to those of you who have an open water PADI scuba certification...

[purbeast0]

this year i'm doing to do it 100%. i've only dove once a couple years ago in cancun, and i loved it. i'm huge on snorkeling and have done it a ton and will be doing it next week, and possibly a dive. however the first time i dove, i enjoyed it but was also a bit anxious. i want to get certified so that i can fell 100% comfortable in the water and just know what i'm doing.

so this fall i'm going to get certified. there are a couple different ways i can do it, and that is what i'm looking for an opinion on.

i live in the dc metro area and they have things around here where you can do the classwork and pool work, and then you can either do a referral trip somewhere to do the certification dives, or you can go on a trip with them to grand cayman to do the certification dives. you can either do the classes online at your own pace, or do the class in a classroom, and the one i would do if i did it is a full weekend, from 9am-9pm on sat and sun.

the other option i have is to do a full thing with people down in the keys. i planned on making a trip down there with my bro in law and possibly others. we were going to do the online courses up here, and then go down there to do the pool work + 4 dives to get certified, which would take 1.5 days to get the work done down there.

the price on the first one locally is about $100 - $150 more than the price of doing it down in the keys.

pretty much the only reason i would do the first one is if i wanted to do the classroom learning instead of the e-learning - and that is where i'm looking for suggestions.

has anyone done the e-learning course, or know how one compares to the other? in general, i learn better in classrooms with something brand new to me. so i think in general if i was in a classroom i'd probably have an overall better learning experience, since i could ask questions, and i would be forced to learn it all in 2 days and it would probably sink in, instead of learning at my own pace.

on the other hand, is the course being 2 full days overkill?

so i'm basically wondering if people who have done one or the other, or both, give their opinions on it. thanks.

 

[PenguinPower]

I don't know how it works now, but I had to go through a trial (treading water for 15 min, swim 50m underwater in one breath, etc.) before I could even begin the classroom training, let alone the cert dive. This was for basic open water. My advanced open water was even more involved. Even if it has changed, I would 100% recommend the in person classes.

I like e-learning for many things, but something as hazardous as being 100ft underwater is not one of them.

 

[SolMiester]

I got mine when at a Thailand island back in 2002 Kho Tal I think it was, did take 2 days but that included a couple of training dives. Shame I havent had the change to do it again since.
Have to say the night dive was very spooky...

 

[Anubis]

ive done it
take the class room one
go to grand cayman

ill be there From June 14th-21st


2 full days is not overkill, When i was in college it was 1-2 hours a cpl times a week for an entire semester. tons of pool time

 

[purbeast0]

the 2 full days is just in the classroom i think.

 

[K1052]

You'll really be cramming it in over 2 classroom days. It always seemed like those classes had the people who put off certification until right before a big trip.

I would not do the online courses if it were me.

Grand Cayman is a wonderful place to do your certification dives. Did my advanced open water ones there.

 

[rudder]

Really it depends on your ability to learn. Diving is not a difficult skill to learn... But there is a lot of small things to learn that can save you. A lot of this will be more apparent having a skilled, experienced diver teaching you.

 

[DrPizza]

A lot of that pool time isn't so much to teach you new things - a lot of it is so that those things become second nature. It's your life that's on the line - a lot of the skills almost need to be reflexive. Got my certification a number of years ago. Sadly, my wife doesn't want to get certified - claustrophobic feeling with the mask on. There's a lake that we vacation at which has at least a dozen areas I'd love to dive on; and depths no more than 30-40 feet. But, I had "partner" drilled into my head so much, that I dare not do it alone.

 

[alkemyst]

If you were local I'd recommend my friend, ex-military diver and a certified master instructor. I want to get certified myself. His group is a tight outfit...everyone watches out for everyone else and as a result they never have had mishaps.

He was on my last cruise I was on and they did an open shark dive down in the Bahamas.

 

[alkemyst]

Also pool stuff is just cost-effective, you can weed out those that can't handle diving, have ear problems that need to be addressed, etc before dragging them out in a boat and affecting the whole class out on a boat.

The next thing with boat diving is those that can't handle sea-sickness.

 

[yinan]

SCUBA is awesome. I got certified last year and also live in the NoVA area. Pay attention and get all of the skills down, even though you will hopefully never have to use a lot of them. Also, got certified earlier in the summer than later, because the water you may be getting your actual cert in may be cold.
I had to do 5 dives in the cold for my checkout dives and I hope to never have to do another one .

I have so far been to Cozumel, and Bonaire. I am heading to Belize in June. It was awesome being 100ft down and still having awesome visibility and not having to wear a wetsuit because the water was still really warm that far down.

 

[spidey07]

I'm NAUI advance open water.

The more class and pool time the better. You don't want to rush it. As DrPizza said you want to be doing actual TRAINING, so that it becomes 2nd nature and you don't have to think. I think my class was 3-4 weeks, 2 classes a week 4 hours each with pool time each.

Don't rush it, you want to be completely comfortable in the water and have your buoyancy and emergency procedures down pat.

Plus there is a lot of "buddy" work on procedures to share air and things like that, a classroom can't teach that - need to get wet and train on it.

 

[yinan]

And it does take a little while to get used to breathing underwater. I am still a noob and go through my air took quickly, but I am trying to get better.

 

[jaedaliu]

Haven't done it, but have a friend that got certified in Hawaii while on vacation there. He recommended that I do at least my coursework (maybe full certification) on the mainland. He spent 3 full days on getting certified, and while it was worth it, he would rather have had the classroom time back to do vacationy stuff instead.

 

[Paladin3]

I got my NAUI open water from a Sports Chalet in So Cal back in the 80's, and the instructor had been a dive master for the resorts in Hawaii for something like 10 years. He said they do much more at the resorts to help you pass and become certified. Sometimes more than they should since the student is also a guest and they want to keep you happy.

I'd personally opt for whatever gives you more water time, be it pool or ocean. You've got to feel completely comfortable under the water or else you are just asking for trouble.

My instructor used to tie the classes' masks into a ball and attach them to a weight belt in the deep end of the pool. On a single breath we'd all dive in with the goal of untangling the mess and surfacing with our own mask on and cleared. Some people freak at doing stuff like that, but once you are comfortable in the water just about anyone can do it.

I don't know if the resort classes will necessarily teach you to think and problem solve underwater like that.

 

[yinan]

I got my NAUI open water from a Sports Chalet in So Cal back in the 80's, and the instructor had been a dive master for the resorts in Hawaii for something like 10 years. He said they do much more at the resorts to help you pass and become certified. Sometimes more than they should since the student is also a guest and they want to keep you happy.

I'd personally opt for whatever gives you more water time, be it pool or ocean. You've got to feel completely comfortable under the water or else you are just asking for trouble.

My instructor used to tie the classes' masks into a ball and attach them to a weight belt in the deep end of the pool. On a single breath we'd all dive in with the goal of untangling the mess and surfacing with our own mask on and cleared. Some people freak at doing stuff like that, but once you are comfortable in the water just about anyone can do it.

I don't know if the resort classes will necessarily teach you to think and problem solve underwater like that.

While that is good knowledge it is also teaching a lot of things that are
wrong. You do not want to descend that quickly. Also, it gets you out of the habit of checking your gear at the surface before you descend. I would never do something like that to a new student.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

i got certified by The Dive Shop in the DC area. They offered some weekday classes, IIRC it was a couple times a week for a few weeks. First classroom time, later pool time. There were some videos and little bit of homework. They taught SDI/TDI and not PADI, so we learned on computers and didnt touch the dive tables.

This was 9? years ago though so things may have changed.

I did my checkout dives in Millbrook quarry. It was freezing balls cold outside, in November. Needed 3 layers of 7mil suit, plus gloves and hood. That was the worst part of it (the suit), the diving was actually nice and clear below the thermocline.

Despite the environment, I did like doing the checkout dives with the same instructor. I think I would have been intimidated with a resort checkout dive with other divemasters. Going on the trip with the instructor would have been ideal but it just wasn't in the budget at the time.

As for classroom vs online, Im not sure it matters too much. IMO the important things were the in-water techniques & practice.

 

[GasX]

If you are going to do 10+ dives within a month of the class, then go with the convenient option. If you aren't, then go for the more comprehensive version. Whatever foundation you build for yourself with your course and first few dives will go along way to making you as good a diver as you can be...

 

[Scarpozzi]

I did it in 2.25 days for $275 including weights, snorkel, mask, and fins about 9 years ago. You just have to do the classwork and know basics going in.

 

[Paladin3]

While that is good knowledge it is also teaching a lot of things that are
wrong. You do not want to descend that quickly. Also, it gets you out of the habit of checking your gear at the surface before you descend. I would never do something like that to a new student.

We were in a pool, on a single breath. No scuba gear involved. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

There is zero problem with descent or ascent speed if you fill your lungs at the surface. It's only when you breath compressed air at depth that you can fill your lungs with what would be more than a lung-full of air at the surface.

We had to learn a lot of underwater skills like that before the instructor let us put the gear on.

 

[spidey07]

We were in a pool, on a single breath. No scuba gear involved. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

There is zero problem with descent or ascent speed if you fill your lungs at the surface. It's only when you breath compressed air at depth that you can fill your lungs with what would be more than a lung-full air at the surface.

Learning to clear your mask is critical as is finding your mask when it will be inevitably kicked off of your face. It's going to happen.

This is where plenty of pool time helps.

 

[Midwayman]

Do the class room and pool dive back home. Do the open water check dives on a vacation somewhere nice. Doing the classwork on vacation wastes a ton of time you could be diving somewhere nice. Plus it is quite a bit of work. 2 days isn't a big deal to learn the material if you are a moderately good student. If you didn't do so well in school you might like the longer version. Its pretty dense in two days. Online vs in person is mostly a learning style choice.

 

[purbeast0]

i got certified by The Dive Shop in the DC area. They offered some weekday classes, IIRC it was a couple times a week for a few weeks. First classroom time, later pool time. There were some videos and little bit of homework. They taught SDI/TDI and not PADI, so we learned on computers and didnt touch the dive tables.

This was 9? years ago though so things may have changed.

I did my checkout dives in Millbrook quarry. It was freezing balls cold outside, in November. Needed 3 layers of 7mil suit, plus gloves and hood. That was the worst part of it (the suit), the diving was actually nice and clear below the thermocline.

Despite the environment, I did like doing the checkout dives with the same instructor. I think I would have been intimidated with a resort checkout dive with other divemasters. Going on the trip with the instructor would have been ideal but it just wasn't in the budget at the time.

As for classroom vs online, Im not sure it matters too much. IMO the important things were the in-water techniques & practice.

any idea if it was the company "Blue Planet Scuba?"

another thing is that my brother and i want to do it together, and possibly other people may be going on the trip from other parts of the country. but my brother lives 2 hours away and we'd all like to be in the same situation when heading on the trip, so i guess we could just do the e-learning or do the classroom stuff, and just get the referral stuff and do the actual dives when down in the keys.

as far as comfortability in the water, i'm extremely comfortable. i snorkel all the time on vacation and dive down and do all that stuff. but i do want to get certified to feel more comfortable staying underwater, because i did get a little anxious at one point when i was doing scuba the first (and only) time. not really anxious, but i started to think about stuff. i also was the lowest on air by far by the time we went up, and we actually had to go up earlier than others because i was so low. i figured it was cause i have asthma and maybe i was breathing a little heavier than i realized.

 

[spidey07]

As a beginner you'll burn through air a lot faster than others. Over time you'll learn to consume less air and move in a very relaxed fasion. That's why you see others moving so slowly and effortlessly in the water, you want to be breathing very relaxed.

 

[purbeast0]

As a beginner you'll burn through air a lot faster than others. Over time you'll learn to consume less air and move in a very relaxed fasion. That's why you see others moving so slowly and effortlessly in the water, you want to be breathing very relaxed.

yeah that makes sense. i definitely started to get more relaxed as i was down there. i remember the initial descent where i was pulling myself down a rope 30 feet until i was on the ground - that whole thing felt flustering. i didn't realize how loud the bubbles would be when being underwater, and having to pop my ears every few feet going down while holding the rope felt flustering as well. i also remember my flippers keep trying to make my legs float up as i was pulling myself down. just not very smooth in general at the beginning for sure.