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

[rhwestfall]

I believe it is worth buying the rest - mask (has to fit your face perfectly), snorkel, wetsuit (again, has to fit your body perfectly), fins (you rarely get good rental ones) and boots (to go with your fins).

Every dive training program I know of has these as required equipment to purchase for class...

 

[dmaziuk]

That's the first time I've heard anyone say that the fit of fins is more important than masks. Perhaps I am biased by by own experience, but in my short number of dives, an ill-fitting mask ruined one dive (kept leaking).

We all have our biases, mine's hobbit feet so I get more fit problems with fins. OTOH I am one of the very exclusive group of people on whom Dano's Mini mask leaks.

 

[dmaziuk]

I'm glad you said this, because it is something I have felt, but the boards are filled with more experienced divers who (from my point of view) seem much less likely to follow all safety guidelines. Glad to hear that the way I plan to start out is at least within the range of reasonable opinions. (I'm not criticizing you or dmaziuk )

You'll likely be doing your boat dives with a group and a DM, in which case: stay with the DM. It's not that you can't do a negative entry dive where you get "blown off the wreck", it's that the op will look at your dive count and not want to take you there. Similarly, you could get "carried out into open sea" from a shore dive, but if you're diving in a place where that's likely to happen: carry a PLB. In most other places a mirror and a whistle is plenty good enough.

Cozumel is a good example of a place where you want an SMB. And then there's places with "plenty of boat traffic" where you don't want the drunk idjits on jetskis to come investigate "whassat?" and crack your skull open in the process -- you may not want to dive there with 0 dives post-OW in the first place.

So like I said: devil's in the details.

 

[CG43]

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

Do'nt waste your short time by looking for diving gear !

Learn , read everyhing about diving you can find . Books , net usw .
Classes are one way , but what you worked out for yourself can
be even more memorable .
Most important , practice diving with little or no gear .
Today's scuba diving training is designed in such a way that a scuba diver can dive reasonably relaxed and safe after let's say 100 dives and a few classes.
A freediver who is confident with the diving theory will not need 10 dives
for this .
Now it is winter , you must practice in a pool and at home .
If gear (mask, snorkel, fins) are not allowed, it works without .
Swim slowly or very slowly on the surface with your breath hold, turn your head to the side or lift it out of the water without breathing.
On the net you will find many good instructions for freediving , for safety , CO2 tables , O2 tables , and so on .
Don't limit yourself to become a scubadiver, become a diver.

 

[happyharris]

These are all great, thanks. I do go to a pool regularly and they allow a mask and snorkel (they also allow non-lap swimming which is surprisingly rare) so I will do this. However, I don't understand:

Swim slowly or very slowly on the surface with your breath hold, turn your head to the side or lift it out of the water without breathing.

Do you mean turn the head temporarily and then back to face down? Or just swim along like that? What skill is it teaching? Are there any links or videos that you could point me to that could demonstrate?

 

[happyharris]

Every dive training program I know of has these as required equipment to purchase for class...

Mine didn't. I think it might depend on whether they specialize in teaching people that live in the area, or teaching people who are on vacation.

 

[boulderjohn]

mask (has to fit your face perfectly), snorkel, wetsuit (again, has to fit your body perfectly),

The need for a mask to fit perfectly varies by the individual. Some people have faces on which many mask shapes will fit. For others it is a challenge. I once helped friends get masks. The wife had no trouble finding a mask that worked. For the husband, we had to go to a second shop to find one that worked. The more angular and sharp featured the face, the harder it is to fit.

I have gone through a number of wetsuits over the years. The one I use in the winter in Florida has been in my possession for about 9 years, and I am sorry to say I have not had a consistent body shape over that time. It has always fit me fine. A good wetsuit has a lot of give in it.

 

[grantmac]

I'd travel to dive where you live. Don't limit yourself to the tropics.
Air integration is fine but nothing to sweat about. I'd rather buy a GOOD computer (Perdix) without it and learn EVERYTHING that computer has to offer.

 

[halocline]

I know many people espouse the in the “buy once cry once” philosophy. I do what I like to call “buy twice smile twice”. I spend a small amount at the start, (which in this case means renting) and then when I really know what I am missing, I might spend later.

I considered getting regs, so that I could use air integration (sorry I refuse to call it AI!). However, I have absolutely no idea what I want in a regulator or BCD. I’m not sure that a low end set $500-ish) would be any better than rentals. They wouldn’t save money in the long term, and then there’s the headache of maintenance. If at some point I start to feel that something is lacking in the rentals then I can look to buy.

Feel free to persuade me I’m wrong!

You are being really smart to hold off on the massive gear purchase. Rental gear will carry you through your initial dives just fine. As you gain more experience, you’ll be able to make informed decisions about what you want. There are a million posts with regulator suggestions, BC suggestions, etc. You can read those until you go blind!

Getting the mask is good, I wouldn’t worry too much about a computer. Any basic dive computer will do the job. For a new diver, you won’t be going anywhere near deco diving, and actually the ascent rate alarm might be the most useful feature in a computer for the first several dives until you gain better awareness and control of your buoyancy.

A good way to spend some time the next couple of weeks might be to read some about basic decompression theory. There’s a chapter in the old PADI encyclopedia of recreational diving that isn’t bad. (A lot of that book is not so great, but that chapter is surprisingly good) The reason for this is not so you can jump into deco diving, but a good basic understanding of how our bodies absorb and expel dissolved gases can be very informative in how you manage your dive profile. I’m not talking about the minutia of one decompression model as compared to another, I’m talking about the basic factors that go into DCS incidence, the idea of tissue compartments, (which is just a mathematical expression of how our bodies on gas and off gas at different rates simultaneously) and general dive behavior concepts that are known to promote safety.

If that sounds boring or overwhelming, then forget about it and just remember to ascend slowly and do nice long safety stops. But if it sounds interesting, there’s a lot to learn and it will certainly keep you occupied!

I would probably not bother with a nitrox class at the moment. At some point, sure, but there’s probably no reason for you to spend the money on the class or on nitrox fills just yet. When you get to the point in your diving where you’re pushing NDLs, your gas consumption has improved, you’re doing several dives/day on a regular basis, then yes nitrox is a big convenience. I probably dove for 10 years before using nitrox.

One gear suggestion; consider finding a wetsuit that fits you perfectly. It doesn’t have to be anything really high end, it just has to fit and be an appropriate thickness for where you are going to dive. The right wetsuit makes a big difference in dive comfort, much more so than a nice regulator, expensive BC, or computer.

 

[CG43]

These are all great, thanks. I do go to a pool regularly and they allow a mask and snorkel (they also allow non-lap swimming which is surprisingly rare) so I will do this. However, I don't understand:

Do you mean turn the head temporarily and then back to face down? Or just swim along like that? What skill is it teaching? Are there any links or videos that you could point me to that could demonstrate?

That was just in case diving in the pool, i.e. swimming under water and breatholds are prohibited. This happens a few times to me and then I just slowly swam on the surface and only pretended to breathe occasionally.
Take advantage of every opportunity. You can also dive in a bathtub and drown if you overdo it.