What to do while waiting for my first post-OW dives

[SteveCapnK]

I got my OW certification earlier this month, and I have now book a 10 dive package for the beginning of February. Extremely excited to the point of being unable to focus on much else, including work.

What can I be doing in the time before my dives?

Ideally this would be to get me in a better position to take advantage of the dives, but really anything to stop obsessing pointlessly would be good. I have watched every single youtube video about scuba. I have read all of reddit r/Scuba, r ScubaDiving, and r/ScubaGear. I'm working my way through scubaboard. I am obsessively and circularly researching dive computers. I am building up a list of accessories to buy.

What else can I do that is useful?

Get fit!
One of the most useful things I did was really work on my fitness.

Cardio and belly breathing to reduce gas consumption.
Core exercises for posture in the water. (Inspired by the Flowstate divers YouTube)
Leg exercises to avoid cramping
Yoga and swimming to round out.

And for learning useful soft skills , check out The Human Diver - Counter-errorism in Diving - Home Page

 

[TMHeimer]

I'll just chime in on the gear thing. During and immediately after the OW course I bought all my own gear used. Except one thing -- a steel 120 tank which I bought new and sold in a couple of years because I didn't like hauling it around on my back if the walk to shore was long. All the stuff I bough used I made sure fit me well. Other than the tanks I bought (online- AL 80s), I took all my stuff when we travelled by car to Florida, but also when I flew to Panama. 20 years later I still use the reg, fins, gloves, boots, hood, pouch weight belt with suspenders. Replaced the wetsuit & BCD. I was not interested in renting.

 

[VikingDives]

In addition to the nitrox course, you might want to consider taking an advanced buoyancy control class from an SDI shop. The class can be conducted in a pool, and you'll learn to do your skills in neutral buoyancy if you didn't learn that in your OW course.

 

[aedwards92]

You could go ahead and take a Nitrox course from your local dive shop -- it's just a few hours one day, as most shops do not require dives for the Nitrox cert.

This has always confused me (as a non-nitrox diver). Why don't they have you dive with Nitrox as part of the course? Shouldn't seeing how it differs be part of the training?

 

[aedwards92]

Do you have any details or suggestions for New England diving? I would love to start doing that, once I reach a level where I can be an "equal buddy" instead of a hindrance to some stranger.

The problem with Boston area diving is that it is pretty much drysuit only from what I can tell. So that's another set of learning which I don't think I'm ready for.

It's not always drysuit season depending on your tolerance. During my AOW class last summer I was very hot in a 7mm suit. Unfortunately shops only rent 7mm around here so I couldnt try something thinner.
But others on the same dive were a bit cold, it really depends person to person.

 

[aedwards92]

No diving without work, unfortunately.

This may get me thrown off the board (!) but I do not plan to buy fins, snorkel, or boots. Nor regulator/BC/Thermal protection. I will be buying a mask, a computer, and some things I consider safety items, or just really cheap items (knife, DSMB, flashlight, wet-book, ...).

For the foreseeable future I will be renting gear at warm destinations two or three times a year. Annoyingly this means that I shouldn't get air integration, but I'll learn to cope without it.

I'd recommend checking out East Coast Divers out of Brookline. It's a great shop and they have a rent to own program.

 

[Jafo19D]

I got my OW certification earlier this month, and I have now book a 10 dive package for the beginning of February. Extremely excited to the point of being unable to focus on much else, including work.

What can I be doing in the time before my dives?

Ideally this would be to get me in a better position to take advantage of the dives, but really anything to stop obsessing pointlessly would be good. I have watched every single youtube video about scuba. I have read all of reddit r/Scuba, r ScubaDiving, and r/ScubaGear. I'm working my way through scubaboard. I am obsessively and circularly researching dive computers. I am building up a list of accessories to buy.

What else can I do that is useful?

Well you could start a thread about snorkels and watch people losing their minds.

 

[dmaziuk]

This has always confused me (as a non-nitrox diver). Why don't they have you dive with Nitrox as part of the course? Shouldn't seeing how it differs be part of the training?

It doesn't differ for practical purposes.

All you'll see is longer NDL on your computer, but as training dives aren't normally done to NDL, you won't be able to do anything with that.