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As you stated, what interests you most is what is going to keep you diving so that is important.
For instance, I love going deep and am actually doing the PADI Tec-Deep courses now for diving deeper than 130’ and making decompression stops, but that definitely isn’t for everyone.
You can always tweak and fine tune your buoyancy so that is a good course.
I also love night diving and most of our inland quarry diving is limited visibility so if you think that is an interest that one is a good one to check out.
Boat diving was one of the last certifications I got just b/c you can go diving on a boat with just your open water card so other than knowledge you don’t gain anything from it (in my humble opinion).
Have fun and I think we may be coming down to Vortex that weekend from Nashville with a group. :-)
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I’ll keep in touch and if you do, I’ll come introduce myself. Boat diving interests me basically because I’m looking into a sit on top kayak as well as equipment needed and such. basically its a simple extra cert to help move into advanced diver cert. I work literally 6 or 7 blocks from the Tennessee river which interests me in both Night/Lim. vis, and search and recovery. Basically all the really awesome things you can find, but you also need Limited visibility because lets face it, its the freaking Tennessee river. Deep is interesting but I’m just not sure if I would use it quite as much as I would use the others.
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LOL ... I know what you mean about the limited vis ... We were diving The LuLu out in the Gulf last October and vis was running ~50’ and people were complaining about poor vis ...
We about died laughing and we told them diving in the quarries around here we considered 20’ GREAT vis’ for diving and often dove in 5 less vis.
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From RockRat2008: LOL ... I know what you mean about the limited vis ... We were diving The LuLu out in the Gulf last October and vis was running ~50’ and people were complaining about poor vis ... We about died laughing and we told them diving in the quarries around here we considered 20’ GREAT vis’ for diving and often dove in 5 less vis.
Our dive club of NJ and Pa. divers went to Bonaire in 71, Ebo Bonaire’s 1st. local DM didn’t want to take us out because a storm had come thru an viz was 50’. The shop owner laughed and told him we would be okay with that.
SSI’s nitrox cert is only for 32 and 36%? That makes the math easy :)
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They also have an advanced nitrox as well.
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Yeah, PADI nitrox is 22%-40% and with my first Tec-Deep class it goes to 50% I believe.
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From RockRat2008: I know what you mean about the limited vis ... We were diving The LuLu out in the Gulf last October and vis was running ~50’ and people were complaining about poor vis ...
We about died laughing and we told them diving in the quarries around here we considered 20’ GREAT vis’ for diving and often dove in 5 less vis. yea ya gotta love that we have such great vis up here in the northeast its the same 25ft is a great day!! lol
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Anything to do with learning about your equipment is good. I did the PADI Equipment specialty course and it helped me decide on the dive kit I wanted to buy. I also did my Emergency O2 provider course when I did the first aid course, prior to my rescue class - another great and beneficial class.
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They are all good courses. I would recommend taken all of them. To answer your question, start with the courses that would benefit you the most according to your diving pattern. For example; If you are mostly doing boat dives, take= boat diving, deep diving, or wreck diving. These courses are designed to improve your skill and ultimately enjoy your dive. So, it would not make sense to take a course in which you would not have the chance to practice with.
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Since you like to learn I would strongly encourage you to take Science of Diving when you are qualified to do so. It is a requirement of SSI Dive Guide and you have a few levels to complete prior to begin eligable but it is a very good course. I would also put Stress and Rescue high on the list as well. But for your advanced open water - get your 25 dives in and most SSI shops will package something like Deep, Boat, Night and Buoyancy.
One question though - how did you get Navigation before completeing OWC? Normally, you have a couple of dives associated with that certification.
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From WarmWaterTurner: One question though - how did you get Navigation before completeing OWC? Normally, you have a couple of dives associated with that certification. was thinking the same as with all dive shops i see up here with EAN Course say Must be open water cert
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Sorry guys I failed to put I’ve completed book work for Nitrox and navigation. When I do my OWC I’ll do 3 of those on nitrox so I will get my nitrox and ow at the same time. One of my dives will also be a simple dive for credit on my navigation cert.
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