Scuba Diving thread?

Glaucus said:
Hey guys, wondering how long and what sort of costs does it take to go from nothing to Adavnce Open Water Diver or dry Suit Diver?
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Not as long as you are probably thinking. I did my Open Water last year. That was over about 5 weeks. I did 4 pool sessions (1 per week) and then a full weekend at Open Water. One of the dives I did there was the Dry Suit speciality. Not a lot to that one. From what I remember you had to demonstrate that you could uncouple your drysuit hose in case your valve got stuck (so you don't end up full of air and floating straight to the surface). I can't remember if you also had to demonstrate how to get out of an inverted position (feet up, legs full of air and floating to the surface). I know I did that in the pool but can't remember if I did it at OW.

After that there is nothing stopping you going straight in for your Advanced. There are 2 ways you can do it. The quick way which again is over a weekend and you do 1 dive/speciality. You have to do a Deep Dive and Underwater Navigation and the other 3 dives are of your choice (Peak Performance Buoyancy/Underwater Photography/Wreck etc.)

The other way is to do it the way I did and do the full speciality for each discipline. As I say Deep and Nav is compulsory. I did Enriched Air, Wreck and Peak Performance Buoyancy. Took me a lot longer to do it but I wasn't in a rush. The good thing by doing it this way is that your full specialities are racking up to go towards your Master Scuba Diver certification. If you want to become Master you need to be AOW, hold the Rescue Diver cert, have 50 logged dives and have minimum 5 specialities.

As for costs, OW cost me about £350. As I did AOW the long way that cost me around another £800/900 (can't remember the final cost as you ay full price for each speciality). If you do it the quick way it is about £450. That pricing is from my local dive club here in Stoke. As divaboy says they can vary though.

Best of luck if you decide to do it. I wish I had done it years ago now!!!!
 
Open water diver course - about £380
Advanced open water course - about £280
Within the advanced open water course you can choose dry suit as your speciality and it won't cost you extra otherwise it's about £150 for the course individually!
It's not that hard, like the guy above said, you just have to demonstrate you can control a runaway inflation and also right yourself from an upside down position.
 
Thanks guys. Very helpful, so easily achievable in a year then.
I'm hopping to go to russia in early 2014 and want to do an ice dive. Can do one without qualifications. Or if you have AOW and(or?) Dry suit you can take the ice diving qualification.

I love snorkeling and diving's the next step, really want to learn it.
 
I think the issue really stems to how you want to learn to dive.

Eg you can do your Advanced Open Water from complete novice (through OW) in 2 weeks in Southeast Asia (eg Thailand) relatively cheaply. However, whilst its easy to pass the exams and the instructors will help you with the answers, it doesn't really teach you to be a good diver..

If however you want to actually learn things and take your time, which is my preferred route, it can take you a long time. I waited until my 30th dive to start my AOW, and even then I only did it because I was diving in the Red Sea, and there is a hell of a lot more to see at 30m with all the wrecks. But I was a much better diver than I would have been if I'd done the quick route.

I've never done dry suit diving but I'd imagine that, much like normal diving, its time in the water and experience of how you maintain buoyancy and control, and that knowledge that helps you out in a potential emergency that makes you competent, rather than taking what are relatively easy 'qualifications'.

I'd certainly be taking my time over Ice diving.
 
Wouldn't want to do it in two weeks but over the course of ~12months you could get a fair few dives in.
Ideally I would like to do the full ice diving 3day course when I'm out there.
 
I would'nt go jumping in at the deep end with ice diving, certainly not without deep and extended range diving techniques drilled into you.
You'll need to manage redundant air sources and how to operate a manifolded twinset. All cold water dives will be like this due to the increased risk of free flow situations.
Not a nice place to be if your skills are a bit green!
 
I didn't fancy rushing it either which is another reason why I did my AOW by doing the full specialities. Took me about 10 months from novice to AOW and that is with doing some pleasure dives inbetween.

Did my first diving holidays this year. Went to The Maldives and Fuerteventura. Since then I have decided I dislike UK diving a bit now (even more since we had a club weekend up at The Farnes in Spetember and had to bin the whole weekend after 5 mins of the first dive as the vis was literally a couple of inches). Just a pain in the backside having to whack on thermal layers, drysuit and all the extra lead I need over here. What bliss in the Maldives to dive in a tee-shirt, shorts and hardly any lead at all!!! I am sure I will get used to UK diving again soon though
 
Slightly more on topic, I did the full specialities too over 2 years and I'm glad I did as I think it better prepared me for my Rescue Diver course. Having seen some people doing the RD course after literally bulldozing their way through OW and AOW, then a month later are certified Rescue Diver.... scary.
 
I went and finally did my openwater a couple of weeks ago in Hurghada. I really enjoyed it.

Did the fast track course because it worked out cheaper than doing the prerequisites in the UK and then the open water dives in the Red sea. Read the book and watched the DVD's (filling in the questions) then did the pool dives in one day and out into the sea for the next two. I then spent the last 3 days doing 2-3 boat dives.

Not sure if I'll do another week for a while but I definitely want to do a day or two here and there depending on where I am.
 
Iceland was cold enough for me at 2°C and they supplied all the gear! Felt like Michelin man wearing it all. I was knackered from putting it all on before I even got in the water.
Bugger that..
Give me shorts, t-shirt and flop over the side of a tender into 30°C waters any day. :D
Bliss..
 
Me and my girlfriend did our drysuit course at wraysbury a few weeks ago, 4°C water. We were so cold after 20 mins in the water we couldn't feel our hands! It was funny trying to unclip a BCD with no feeling in your hands!
We did the drysuit course as we're off to iceland next month to dive silfra. :D
 
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