What was the best training you ever did?

[Trace Malinowski]

Yes, I have been told that. It’s probably easy for some people to agree, some people it’s a showstopper.

I have been asked by GUE instructors to teach solo classes to their students who needed the card to satisfy GUE standards because their jobs required them to dive alone such as golf ball diving. Sure. The guy could have a buddy, but do you really need to cut your income by 1/2 to have a buddy on the off chance you get attacked by an alligator or bitten by a water moccasin? Some golf ball divers have a "ball b*tch" with them to dump the catch bags into larger bags or containers. While that helper isn't in the water, your chance of dying if you run out of air in a 2 foot deep water hazard is far less than getting cancer from the pesticides.

 

[Nianne]

That may sound weird, but passing a master then an instructor level in freediving change my awerness of my scuba dives.

I didn't learn anything technicals like ER but the course was physically challenging. With it, I discovered what my body was capable underwater and I've been amazed by it.

The relaxation techniques I can teach and the calmness I have in the water have been really helpfull with one of my student this summer and I'm not sure that I'd have manage the same without the mindset I gained with freediving !

(Sorry about the poor english, I'm braindead today)

 

[Schwob]

@Nianne
That's a different and interesting perspective!

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Yeah. Come to think of it when I'm descending into deep tech dives, my heart rate goes down because 30 years of freediving finds me going into relaxation mode when I look into an empty water column or a line descending into the blue. Before diving on scuba, I'll often rest in the prone position without a mask for a couple minutes breathing from the unit and the water around the face helps relax me. Conversely, I used to play Lodi from CCR (the band, not the closed circuit rebreather) when waiting to board the plane before skydiving and to this day, I think my heart rate goes up listening to CCR.

 

[drbill]

I had already been on SCUBA for seven years by the time I learned one needed to be certified to do so when I moved to California in 1969. My Los Angeles County certification course with Ron Merker was the best course I've taken with respect to SCUBA. Quite thorough and far superior to most current non-professional certification courses.

 

[Jackie Treehorn]

PADI Rescue and TDI Trimix

Both courses allowed me at different stages in my diving career to allow my training and experience levels to "click".

 

[Jim Lapenta]

My freediving course this past summer was an eye-opener. Even though I couldn't make the depth to get the card. I did, however, discover a tooth that needed a root canal and crown! I can go back and do the depth dive any time in the next year though from when I took the course.
I got better at the frenzel equalizing technique, learned to slow my heart rate, and more than doubled my previous breathhold time from before I took the course. The best I ever got before I knew what I was doing was 1:10. I had to get 1:30 for the course followed by however long I wanted to try. Hit the 1:30 and 3 minutes later did 2:27. That was cool.

 

[Divegoose]

It has been a very long time, but it is a toss up between my PADI Rescue Diver course and my PADI Divemaster certification. My instructor was Roy Farrington of Starboard Diving in Red Deer, Alberta. In addition to the core program curriculum, Roy added a lot of extras that were very worthwhile, increased my knowledge, but most of all increased my confidence. I believe Roy has long since retired, but I am thankful for his teaching that made me the diver I am today.

I would also add the Dive Rescue program from Dive Rescue International. I had the opportunity to take the Dive Rescue II program back in 1990. The program was hosted by the Calgary Fire Department, and they were gracious enough to let me stay in one of their halls during the course. Learned lots about being a "public safety diver", and even got to apply what I learned during some recoveries. Unfortunately, due to politics in the agency I worked for, my public safety diving career was short lived.

Divegoose