Wreck Diving Cert

[Diver0001]

Several years ago my wife and I took a wreck workshop for the purpose of getting some exposure to line running. What we took away from the class, after doing a three-person blind exit drill, was that we had no business what-so-ever going inside a (real) wreck (and I still feel that way).

yeah.... some people don't fully appreciate how complex wrecks can be.

I agree that, IF DONE CORRECTLY, the PADI wreck course can provide the "average recreational diver" with some decent tools for appreciating wrecks -- and I hope that includes the appreciation of when to just observe from the outside.

I'm not sure why you're specifying PADI in this....

ANY wreck course from ANY agency should include a chapter on how to evaluate the condition of a wreck and how to approach diving it.

R..

 

[Blackwood]

I'm not sure why you're specifying PADI in this....

ANY wreck course from ANY agency should include a chapter on how to evaluate the condition of a wreck and how to approach diving it.

R..

I think because the OP was enrolled in a PADI program.

Agreed, though.

 

[flw]

Go on wreck with 20 dives in log is 2 way what may happen. You may have excellent dive and a lot of happines, or may stay inside wreck for ever.

For me It's necessary to have at least 2 lights, 2 first stages, 2 masks and reseved air source.
And remember - if you get a little problem inside wreck - it can be bigger in few seconds
And of course excellent buoyancy is very important.

I'll recomend course such as TDI AdvWreck or something like that.

There are very few regularly dived wrecks within the accepted 30m range that are complicated penetrations - the vast majority are broken and/or open and may not consist of much more than ribs/engines/boilers laid out on the seabed. Your average recreational/occasional diver is going to be very task overloaded with extra lights/bail outs/stages etc that they are more likely to have an incedent than to avoid one. Small steamships tend to sink upright, the wooden decking rots away leaving an open wreck to explore - not a scary complex 'cave' system
If they then go on to do some true penetrations then things change somewhat, but there's not a chance I'd take a newish diver into a wreck with no clear surface anyway.
A better way of viewing a shallow wreck is to take a course if you must to understand the layout of ships, which can be learnt elsewhere, and so have a better idea of navigating round them - simple things like knowing if you find the engines then the boilers you're heading forward, rather than concentrating on something they aren't going to do anyway.
Our local wrecks in Scapa are accessible, but if you watch divers on them (or go into them) 99% of folk simply don't enter them for a variety of reasons