New to scuba diving and have a few questions

[David74]

New to scuba diving and have a few questions
Hi all.
Me and the wife are seriously thinking of starting scuba diving.
Apart from all the gear that cost a fortune, what certificates do we have to take, eg PADI, to be able to dive to different depths and how many meters, as ive studied the Internet for the last 2 weeks looking into scuba diving and what it all entails and its mind blowing.
How long does it take to get our certificates and what certificates are they.
Just to say we will more than likely only be diving in and around the British isle's.
Thanks.

[Polly]

Just answered your other thread...it might be worth deleting one of them to avoid confusion! It doesn't really matter where you post here anyway, nobody can be arsed to complain like they sometimes do on other forums. We're quite a lazy old bunch really....

[Carlylove]

No you are wrong this time Polly!!!

Post in the right place or feel the wrath of a load of (what time of year is it?) damp cold divers BRRRR! (SORRY) GRRRR!

[andy_richardson]

(27-11-2008 12:17 AM)Carlylove Wrote:  No you are wrong this time Polly!!!

Post in the right place or feel the wrath of a load of (what time of year is it?) damp cold divers BRRRR! (SORRY) GRRRR!

Cant be arsed to feel wrathful, so: HMMMM

[Argonaut]

(26-11-2008 09:06 PM)David74 Wrote:  New to scuba diving and have a few questions
Hi all.
Me and the wife are seriously thinking of starting scuba diving.
Apart from all the gear that cost a fortune, what certificates do we have to take, eg PADI, to be able to dive to different depths and how many meters, as ive studied the Internet for the last 2 weeks looking into scuba diving and what it all entails and its mind blowing.
How long does it take to get our certificates and what certificates are they.
Just to say we will more than likely only be diving in and around the British isle's.
Thanks.

First off Scuba diving will seriously damage your bank account - it is not a cheap sport, and there is never an end to buying kit.

That said to me it's worth every penny.

OK .. let's assume you are comfortable in teh water, and can happily snorkel ... ? .... if not go play in local pool.

My suggestion is then go do a try dive, my local club offers free try dives in the pool ...... and while most come out with a huge ear to ear grin, there are a few who simply don't like it .... best to find out when it's free rather than pay for expensive course.

Now if you have tried it and like it ... I can 'advise' you of steps if you go PADI route (there is also BSAC/SAA route - and others can answer on that)

PADI is all about recreational fun diving, so only teaches what you need to know, so very little maths or theory ... and every session includes using kit in teh water.

You could do PADI discover Scuba ... which is really 2 try dives, and if you decide to progress these then count towards your Open water certification.
Although if you do teh try dive in teh pool - there is little point in doing Discover Scuba (could be worthwhile if you wanted to try out on a holiday)

The basic course is OW, it is not hard, and is set to give a slow time sensible introduction to basic skills.

You can elect to do this with one club ... and spread the course over several weeks ... pool sessions & theory, then teh OW dives.

However there is a very useful way of splitting this up .... known as referral system ...here you do the pool work, theory, written test etc., all at slow time in local pool.
Then you chose a totally different dive centre & location to do your OW dives .... and many people will do the pool work in UK and then the OW dives somewhere warm with good viz.
(I did mine in Fuerteventura)
This has advantage that you are not wasting holiday time of pool skills & theory - just diving !

This year we took my son's mate with us to Mexico and he did his referral dives on the Tortuga reef !


Of course you don't need to do referral, you could do the complete OW in UK, and do the dives in some dark, poor viz, cold quarry .... it's your choice


PADI OW is the simplest way to get certified to allow you to dive within limits worldwide - if you take to it, then you have the next step of Advanced OW ... not adavanced at all, simply a continuation of skills, and certifies you for increased step (all about gradual progression)

As mentioned it is not the only way,(nor cheapest) but it is the quickest for recreational diving.

If you have any Q's be happy to try & help.

[Jenkins]

David can I ask you to not post in Bold - it's giving me a headache

OK to answer you question. PADI Open Water (OW) qualifies you to 18m, this is adequate for diving in the UK. From memory the OW took about 5 pool sessions and two days at an inland dive site.

It is well worth looking to do your Advanced Open water (AOW) which qualifies you to 30m, inafct some skippers I have dived with have insisted on it. You can do the AOW immediatly after your OW, however it is commonly recommended that you are best to consolidate your learning and get some experience in first.

Once you have your AOW this is all the training you need to get on most recreational dive sites. Yes there is a wide range of additional courses all of which have their merits but the OW and AOW are the backbone of your training.

Out of interest 40m is considered the limit of "recreational" diving and PADI counts anything below 30m to be a deep dive - yes it is possible to dive far deeper than 40m but additional equipment and training is needed and such diving is commonly refered to as "technical".
Remember the water filters out sunlight so infact most of the wildlife is shallow (conveniantly mostly above 20m), it is generally only really if you are into wrecks that you will find the "need" to explore deeper sites.

[Argonaut]

A logical progression is :
OW ..... AOW .... Deep Speciality ....

That covers you for 40m

Don't rush them though ... worth as mentioned getting some dives in between each course to gain experience and consolidate what you have learned. All easily achived in 12 months.

[air-guzzler]

Hey go for it mate thats the padi way you could be a Dive Master in 100 dives and less than 6 months and think you know it all as for me I already know it All

[DaveS]

You just got me thinking there by using the word 'covered to 40m'. A recent PADI magazine quoted their training manager for Europe talking about insurance and deep dives and what the qualifying depth means.

Basically PADI is a training organisation and therefore train within their standards that say that the maximum depths for certain programmes are 18m, 30m and 40m (excluding Junior qualifications which are less). These depths are the maximum depths to be used <b>during training</b>. Therefore anyone taking a student to 20m on an Open water dive has broken the standards which state that this should be 18m maximum depth during the Open water course (different max depths apply on the 4 dives so I'm abbreviating here). But PADI don't police people after they are qualified.

Anyway - back to the initial point I was making. Once you are qualified then there's nothing stopping you diving deeper but that shold be with the relevant experience. I know a few guys who have been Open Water qualified for years and have thousands of dives and regularly dive to 30m+. Technically they qualified at 18m but their experience probably makes them less dangerous at 30m that a newly qualified Advanced Open Water diver. Unfortunately, most insurance companies tie their cover to the depth that you qualified at. PADI Open Water being 18m no matter what your experience is.

Personally, as a Master Scuba Diver Trainer, according to my holiday insurance I can dive to 40m (ie. the greatest depth I have a qualification for) but the fact that I have a log book littered with 40m+ and 50m+ dives is down to experience and PADI won't be telling me off for it - but if an accident happens I suspect my basic holiday insurance will use it as an excuse not to pay out.

So, all that said - take your time getting the right qualification that allows you to do what you want to do and check your insurance wording carefully when you go diving.

[air-guzzler]

(28-11-2008 10:52 PM)DaveS Wrote:  But PADI don't police people after they are qualified.

Thank god for that they would have given me life for some of the crimes ive committed.

Bad bouyancy !!!
Theft from a wreck
Killing little creatures to feed bigger ones

Oh yeh my log book is not upto date and has loads of depths i should not have been too