getting that at the end of the year and also want a wrist computer. I got some recreational equipment (back inflate BC + console computer) cheap a while back so bought that as I couldn't afford great gear but wanted to be able to dive each weekend without worrying about renting.

It is going slowly (due to my diving inexperience and lack of finances) but that's cool, I am enjoying the ride. So yea, thanks again people~~

 

[Pez7378]

I wanted to take a Wreck Pen class this summer so I could apply my skills this fall in Coron. It was not meant to be, and I decided to go ahead with an Intro to Tech class instead. I'm perfectly happy to conduct "External Surveys" of various wrecks, and I will eventually get to the point of penetration. I have about 250-300 dives, AOW, Adv. Rescue, Dan Emergency Specialist, Intro to tech, which includes some basic deco procedures, reel and line work etc.

Although I have been told before that I am "too" modest when it comes to my skills or ability, I know I'm still not ready to conduct wreck penetration classes as I still have to master some fundamental skills before I "dive" into the technical realm.

Saspotato and Judestudio, it sounds like you both have some fantastic mentorship, and instruction. Ironically, I was just looking into the S.O.D.S site the other day for the first time. Nice work! Take your time and learn the things you don't know. I am not a tech diver, but I have been invited to "safety dive" for some local tech operations. I hope this means that some of my mentors, and those they dive with recognize that one day I may be joining them on some of the deep wrecks, and that they are confident in my current abilities, and my future potential.

The learning will never end, whether you are diving, or helping out with a dive by being there for the team, helping the team gear up, delivering needed supplies, having the ability to deliver first aid and just simply seeing how the team prepares, and conducts a dive. Good luck!