I’ve gotten many emails from people asking about what kind of time frame to take the Advanced Open Water course. Many people feel that taking AOW immediately after OW is a good idea. For a few people, it may be a good idea. However, for the majority of the diving public, this practice should be avoided. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why people take AOW right after their OW course.

1) Learn to dive deeper – Many, many dive operators across the world require the AOW course before letting divers dive certain dive sites. Thus, new divers feel pressured to take the AOW immediately after OW to visit these dive sites. The truth is, you don’t need to dive deep to see some really cool things. There are plenty of things to see within the limits of the OW course. Actually, some of the best things I’ve seen have been while snorkeling. Diving deeper can introduce more complicated dive planning, add more stress (mental and physical) and possible task loading. For the experience diver, they may not believe this to be so. But for a brand new open water diver, slight changes in depth, water temperatures, visibility etc.; can increase stress levels significantly. If new divers strive to dive deeper, then they should gain experience at the OW level first, then gradually move deeper. Gaining more comfort and composure in the water before taking the AOW class will make the transition into deeper diving easier and more enjoyable.

2) Gain more comfort – Many new divers I’ve talked to about this topic have said the same thing. They didn’t feel comfortable in the water after their OW class and want to take the AOW course to increase their comfort level. In my opinion, if you do not have some degree of elevated comfort and confidence in the water after your OW class, then that is a failing of the course, instructor or with yourself. If this is the case, then the OW student should request more time in the water prior to being issued certification. Don’t let any other individual tell you that “you are good enough” when you don’t feel 100% comfortable. Each individual has to judge their own level of comfort in the water and should not be influenced by instructors, peers or divers on the Internet message boards.

3) Diving with Supervision – Many divers who sign up for AOW right away have said they wanted to do more dives with a professional before conducting their own scuba dives. The goal of every open water course is to certify and verify that you are 100% capable of planning and conducting scuba dives WITHOUT the supervision of a dive professional. If you are still unable to do so after your OW class, then that is a failing of the course, instructor or with yourself. Here in the Chicago area, many of the dive stores will hold monthly fun dives with their instructors, staff and experienced divers. I’m sure there are many dive stores (or dive clubs) across the world that do this as well. This is the perfect time to get some help with your dive planning and being able to conduct scuba dives without the constraints of a class environment.

The point of the AOW course should be to improve and build your diving knowledge and skill set. You cannot do that if you do not have a handle with, or are not comfortable with, the basic fundamental skills from the open water course. It is also an opportunity to learn to dive in a new environment. For example, here in the Chicago area, a 30-40 foot dive can be significantly easier than a 100 foot dive. Multiple thermoclines (water temperature changes at various depths) exist and the visibility can easily go from very good to next to nothing in minutes. Learning how to comfortably dive in this type of dynamic environment is one of the benefits of an AOW course.

Anyways folks, I’m a firm believe that slow and steady wins the race. By gaining more experience in between courses, you give yourself a strong base of knowledge and skill to build upon. This will allow you to maximize what you learn in your next scuba class and you’ll have more fun.

Scuba training is an investment in your diving safety and enjoyment. Maximize the return on your investments.

Just before Christmas of 2012, a bunch of us decided we couldn’t wait for the ice to form and took a short trip to France Park Quarry in Logansport, IN. Normally at this time of the year, our local quarries are closed. The folks at France Park were very nice to let us dive there while they were closed. So Andy and I drove a couple hours to Logansport to meet Jim, Donnie, Brian, Samer, Brandon and Wally for a final dive of 2012.

France Park is a nice little place. Max depth was only 20 feet, but the visibility during this time of the year is just awesome. I’d say between 40 and 50 feet. For a midwest quarry, that is very good. Of course, the water temps were cold. Never got above 41F.

Paddlefish at France Park

Our first dive lasted 50 minutes. Samer had some kind of issue on the first dive that kept him from joining us. My guess is that he needed more time to acclimate to the cold water, since we give him crap about being a WWW. Jim lead us around the quarry. I’ve dove a lot of places in the midwest, but this was my first time diving at France Park. Right at the beginning of the dive, Wally stumbles upon a turtle just hanging out next to some rocks. While swimming over to get a better look, Wally naturally puts his hand in the silt and now the turtle’s shell looks like every other rock in the quarry. Thanks Wally.

Brian @ France Park

We continued around the back wall of the quarry. as we made it to the half way point, we must have lost track of Jim, Wally and Brandon. Andy and I followed Brian and Donnie. Here we followed a couple more paddlefish around. This time, they let us get in close and follow them. Andy got some great pictures of them.

We followed the two paddlefish around for about 10-15 minutes and they broke off from us. Brian must have known where we were going as we surfaced right at the same place we went in at. Jim, Brandon and Wally were there waiting for us.

After about an hour surface interval we decided to get back in the water. A lot can happen during that one hour. For example, Wally decided he could touch the top of Brandon’s propane heater with his gloves. Now Brandon’s heater has a permanent Wally hand print on the top if it where Wally’s glove melted. During the surface interval, my argon reg started acting up and was leaking gas. That and the zipper broke on my beloved DUI XM450. Looks like I’ll be diving the Weezle until I get it the zipper replaced. So I decided I wasn’t going on the second dive.

Jim, Brandon, Wally, Samer and Andy did a second dive for about 50 minutes. Brian and I stayed out of the water and discussed the meaning of life and my distaste of the diving industry. From some reason, everybody likes to talk about that with me.

After the rest of the guys surfaced, we packed up our gear and headed to Mr Happy Beef’s for a little bit of lunch and to BS about how awesome we are.

I really like these small little trips. Hanging with my good friends and doing some diving. This is why I dive. Many diving instructors rarely dive for fun, but I’ve found myself enjoying these types of dives. Maybe it’s the people I’m with, but this is why I got into diving and this is where I want to be.

I’m looking forward to the next dive trip with my friends.

I can’t tell you how many people I talk to or see out diving that say they want to become a better diver, but then fail to reach their goal. Now the term better diver is a very subjective term, however it’s the spirit of the effort that matters. The primary reasons why people fail to meet their goal of improvement is that they simply fail to plan out their diving objectives.

Quite a while ago, my friend Jim posted an very nice article about the importance of doing practice dives. While it is important to do practice dives, you won’t improve much if your practice dives are not planned out or unorganized. I have two students, both at different levels of experience, that need improvement to become the divers I believe they can be. I’ve told them both the same thing, they need focused practice. By simply jumping in and bulldozing their way through the water will not help them improve in a timely manner.

Your improvement plan should start long before you hit the water. As a matter of fact, you should be creating and updating your plan at the beginning of each calendar year. Lay out the areas you believe you need to improve and write them down somewhere that you see them every time you go diving.

I would put my improvement plans in my wet notes. I listed all my goals for each year. I put them in my wet notes because I could look at them before every dive. By doing this, it kept my focus on what I needed to work on. The goals may appear very broad, but it allowed me to play around with different skills and techniques in that area. As you can see, to reach my goals took a while.

While my friends and I have spent a lot of time underwater doing practice dives, that doesn’t mean you have to do the same. I’m fortunate that I dive quite a bit during the course of the year and can get away with doing many practice dives than fun dives. Many people aren’t so fortunate. Because of this, you should be practicing something from your plan on every dive.

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to quickly chat with Jarrod Jablonski. He told me that every time he gets in the water he is always trying to improve on something. By keeping this in mind before every dive, you should be able be able to start seeing improvements more quickly. Especially if you have your plan of things to improve upon.

That’s the mentality you should be striving for. Work on something on every dive and always focusing on improvement. People laugh at me when I tell them that I want to be a perfect diver. My definition of perfection is that of continual improvement. Perfection, to me, is the path. Along the way there is excellence. It forces me to continually find flaws in my own diving and strive to find ways to correct them.

Simply having a plan just isn’t enough. You need a way to checkpoint your improvement along the way. Review your improvement plan after every dive and compare your performance with your goal. This is where you need to be totally honest with yourself about your performance. Ego will kill any effort towards improvement you may have.

So what do you do after you review your performance? Simple, you take action on your next dive. Strive to improve, even a little bit, from you last dive. This is the important part. A plan is useless if you fail to take any action.

Improvement is a continual thing. You plan, review and take action. Then do it all over again.

Do you have a plan?

I know it’s been quite a while since I last posted anything, but that doesn’t mean I’m not around. I’ve taken some time away from the blog for a number of reasons. Partly to recharge my batteries, but mostly to evaluate where I’m wanting to go with this blog and my scuba diving business.

This year has been great. I’ve been diving a lot this year, but not teaching as much. I started my cave training earlier in the year, we headed to Mackinaw City and had some phenomenal dives, I was able to do some diving with the folks from GUE Seattle and we’ve been out on Lake Michigan quite a bit. I’ve logged close to 100 dives this year and have done more technical dives than any other year in the past.

All this fun diving has me thinking a lot about why I dive and what I’m trying to accomplish with this blog and my diving instruction. In the past, I was trying to spread the word of better diving habits. I believe I have failed in my efforts to bring this message to the masses. It seems that the majority of the diving population just wants to jump in the water, blow bubbles and see the pretty fishes. They’re not interested in being a good diver.

I’m shifting my focus. I no longer want to focus my efforts on spreading the word about better diving to everybody. I’d rather focus my efforts on helping the people who WANT to improve and be good divers. I’ve gotten more enjoyment out of watching divers grow and improve than anything. Those are the people I want to help and train.

So what’s going to change with the blog and diving instruction? Let me first tell you what I’m not going to be doing.

You wont see much dive industry rhetoric as in the past. For the five of you who have been regular readers over the years, you already know that I despise the diving industry. It is apparent to me that nobody in the diving industry is interested in creating solid divers and is only doing things that are in their best interest. I’m different. Now that I have a day job again, I no longer care about teaching a lot and building a business. There are more important things out there. Of course, old habits are hard to break, so bear with me.

I also had a bunch of articles outlined that were targeted to instructors in order to help them improve their classes. I deleted them. I’m no longer going to write about how to create better classes. I no longer care what other instructors are doing. If they want to improve their classes, then come up with their own ideas like I had to. I’m concerned with helping divers, not instructors.

What you will see on this blog? More articles focused on improving your skills, including the skill of using your brain. I’ll go into more detail about how to improve in multiple areas of your diving. I’ll discuss how to move along with your dive training in order to maximize what you learn in class, how retain and use your new knowledge.

I will write more about diving in the Chicago area. My Canadian friend Chantelle writes a great blog about Canadian diving and I enjoy reading her stuff. I’d like to do the same. Diving here is really great and I want the people of the world to know how cool it is to dive here (figuratively and literally). I also hope that it shows local divers how much fun it is to dive here and reassure people thinking about learning to dive that if you can learn to dive here, you can dive almost anywhere.

I want to hear more feedback about what I write about. I want to hear from people that have tried some of the things that I write about. Did it work? Are there any concerns? Like I said, I get a lot of enjoyment watching divers learn and improve.

Is this a good model for my diving instruction? Probably not. I’m not expecting to have many people take classes from me. Probably even less than I had this year. But I’m fine with that. I’m confident that the people who really want to be solid divers will be the ones who will find me. I’m not going to concern myself with fancy scuba marketing techniques, advertising or shameless self promotion.

It’s all about you, the diver. Once I started to improve my diving skills, the level of enjoyment I got from diving really went up. I want you to enjoy diving the way I enjoy diving.

If you read through many of the online scuba diving forums, you’ll probably have noticed that there are a number of similar questions from new divers, or those considering becoming scuba divers. That questions is which training agency should they use? If you are a regular reader here, you’ll know my opinion on the subject. Just for the sake of argument, let’s assume that the training agency was a big factor.

There are a number of training agencies out there. I’m sure there’s more, but here’s a quick run down of a few of the biggest.

• PADI – PADI is the largest agency out there in terms of volume (i.e number of instructors, certified divers, etc.). PADI is based out of California, but originally was founded in Chicago (the real hot bed for scuba diving). PADI became the largest by doing more marketing and advertising than the other agencies.
• International Training (IT) – IT is made up of SDI, TDI & ERDI. SDI came about after a bunch of technical divers formed TDI (for tech training) and wanted to train recreational divers. SDI is strong in the northeast United States, but is gradually becoming larger though the midwest.
• NAUI – I don’t know a lot about NAUI. In the Chicago area, we had one NAUI shop, but I don’t think they are in business anymore or may have moved to another agency.
• SSI – Scuba Schools International (SSI) is slowing gaining some market share. When I first became an instructor, the shop I worked for was a SSI shop but was transitioning to PADI. Which was why they brought me in.
• GUE & UTD – These are two different training agencies. GUE is a non-profit while UTD is a for profit organization. The history between GUE and UTD is complicated, but came out of the DIR/Florida cave diving area.

With all of the agencies out there, which one should you pick? The answer really boils down to the evaluation of one aspect of the training agency. How a training agency trains it’s instructors will give you the best evaluation of the agency.

Why is this important? Because, this is what sets the culture for instructors to teach to and lays the foundation for instructor (and eventually student) performance. Most instructors will teach their classes in the same manner as how they were taught, including instructor training courses. If the classes they had as students were very easy, short cuts taken, etc; then they will most likely teach their classes in the same manner. This is one reason why I’ve rejected the micro-teaching that is taught by PADI.

The instructor training courses need to be difficult, in terms of diving performance. Instructor candidates should be pushed to their limits of diving performance and knowledge. By doing this, instructor candidates will know their limitations and can work on improvement prior to becoming certified to teach students. This also means instructor candidates will be more inclined to push their students to perform better.

If an instructor goes through a very rigorous instructor training program, they will develop more empathy for their students who may also go through a rigorous student course. I remember talking to my GUE Fundamentals instructor Brandon. I joked with him about his enjoyment of watching us fumble around during the class. He said he didn’t enjoy it at all, but he could relate to my frustrations as he went through the same thing. He probably had it even worse for his higher level GUE classes. Empathy is a critical skill for scuba diving instructors to have.

So, the 10 million dollar question is, “How can the prospective scuba diver know how well instructors are trained?” This is a very tricky thing to do and it requires a little bit of thought on the part of the prospective scuba diver. All of the training agencies I listed above put their instructor outlines on their respective web sites. By going through these high level outlines, one can gauge the culture of the training agency.

For example, when you go through these course descriptions, there should be performance requirements that instructor candidates must live up to. There should also be a grading scale and what is the minimum score that the instructor candidate must earn prior to moving onto the next level of instructor training. This will give you an idea of what an instructor must go through to finally get their teaching c-card.

It’s not an easy task when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for. This is why people really need to slow down and think about the diving education they want to receive rather than simply jump in the water and blow bubbles. Taking your time and research the training agency and instructor (more so the instructor) will help ensure that you get a great scuba diving class and lay the foundation for years of enjoyment of the underwater world.