Zero to Master Scuba Diver in 10 months

[Superlyte27]

What's this "lead" you speak of.

 

[Centrals]

. In fact, if/when it comes up for some reason, I don't tell people that I AM a Master Scuba Diver. I say that I have a Master Scuba Diver certification.

1. Never ever showed my MSD card to anyone or brought up the subject in a conversation.
2. None of my mates/buddies know about that either.
3. I did the course because I want to further my training.
4. There is nothing to write home about.

 

[Storker]

Ahh the good old stereotypes....

Nope. Personal experience. Not saying it's universal, though.

I agree on the vacation diver part..

Good. Because that's what I was talking about.

There's a lot of cold water divers, who do the majority of dives in quarries.

What are these "quarries" you talk of?

this misconception of cold water diving being harder than warm is rubbish.

That misconception is either in your head, or it's a straw man you're setting up. My claim - my only claim - was that statistically, a cold water diver is less likely to be a vacation diver unable to dive safely without a DM holding their hand, and more likely to have proper buddy skills.

it's just a question about probabilities, not about the abilities of the individual diver.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

1. Never ever showed my MSD card to anyone or brought up the subject in a conversation.
2. None of my mates/buddies know about that either.
3. I did the course because I want to further my training.
4. There is nothing to write home about.

I dove with this one buddy for years from his boat. We used to spearfish on a wreck with the top deck around 160 - 165 ft and we would do 8-12 minutes of deco. I never asked about his certification. Then one day... he says he wants to go on vacation to some resort and he says he needs to get a certification card to be allowed to dive. He wanted to know if I knew any instructors who would give him a card. I was really surprised and asked him how he learned to dive...

Said he was self taught, started snorkeling (with no real mentor), then after a year or so, got some scuba gear and just went a little deeper every once in a while and after 8 yrs or so he was diving past recreational limits.

I pretty much never ask anyone what certification card(s) they have, but if they tell me they are a "dive instructor" (without prompting) .. I am generally really watchful of them, because this type of person is all too often, pretty terrible in the water.

 

[NAM001]

Hi Superlyte

I assume it is me you are referring to me in the first para. That's ok learning takes place in every success or failure. You have to admit that the conditions were not optimal given Katie just passing through and the parking lot's still not dry from being under water. And no, i'm still not good in currents like we had. Hind sight says I should have waited for a few weeks before trying it.

Other than that you are right, you never can tell who are the naturals and who are not. NO matter what there are things that only time and experience can provide.

It's kind of funny, but one of the posters in this thread came to me for a 0-hero class. He didn't pass. LOL.
No, I won't say who it is. He can chime in if he wants to.

Boulderjohn is right. People learn from different styles of teaching and certainly at different paces. Most of the time, I'd say that a person cannot pass my Cavern class with 30-40 dives under their belts. But, every once in a while, there's a guy who comes to me with almost no dives who just gets it. His skill in the water makes him look like he's been diving for decades. Some people are just naturals. Then there are people who have been diving for 20 years that, frankly, probably couldn't pass any of my classes. They look like hammered poo, and I question how they've lived this long.

Everyone knows my passion is cave diving, and because of that passion, I'll use it in my next example.
A few years ago, one of the posters to this board contacted me about doing a zero to hero class for Full Cave. He explained that he had been diving for longer than I had been alive and that he really didn't need cave training, but was doing it just to appease his girlfriend. He even asked if he could skip the first two classes (cavern and Intro) because he was certain there was nothing to be learned by him in those classes. I gave a response that I've sometimes given to people like this: If at the end of the class, you don't feel the instruction was necessary, I'll give you your money back.

During the first day of cavern class, in simulated dives, he unwittingly killed himself 3 times. Granted, his skills in the water were decent. He easily controlled his place in the water column. His propulsion was spot on. He was a good open water diver. But that does not prepare you for everything.

As the days progressed, so did his knowledge of the new environment he was immersed in. However, day after day, he continued to kill himself in our simulations. He was unable to find the lost line. He chose the wrong direction for his exit. He couldn't preform a simple OOA emergency with his buddy in zero vis without issue, etc. etc.

At the end of our time together (oh by the way, he didn't pass) I asked him if he still thought Cavern and Intro to cave were a waste of time and money. He responded with the same answer I've always gotten and I got the keep the cost of tuition. The point is this: You really don't know what to expect in diving, until you are faced with it at least once. And frankly, that doesn't happen until you have a lot of dives.

And this isn't an issue just with new divers. Let's take it a step further...
A couple of years ago, a PADI instructor came to me and over the course of two years became a Full Cave Diver. He was a very good diver up north, doing cold water dives and pretty awesome wreck dives. He had a lot of time in the water and was one of my best students. All in all, coming to see me once a year on vacation, he probably had 25 cave dives under his belt. He finished his Full Cave training with me on a Monday. On saturday the following week he was teaching a cavern class to a student under his newly issued Padi Cavern Instructor credentials. At 25 dives in a cave or cavern, have you encountered even 5% of anything that can go wrong with a cavern student? Of course not. It takes time to advance. Honestly, you can't know how to overcome some problems, if you don't even know those problems could exist. And that doesn't happen until you've experienced it, or at least been told about it. And you simply can't know it all spending two weeks underwater.

Go slow. It's not a sprint. It's a marathon. It's not the finish line that brings the prize, but the journey to the finish line that is the prize.

 

[Superlyte27]

I wasn't picking on you too much KWS. And I wouldn't have thrown you under the bus.

 

[NAM001]

No biggy,, there were a lot of things learned on those dives

I wasn't picking on you too much KWS. And I wouldn't have thrown you under the bus.

 

[Diving Dubai]

All things being equal, a cold water diver who is used to bulky gloves, a lot of lead, a cumbersome exposure suit, and bad visibility will do better in warm water, than a warm water diver who tries to jump into shockingly cold water, with a thick hood, mittens and 15 lbs more lead than he ever picked up. Of course, all things are not "equal", and in order to be good in a particular type of environment, you need to have experience in it.

Yes and No. A Warm water diver, will be more cautious dropping into cold, because of all the points you correctly raise. However (again generally speaking) a cold water diver freed of those restrictions jumping into warm water is more likely to be more complacent about the conditions and more likely to be caught out.

I'm not saying one is better than the other, I just wish that some cold water people would give the warm water environment some respect. Not all of us go diving with DM's holding our hand.

---------- Post added October 18th, 2015 at 11:20 AM ----------

Nope. Personal experience. Not saying it's universal, though.


Good. Because that's what I was talking about.


What are these "quarries" you talk of?


That misconception is either in your head, or it's a straw man you're setting up. My claim - my only claim - was that statistically, a cold water diver is less likely to be a vacation diver unable to dive safely without a DM holding their hand, and more likely to have proper buddy skills.

Storker. I'm not having a "pop" at you personally - yours was just the post that caught my attention. Again a WW diver is probably going to be more cautious about the cold water environment that a CW diver going to warm. Ive seen quite a few CW divers who just aren't up to the grade because they underestimate our particular challenges.

I personally find the cold debilitating. If I were to dive in your local I'd be stuck to you like glue, having all sorts of issues wearing thick gear, and blowing through my air (mainly muttering about how cold it was through my reg) and a whole host of different issues. But how would you cope in my climate? Kitting up in 45C (+110F in old money) with humidity in the 80's - having the surface water temps in the 30'sC (+90's) but knowing that downstairs the cold water upsurges will be at 20C (68F) A completely alien environment to what you're used to. We would equally be fish out of water in each others back yards.

 

[AfterDark]

As a life long cold water, low vis, ocean diver I find diving in warm clear water much less challenging. Even just fining along is easier without all the extra gear. I don't think I'm a "better" diver, but I do think my regular diving environment has prepared me to deal with other environments with comfort and with confidence.

 

[Storker]

However (again generally speaking) a cold water diver freed of those restrictions jumping into warm water is more likely to be more complacent about the conditions and more likely to be caught out.

I agree.

I'm not saying one is better than the other, I just wish that some cold water people would give the warm water environment some respect. Not all of us go diving with DM's holding our hand

I don't belive anyone has been saying that, either.

Ive seen quite a few CW divers who just aren't up to the grade because they underestimate our particular challenges.

I believe you

how would you cope in my climate? Kitting up in 45C (+110F in old money) with humidity in the 80's - having the surface water temps in the 30'sC (+90's) but knowing that downstairs the cold water upsurges will be at 20C (68F) A completely alien environment to what you're used to. We would equally be fish out of water in each others back yards.

Absolutely. It would probably kill me to have to kit up in 45C, and downcurrents scare the living heebie-jeebies out of me.


I see now that stirring the cold water vs warm water pot was thoughtless of me, I wasn't aware of how it might well be interpreted. Do you mind letting the issue go before the thread turns into another trainwreck? I'd be happy to do that.


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