good experiences and bad.
i have my open water certification through padi, and wish to continue my education. i just want to see which approach would be best for me.
i welcome past links too.
i apologize in advance if this is a can of worms
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Ummm.....Kat. Those ain't worms!kat wrote:i was hoping to get your views and experiences as far as the different agencies go.
good experiences and bad.
i have my open water certification through padi, and wish to continue my education. i just want to see which approach would be best for me.
i welcome past links too.
i apologize in advance if this is a can of worms
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At the OW level I would suggest that you don't yet know what you don't know. So for now get maybe ~25 "easy" dives under your belt, no need to push yourself for "deeper/longer" and all that jazz. Sites like EUP, Alki pipeline, Sund Rock, Octopus Hole, and Les Davis come to mind as suitable and within a reasonable distance to Portland. (I don't know much of anything closer). Then try to hook up with a good "advanced" instructor. Warning "advanced" really isn't very sophisticated. Its mostly about expanding your knowledge and experience down to <maybe> 100ft at an otherwise easy site. Or more challenging current intensive sites to max 70-80ft. The biggest misdirection you can take IMO is to get depth focused, those <30dive divers doing 100+ft dives are often just working with bravado over brains.kat wrote: i have my open water certification through padi, and wish to continue my education. i just want to see which approach would be best for me.
Sounder wrote:Under normal circumstances, I would never tell another man how to shave his balls... but this device should not be kept secret.
I cannot speak for the other agencies, but the PADI Adventure Diver course is sometimes confused with AOW. This course is 3 or more dives, that give you a sample of what different dive enviroments are like. You then experience those enviroments with a PADI instructor. The cool thing about doing adventure dives is that you can do adventure dives 1 at a time, or up to 3 in a day.kat wrote: also, is it "acceptable" by all agencies to skip the aow and do the full on specialties instead? i would think that all of the information and practice of a two day class would be more useful than just a quick intro and one dive to try. am i missing the point on that one?
Right on! It's a basic LIFE skill that everyone should have.RSdancey wrote:
You should get CPR/First Aid training. Not for diving - for life. We live in a changed world and all of us should be ready to help when the person next to us needs it.
RyanD
Respectfully disagree with this statement. The shape of your learning curve is most significantly affected by two things ... (1) the way your dive instructor teaches you to think about diving, and (2) the amount of effort you are willing to put into learning how to dive. Only on the second of those two factors will the choice of instructor be unimportant.RSdancey wrote: Take any open water class you can get into. You're learning the very basics. The difference between a great instructor, and a not so great instructor is probably meaningless. Read the coursework, and pay attention to the lectures; when you're in the pool, watch the instructors and follow their directions exactly, when you're in the ocean, do the same. You'll easily pass the course.
cardiver wrote:Ummm.....Kat. Those ain't worms!kat wrote:i was hoping to get your views and experiences as far as the different agencies go.
good experiences and bad.
i have my open water certification through padi, and wish to continue my education. i just want to see which approach would be best for me.
i welcome past links too.
i apologize in advance if this is a can of worms
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