Refresher Course (1 Viewer)

[Wildfire]

For those of you wanting to hit the FGBNMS with the MARSH dive trip in April, but are feeling a little bit rusty, I was thinking about a Blue Lagoon "overnight" dive trip the weekend of April 15-17 (get there Friday night for a night dive). We can cover compass navigation, I can run you through PADI's Peak Performance Bouyancy Specialty class (ask Nick, this is a REALLY GOOD thing to get). We can do one or two day dives, some table / math problems, even nitrox refresher (for those of you with cert already, I have not yet attained my Instructor for Nitrox, though it's coming soon). We would have dinner out on Saturday night at a local hot-spot, and I will be camping both nights.

Come along, refresh your skills, have some fun, and get wet all over again!

 

[Guest]

For those of you wanting to hit the FGBNMS with the MARSH dive trip in April, but are feeling a little bit rusty, I was thinking about a Blue Lagoon "overnight" dive trip the weekend of April 15-17 (get there Friday night for a night dive). We can cover compass navigation, I can run you through PADI's Peak Performance Bouyancy Specialty class (ask Nick, this is a REALLY GOOD thing to get). We can do one or two day dives, some table / math problems, even nitrox refresher (for those of you with cert already, I have not yet attained my Instructor for Nitrox, though it's coming soon). We would have dinner out on Saturday night at a local hot-spot, and I will be camping both nights.

Come along, refresh your skills, have some fun, and get wet all over again!

What preparations do you think us rusty folk should do in the mean time? Can we do any other dives prior to then?

 

[Niko5]

Sounds good!! Ill be there!

 

[Niko5]

The 15th and 17th isent the weekend is it?

 

[Wildfire]

You're right Nick... I can't read my own calendar...

I MEANT the 13th - 15th.

Kim,
In the meantime, try going back through your logbook, using the dive tables, and see if you can plan your dives, if you come up with the same PG, et cetera. This is normally the hardest thing to re-learn.

Then, rent a tank for a weekend, and do gear assembly / dissassembly drills over and over again.

Then, if you have a compass, try navigating down your driveway and back, or to the mailbox, etc....

 

[Guest]

You're right Nick... I can't read my own calendar...

I MEANT the 13th - 15th.

Kim,
In the meantime, try going back through your logbook, using the dive tables, and see if you can plan your dives, if you come up with the same PG, et cetera. This is normally the hardest thing to re-learn.

Then, rent a tank for a weekend, and do gear assembly / dissassembly drills over and over again.

Then, if you have a compass, try navigating down your driveway and back, or to the mailbox, etc....

Cool.... Maybe I should practce in my pool while I am cleaning it.

 

[Niko5]

Ill come clean ur pool in my scuba gear

So who is coming the 13th - 15th.

I am not to sure about that night dive but would like to give it a try and there would be much better than at the flower gardens!

 

[PygmyAngel]

is there no one who is certified thru NAUI here? Are you all PADI certified? I am not PADI.... I guess this is going to be an issue for me..

 

[ShaneV]

is there no one who is certified thru NAUI here? Are you all PADI certified? I am not PADI.... I guess this is going to be an issue for me..

It will still be a good refreasher course and get you familiar with diving again and preactice good skills, regardless of PADI or NAUI.

Im going to try to make it.

 

[PygmyAngel]

i don't know....i guess i'll see. but i think the refresher in PADI would still be different than NAUI in some ways, wouldn't it?

 

[PygmyAngel]

and can a PADI Instructor verify a NAUI diver refresher course and dives, etc?

 

[ShaneV]

Even if you dont use it as an offical course, it would still be beneficial to get back in the water. The skills in thr refreasher course are valuable regardless of the certifying company.

 

[Wildfire]

is there no one who is certified thru NAUI here? Are you all PADI certified? I am not PADI.... I guess this is going to be an issue for me..

Kim,

No worries. I can bridge you, by DOING the refresher course. You have another certification from an "equivalent instruction" and some prior dives (how many, BTW?) which make you a diver. By completing the refresher (a few dives with me any given weekend) you can then (for a nominal fee) receive a PADI cert card. Also, during the refresher, I plan on teaching one or two specialties, so you could pick those up as well!

 

[Wildfire]

Ill come clean ur pool in my scuba gear

So who is coming the 13th - 15th.

I am not to sure about that night dive but would like to give it a try and there would be much better than at the flower gardens!

Nick, still no word on the headcount. It's soo far off that most people probably only penciled it in anyway.... As long as there is one person who wants the brush up, I'll be there (since it's been a long winter, and I need to refresh my teaching skills as well !)

 

[PygmyAngel]

Okay, Matt...I'll take your word for it...but my issue is, at this point, I have been out of the water so long, I need to read the books and learn the dive tables and relearn how to use my dive computer all over again. This year makes 6 years that I have been out of the water...and I was only diving for a year or so altogether.....and how many dives did I do/have I done? Only 45. But.....my last two dive trips I did were to the Flower Gardens, and that includes the rig dives, too. I did all the dives then, including the night dives, rigs, and all..but that was then....

And still, I wasn't diving for years and years, and I haven't been in so long, that I really would benefit from a mini classroom course as well....not just jump in the water and go, you see.

I haven't even looked at a tank, regulator, bc, etc. in all these years, and only occasionally pulled out my own gear....But we'll see, I guess.

I did get my Advanced Diver's Cert thru NAUI, too, but again, it's been a while.....

 

[Wildfire]

Kim,

I could accomodate a classroom refresher as well, some given evening, or even at night 'round the campfire over the weekend. I can move at whatever pace you need, and it's just like falling off a dock, you never REALLY forget, you just need to find out again. Same thing happened to me after being out of the water for almost 10 years, I borrowed an empty tank from the local dive shop, went home, and practiced putting stuff on over and over and over. I even let my kids help, since explaining it helped me to remember.

Just remember this:

Valve on the Right
Regulators on the Right
Inflator over Gauge

and it should become solid for you pretty quick....

 

[PygmyAngel]

How do we account for the fact that we were supposed to pass certain physical requirements before being able to pass the course when we first got certified? I know we had to do the following by end of the course, or we failed:
- So many laps of the pool without stopping
- 10 minute water tread w/out touching anything
- halfway across pool on one breath....

Are you guys all that fit to do those things? I know I'm not...right now anyway - and before I got certified I had to do many swim practices to get those physical reqmts. met. Are y'all gonna practice any of that on your own or whatever? And if not, doesn't that make us (me) less safe to a buddy diver or for myself in the water?[glow=darkred:adc63703d1][/glow:adc63703d1]

 

[Wildfire]

Kim,

The laps and treading are part of a refresher, but you can do it as a group and get peer emotional (not physical) support. For the lap swim, there is no time limit, it's literally completion. In PADI there is no underwater breathholding requirement, since you would never (practially) do that while diving.

I was also NAUI Open Water and Advanced certified, and the physical component of that program is designed to weed out "weak" divers. PADI's program (hence the reason I'm a PADI instructor) is designed towards you, the diver, having the most enjoyable experience that you can. But part of that is understanding and embracing your own limits, both physical and mental.

If you can get in enough shape to swim 300 meters (6 laps in a standard olympic pool) then you'll be fine for the physical part.

Now, for your real question:

Does that make you a less safe buddy? No, as long as you are up front with your buddy and divemaster about any physical limitations, and you also understand and dive withing your limits. There is so much to see in the ocean, that you can only dive to 30 or 40 feet and still be amazed, or heck, even stick your face in the water on snorkel alone and still see some pretty amazing scenery.

Dangerous is defined as someone with limits, who wantonly exceeds them. I USED to dive on standard air to 200+ feet for 20+ minutes, and then decompressing on the way up, all with one tank. I CANNOT do that anymore (older, out of peak shape) so I wouldn't try that. IF I did try it, then I would be unsafe.