Jim, thank you so much for the excellent post.
My husband and I just became certified divers last month, and it is very refreshing to hear someone talk about who is really responsible. I remember the night before my first OW dives, for good or bad, recalling the skills that I was a little concerned with, and going over and over in my head how to do those skills, going over and over some of the worst case scenarios I could imagine and how I would/could/might handle them. I felt foolish for such concern but I could not get it out of my head that I was going into totally alien environment. I also felt that the pool time that we had was not as much as I would have liked. We did ask our OW trainer to spend time with us in the pool before our first OW dives. She was fantastic and spent what must have been at least 1 1/2 hours in the pool with us making sure we were very comfortable. She also went through what was new equipment for us as we were doing our OW dives with a different DO than we trained with in the classroom and pool. And even though I did better on the OW dives than I expected to, I had no problems with the skills, and I was able to handle the few issues that did arise, I still feel that I know so little. In fact I cannot believe that a few hours in a pool and 4 OW dives makes me certified!
On the other hand I would not have gone through with any of the training if I did not want to challenge myself a little bit. I struggle with how to gain more skills then and how to become more proficient at the ones that I have some grasp of. Granted class training is imperative, but how to gain experience on slightly more challenging dives without doing them after a class setting? Am I best off doing training and doing dives with the same DO so they know my skill set? Does anyone have suggestions for a "path" to becoming a more proficient diver? I find courses that I can take for learning more advanced diving skills, but shouldn't I have more basic diving experience before taking additional courses? Can I request my "own" DM for a dive in conditions that I have not dived in before?
Is there a one-on-one mentoring program for new divers where we could work with more experienced divers to talk through concerns, skills, etc.? I found it really valuable to do our OW training with someone other than our class and pool trainer because both trainers had their own specific experiences, advice and things that they emphasized in training. It seems that the more experts that I can learn from (such as here!), the better of a diver I will be.
I used to have dreams when I was a child that I could breath underwater and I would swim with whales and dolphins. That is actually one of the reasons that I wanted to become a certified diver in the first place. If only reality were that easy!
My husband and I just became certified divers last month, and it is very refreshing to hear someone talk about who is really responsible. I remember the night before my first OW dives, for good or bad, recalling the skills that I was a little concerned with, and going over and over in my head how to do those skills, going over and over some of the worst case scenarios I could imagine and how I would/could/might handle them. I felt foolish for such concern but I could not get it out of my head that I was going into totally alien environment. I also felt that the pool time that we had was not as much as I would have liked. We did ask our OW trainer to spend time with us in the pool before our first OW dives. She was fantastic and spent what must have been at least 1 1/2 hours in the pool with us making sure we were very comfortable. She also went through what was new equipment for us as we were doing our OW dives with a different DO than we trained with in the classroom and pool. And even though I did better on the OW dives than I expected to, I had no problems with the skills, and I was able to handle the few issues that did arise, I still feel that I know so little. In fact I cannot believe that a few hours in a pool and 4 OW dives makes me certified!
On the other hand I would not have gone through with any of the training if I did not want to challenge myself a little bit. I struggle with how to gain more skills then and how to become more proficient at the ones that I have some grasp of. Granted class training is imperative, but how to gain experience on slightly more challenging dives without doing them after a class setting? Am I best off doing training and doing dives with the same DO so they know my skill set? Does anyone have suggestions for a "path" to becoming a more proficient diver? I find courses that I can take for learning more advanced diving skills, but shouldn't I have more basic diving experience before taking additional courses? Can I request my "own" DM for a dive in conditions that I have not dived in before?
Is there a one-on-one mentoring program for new divers where we could work with more experienced divers to talk through concerns, skills, etc.? I found it really valuable to do our OW training with someone other than our class and pool trainer because both trainers had their own specific experiences, advice and things that they emphasized in training. It seems that the more experts that I can learn from (such as here!), the better of a diver I will be.
I used to have dreams when I was a child that I could breath underwater and I would swim with whales and dolphins. That is actually one of the reasons that I wanted to become a certified diver in the first place. If only reality were that easy!
