Recently, my brother and I completed our PADI Open Water and Advanced Open Water certifications for SCUBA diving. It was an absolutely amazing experience and a good way to spend the beginning of summer, especially since we live right next to a dive shop. Adventure landed in my lap, best not to waste it.
We went over to the dive shop and paid for the first course, the PADI Open Water SCUBA Diving Certification. Now, for the dive courses, we have two options for the learning portion: eLearning or traditional. The eLearning is done online either through a browser on a laptop or through PADI’s eLearning app on a tablet or phone. With the Traditional, we take home some books and a set of DVDs and go through all the material before then spending a day in a classroom with an instructor going through the material again. Both have their benefits, both their cons. This will be gone into more detail in the next blog post on the Advanced course.
We went with the traditional style. I had time to burn as I wasn’t really doing anything. Also, past experiences with eLearning in other courses I have done have not been the best. We got the material for the Open Water course. The material consisted of a book, dive log, dive table, book on dive tables, and a 2-disc set of videos that go with each section in the book. With the traditional style, PADI recommended either reading a section, then watching a section, or watching, then reading. It didn’t matter, just needed to read the book and watch the videos. We would read each section, then watch the corresponding videos. There were also questions spread through each section and at the end of each section that PADI highly recommended completing.
It took us about a week to completely go through the books and videos. There are several key things I took away from it. First, always breathe when diving. Don’t stop, whatever you do. If there was a way for divers to breathe even more underwater, I am certain that PADI would be pushing it. Second, don’t panic. Big, green, helvetica letters. Don’t Panic. Third, never overexert yourself. If you need to rest, rest. And then fourth, if you have any problems with the previous three things, make a slow ascent back to the surface. Better to be breathing on the surface than having to make a long surface swim than not breathing (again, PADI likes breathing!).
We then went on to do the classroom portion of the learning. We walked over to the dive shop in the morning and sat down in a nice classroom. Our instructor was a great guy with tons of experience. As an instructor, he inspired confidence in the learning process. He walked us through a jeopardy like set-up powerpoint presentation. It was very much the same material in both the book and the videos, just in a powerpoint. We went through the powerpoint fast. Rarely did we have any questions, as we already learned a majority of it in the book and videos. As part of the classroom portion, we completed knowledge reviews that went with each section followed then by a quiz.
We managed to complete the classroom portion very quickly. The classroom portion typically starts at about 8 in the morning and goes to 5 or 6 in the evening. We were out by 12. We also aced each of the quizzes given for each section and the final exam. As we had time, our instructor offered to teach us to use the dive tables. We of course took him up on it and aced the exam for the dive tables. Still done by 12 and surprising the people working at the dive shop.
Of course, just cause we knew the material academically, doesn’t necessarily mean we know how to apply it. The next day we got up long before sunrise and went up to the pool to do our confined water dives. There are 5 confined water dives to do. We did all of them one right after the other. Each confined water dive had us practice skills we might need when in open water. We practiced clearing our masks, recovering regulators, inflating and deflating BCDs, ascending, descending, controlled emergency swimming ascents, fixing loose tanks, sharing air, and removing cramps, and more. Everything we might ever need to do in open water, we did in a pool. We got done and passed with flying colors. We never had to redo a task.
Following our confined water dives, we had to complete a swim test and a float test. The swim test was a 200 meter swim unassisted or 300 meters with snorkel and fins. We would do the swim unassisted, so it would be 8 laps, down and back. Now, a few key things were said about this swim test that blew my mind. First, I could take as long as I wanted. I could stop on the wall, enjoy a drink, and continue on. What mattered was that I swam 200 meters. Second, any stroke could be used. I could even doggy paddle. This was amazing. Past experience with swim tests had been far more stressful, requiring certain strokes to be used certain distances, while all being timed. I of course then took my time swimming.
Easily passed the swimming test and moved onto the floating test. Now the floating test was timed. We had to keep our heads out of the water without touching the bottom or grabbing the wall for 10 minutes. My past experience with treading water was that I could only tread water for 4, maybe 5 minutes, and be completely exhausted afterwards. But the instructor inspired confidence in me and my brother so we went between trying to float and treading water for the full 10 minutes, passing the float test with flying colors.
The next day, we got to go out on the dive boat for our first open water dive. It was about an hour out to the dive site. We were going to be diving on the Edminster Wreck. The Edminster sits about 70 – 75 feet to the sand. The top is at about 50 – 55 feet. We were not going to go down that far though. We would go jump into the water wearing our gear and follow the anchor line down to 40 feet with our instructor, and then be there for about 14 minutes. At 40 feet, we practiced several of our skills of clearing masks and finding regulators. We would then ascend, make the 3 minute safety stop at 15 feet, and then surface. We got on the boat and I had a big smile on my face. It was absolutely amazing. At 40 feet, I could just make out the top of the wreck. I could see the other divers around us. It was amazing.
We then went onto the second dive. This time, we dived on the Oakland Ridges reef as part of a drift dive. We would go down to 25 feet for 25 minutes. We practiced a variety of skills, all of which we did in the confined water dives. We practiced tired diver tows, cramp removals, removing and replacing weights, and the Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent. Once we completed them all with flying colors again, we went onto the drift portion of the dive. It was amazing drifting over the reef and seeing all the fish. We saw plenty of lobsters in all their hidey holes. We would then surface, bringing a day of diving to a close as we learned how to care for the gear on the hour boat ride back to the dock.
The next day we would do our last two open water dives for the certification. The first dive was a wreck dive on the Tracy. The sand was at about 70 – 75 feet. We descended down to the wreck and swam towards a second wreck known as the Merci Jesus. We swam around it, saw a large puffer fish, and swam back to the Tracy. Now, the Tracy is a fun wreck to dive on because it has a large canopy on the stern that any diver can swim through – no need for a certification in wreck diving as the canopy is considered a swim through. Further, under this canopy, schools of fish like to gather, making swimming under the canopy like swimming in an aquarium. We of course swam under the canopy and through the schools of fish. It was amazing. We swam around the Tracy some more seeing some stunning queen angelfish before then ascending. We made our 3 minute safety stop at 15 feet and then surfaced. For this dive we went down to 65 feet for about 20 minutes. It was absolutely awesome.
We then proceeded over to our next dive site for the fourth and final dive for the Open Water Certification. We dived on Oakland Ridges again, this time to 35 feet for 35 minutes. We did our final skills tests, testing our surface and underwater navigation and neutral buoyancy. Once we passed these with flying colors as well, we then drifted with the current, following the reef. We saw four large puffer fish and a small puffer fish among many reef fish. Our instructor also happened across a boat hook as well, just sitting in the sand. We would surface and end the dive. It was a good day of diving.
I had an absolute blast diving. Being underwater for extended amounts of time, breathing, I got to see so many things I had only seen in Youtube videos. There were so many things that were just striking to see. I have vivid memories of the dives I have done since the first one. They will be memories I will have for a long time.
However, I must point out that there are a lot of ways that diving can end very badly. Any carelessness with assembling gear, ascending or descending, or not paying attention to the various pressure gauges and timers, can make the dive end badly, and be a trip to a hospital with a hefty bill. Having received good training, I can dive almost anywhere in most conditions confidently. And if I get to the bottom and don’t think conditions are good for diving, I have the skills to make it back to the surface alive.
I had a ton of fun diving. Each dive was an adventure of its own. I took the risks, saw cool stuff I nor most people would normally see, and walked away happy and with a smile on my face and stories to tell. I am glad I took the opportunity that landed in my lap.