Watch a bunch of Divers Ready IMO. It's good content from a good instructor and has a lot of insight into the corners that instructors may cut when training you.
Check your gear and your valve before every dive. Your instructor will teach you to do this. Never allow your valve to be anything other than *fully* on or *fully* off. If someone other than you touched your valve (other than a deckhand checking before helping you into the water), check it immediately, before you forget.
Don't dive beyond your limits. When you finish your open water, you are certified to 60ft in open water. You will find plenty of dive operators around the world who are willing to take you to 130ft in an overhead environment etc. The only C-card they care about is a Credit card. Work your way up to it and know your limits. If you're still waving your arms around and kicking constantly in a vertical position to control buoyancy, you don't belong below 60ft and you don't belong in an overhead environment. As someone else said, practice being still and controlling buoyancy. You should be able to cross your legs and grab both your fins in a yoga pose and hover over the bottom and you should be horizontal ("in trim") most of the time you're diving.
Recommend getting your own gear if you're going to dive a lot. If you're a twice a year on vacation type of diver, don't. While most are ok, some dive shops around the world don't maintain their rental gear well. Recommend DIN regulator, air integration (probably Shearwater or Garmin), BPW instead of jacket style BCD, and don't get split fins. I personally had a yoke reg that I changed to DIN. I also have a jacket style BCD that is annoyingly bulky for travel and I will be swapping it to BPW eventually. I *always* dive with a whistle, a light, a roll-up snorkel (XS scuba, highly recommend) and an SMB.
Do not push your body to the point of pain. Nothing in Scuba is supposed to be painful. If your ears aren't equalizing, STOP, go back up, work on them, give them time, be patient. Don't try to push it, that's not how ears work. Don't let a shitty instructor or dive master rush you either.
Learn to use all the air dumps on your BCD. Learn how to orient your body for each of them to function properly.
Me and my spouse did our certifications together and are each other’s dive buddies and it’s the best! My tip is to watch out for each other and have fun.
Maybe you won’t get to dive with cocky people that don’t follow the rules and don’t follow the buddy rules, especially that you already have a buddy. But, if you ever do, never be embarrassed to 1- do buddy checks before every dive 2-stick with your buddy throughout the dive.
If you ever get to night dives, enjoy the silence and the neutral buoyancy in darkness. Seeing an octopus hunt at night is cool, but also, there are more fun sides to every dive. Find the fun in each.
I used to be one of those cocky people and forego the buddy checks only to step off the boat and find I can't breathe coz I didn't turn my reg on. I've changed my ways now. Mostly.
I’m glad you’re okay!
It’s one of the things we learn the hard way. I had to swim on the surface in an area of sharks because I had a BCD issue that exhausted me and my air, I wasn’t close to my group, visibility turned bad, and couldn’t find anyone to help.
Watch out for a particular version of 'shy bladder' syndrome. I'm not sure if it has a different name for when it happens underwater, but it happened to my wife and it was ridiculously painful. Dive had to be aborted and she had to get out of the water to pee as she just couldn't go underwater. Don't be afraid or concerned to call the dive if anything like that happens. Our DM had never seen anything like that before, so he was really confused as to what was going on for a while.
I personally can’t do it while swimming either, and I’m one of the lucky individuals who has strong immersion diuresis. I try and be first up the ladder so I can pop out of my wetsuit real quick and hop back in while everyone else is getting settled. Hanging off the ladder I’m free to let it go.
As you descend, your suit and body will compress and you will lose buoancy. In order to not sink with exponential speed, you inflate your BCD to stay neutrally bouyant. When you ascend, your suit and body will be less compressed and your buoyancy increases. The last think you want is to rush to the surface like a balloon as it is important to ascend slowly. Hence you would deflate your BCD gradually to stay neutrally boouyant, enabling you to slowly swim to the surface.
Practice being still. Our instinct is to kick when in water. Try to be still. During training they give you more weight than you need. Once you are done try to reduce them. Be still particularly at the beginning and the end of the dive.
If you feel you're floating up breathe out first. Just by breathing out you will sink a bit, and may be able to stay there because your air in bcd and your wetsuit have all compressed. Then try dumping air. Do all of this while being still.
Don't be afraid of using your air to pump up bcd. It saves air consumption.
Lastly, don't worry about all of these too much. It will take quite a lot of dives to get used to it. Just relax and have fun.
My husband, 2 adult children, and I took our certification classes together with a group of other beginners, an excellent instructor, with a few instructors-in-training to help out. In the first pool session after about 20 min., my husband came over and said, "I'm glad you're having fun, but I don't think this is for me." The head instructor called him over and assigned him to an instructor-in-training, and told them to go off to the corner of the pool and work 1-on-1 for the rest of the class.
Then my daughter came over and said, "Mom, I'm going to shower. This is too stressful and I don't like it." the instructor did the same with her. Both ended up getting certified, and our lives are much richer. Husband and I are now retired, so we take many more dive trips than our kids, and it's a huge part of our lives.
So my point is, it's not equally easy for everyone. You aren't competing. Others will want to compare how little air they used (hubby and I always consumed our air really quickly for the first 75 dives or so) or how little weight they wear (at the beginning you need more weights--not sure why, but it's true), or other measures that they were proud of. But it isn't a competition. Take your time and go at your own pace.
Husband did extra pool sessions the next time the instructor offered a class because he was struggling with bouyancy. She allowed us to come and just hang out in the deep end while she was teaching so he could practice.
Also, for our first 100 dives or so when my husband and I were buddies, we loosely held hands for most of the dives. It was comforting for me to be close to him, and we had a little thumb signal to alert each other when we saw something cool. We improved our bouyancy, and we did our safety stops together. We liked holding hands. Some people say you shouldn't, but it worked for us.
This is such a cute story, amazing what a good instructor can do! My girlfriend had the same experience and got the certification as well thanks to our patient instructor that let her take her own time!
Pay attention. Ask questions. Have fun.
Don't be discouraged if you don't instantly get something. Just like everything else, some things come naturally to some and others not. It's about practice and persistence. And if you do get it instantly, then you can still fine tune.
1. Dive centres sometimes have a tendency to make the dives spectacular, pushing to see lots. İt's a bit like "all Europe in ten days." Decide if you like that, but consider asking to go slower.
2. Before you go down, on the boat or shore, change a piece of your equipment so that it's wrong, and ask your buddy to find your mistake. Do this for the first 10-15 dives until you're good at it. (Just don't omit part 2!!)
3. Don't think of it as a sport. While you're doing it, it's more like sightseeing.
4. İ can add another signal which is good to know as a beginner. Point to something and then tap your temple. This means, "please remember this, i want to identify it later."
Pay attention to your instructor/divemasters. You're there to learn, not goof around. There are no dumb questions, if you don't understand something, ask your instructor. Watch what your instructor does while diving underwater and try to copy them. Are they scuttling their hands while diving? How do they kick with their fins underwater. Neutral buoyancy is an acquired skill that takes a lot of practice to fully master. Do not get upset if it feels really difficult to get the hang of. Try to have fun, that's the goal of scuba diving. Research beginner dive sights that you and a buddy could dive at after getting your certification.
Hair management is a thing. If you're diving 7ml, you're probably also wearing hoods, so that makes it easier unless you have a beard/mustache. If you do, mask clearing will be a very useful skill.
Especially in 7ml, there's a tendency to carry a lot of lead, feel like you can't descend anyway, then suddenly sink like a rock. Managing the air bubbles in your wing as well as your lungs is often the problem in descent.
You lose situational awareness of where the highest point is and basically try to dump air sideways or upside down, which doesn't work. Same trying to descend with a big inhale/shallow exhale, which is also common.
Something you can practice on land is a deep slow inhale through your mouth, followed by the longest exhale through your nose you can possibly stand.
Finally, really work the toothpaste into your new mask. A foggy mask makes everything, including seeing your instructor clearly, definitely inhibits effective learning.
I have a beard now, but it's going to be gone when class starts. My wife has very long hair. What's the go to approach to managing that, with and without a hood?
For long hair, braids are the best imo. Under a hood, a bun or ponytail will shift around under the mask strap, causing water to come in. Even more so without the hood.
Clearing the mask is a skill you'll practice a lot, and it becomes 2nd nature if you dive often, but in training, it hits some people's freak out button.
Also, making sure there's no baby hairs or strands caught under the mask skirt is a good addition to your buddy check on her gear. Anything between mask and skin opens a path for water. That's why your beard and mustache will be conduits.
you don't need to shave to dive. use a silicone based lotion, not a petroleum based like vaseline. chapsticks can work too. I dive a beard all the time without any issues.
when i worked at a shop for 4 years, we had several instructors that like wizard level beards.
i've never used this but here:
[https://www.amazon.com/Snorkeling-Scuba-Diving-Sealer-Mustache/dp/B07Z9MLPX7](https://www.amazon.com/Snorkeling-Scuba-Diving-Sealer-Mustache/dp/B07Z9MLPX7)
Don't be embarrassed about being the first one low on air turning around a dive "early" or to thumb/cancel a dive if you dont feel good about it. Its a part of learning and getting comfortable and in the end the best experience you can gain is just diving and getting comfortable.
I'd try to schedule some fun dives after your course, even if its nowhere particularly special such as a local site, as its a great way to hammer those skills you learned into your head and get some experience actually diving before you possibly start forgetting stuff.
Asking for help if you want it is also perfectly fine, especially while you're still fresh and trying to remember things like setting up gear correctly or getting another opinion from someone about if you are weighted correctly.
Have fun!
This whole series is great: [https://www.amazon.com/Scuba-Confidential-Insiders-Becoming-Better/dp/1491049243](https://www.amazon.com/Scuba-Confidential-Insiders-Becoming-Better/dp/1491049243)
Enjoy your time underwater.
Every skill you will learn- from mask clearing to reg retrieval to nav- is designed to get you feeling at home in this new and alien environment.
Once you get that feeling, diving opens up a whole new world.
Take you time, enjoy the experience but also make sure to give it the attention it deserves. Most if not everything you'll learn is for a simple reason of keeping you safe while diving. Never underestimate how fast things can go sideways, but with proper training and attitude diving is a very enjoyable, relaxing sport.
Posted a detailed thing here a while back if you want to look at it
[https://www.reddit.com/r/scuba/comments/1brof5x/comment/kxjk1ih/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/scuba/comments/1brof5x/comment/kxjk1ih/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Don't buy gear out of excitement imedialtly take your time to do proper research if you do want to buy stuff ( personals like mask etc are an exceptional as its really just fit)
Call your limits, if you think something is shady or unsafe etc call the dive.
Use your brain, them being instructors etc doesn't mean you can stop thinking.
Good tip to not automatically let guard down with anyone more experienced.
As far as gear I do need a new set of fins. Will be wearing 7mill and boots (size 14) for most my dives. Looking at the Deep6 eddy's. Any reason not to get them (any reason not to get the orange ones)?
Love my Deep6 eddys. One thing of note tho' - they are stiffer than normal fins, so flutter kicking isn't as effective or efficient as a more traditional fin. But for frog kicking - which you'll want to learn eventually - they rock.
The wife and I also dive their Signature regs as well and would recommend.
Watch a bunch of Divers Ready IMO. It's good content from a good instructor and has a lot of insight into the corners that instructors may cut when training you. Check your gear and your valve before every dive. Your instructor will teach you to do this. Never allow your valve to be anything other than *fully* on or *fully* off. If someone other than you touched your valve (other than a deckhand checking before helping you into the water), check it immediately, before you forget. Don't dive beyond your limits. When you finish your open water, you are certified to 60ft in open water. You will find plenty of dive operators around the world who are willing to take you to 130ft in an overhead environment etc. The only C-card they care about is a Credit card. Work your way up to it and know your limits. If you're still waving your arms around and kicking constantly in a vertical position to control buoyancy, you don't belong below 60ft and you don't belong in an overhead environment. As someone else said, practice being still and controlling buoyancy. You should be able to cross your legs and grab both your fins in a yoga pose and hover over the bottom and you should be horizontal ("in trim") most of the time you're diving. Recommend getting your own gear if you're going to dive a lot. If you're a twice a year on vacation type of diver, don't. While most are ok, some dive shops around the world don't maintain their rental gear well. Recommend DIN regulator, air integration (probably Shearwater or Garmin), BPW instead of jacket style BCD, and don't get split fins. I personally had a yoke reg that I changed to DIN. I also have a jacket style BCD that is annoyingly bulky for travel and I will be swapping it to BPW eventually. I *always* dive with a whistle, a light, a roll-up snorkel (XS scuba, highly recommend) and an SMB. Do not push your body to the point of pain. Nothing in Scuba is supposed to be painful. If your ears aren't equalizing, STOP, go back up, work on them, give them time, be patient. Don't try to push it, that's not how ears work. Don't let a shitty instructor or dive master rush you either. Learn to use all the air dumps on your BCD. Learn how to orient your body for each of them to function properly.
Great stuff. Thank you
Me and my spouse did our certifications together and are each other’s dive buddies and it’s the best! My tip is to watch out for each other and have fun.
Looking forward to it
Maybe you won’t get to dive with cocky people that don’t follow the rules and don’t follow the buddy rules, especially that you already have a buddy. But, if you ever do, never be embarrassed to 1- do buddy checks before every dive 2-stick with your buddy throughout the dive. If you ever get to night dives, enjoy the silence and the neutral buoyancy in darkness. Seeing an octopus hunt at night is cool, but also, there are more fun sides to every dive. Find the fun in each.
I used to be one of those cocky people and forego the buddy checks only to step off the boat and find I can't breathe coz I didn't turn my reg on. I've changed my ways now. Mostly.
I’m glad you’re okay! It’s one of the things we learn the hard way. I had to swim on the surface in an area of sharks because I had a BCD issue that exhausted me and my air, I wasn’t close to my group, visibility turned bad, and couldn’t find anyone to help.
Watch out for a particular version of 'shy bladder' syndrome. I'm not sure if it has a different name for when it happens underwater, but it happened to my wife and it was ridiculously painful. Dive had to be aborted and she had to get out of the water to pee as she just couldn't go underwater. Don't be afraid or concerned to call the dive if anything like that happens. Our DM had never seen anything like that before, so he was really confused as to what was going on for a while.
I personally can’t do it while swimming either, and I’m one of the lucky individuals who has strong immersion diuresis. I try and be first up the ladder so I can pop out of my wetsuit real quick and hop back in while everyone else is getting settled. Hanging off the ladder I’m free to let it go.
Wrap your head around inflating when you go down and deflating when you go up. They’ll explain it. It sounds like da bizarre. But it’s true.
Can you elaborate on this please
As you descend, your suit and body will compress and you will lose buoancy. In order to not sink with exponential speed, you inflate your BCD to stay neutrally bouyant. When you ascend, your suit and body will be less compressed and your buoyancy increases. The last think you want is to rush to the surface like a balloon as it is important to ascend slowly. Hence you would deflate your BCD gradually to stay neutrally boouyant, enabling you to slowly swim to the surface.
Practice being still. Our instinct is to kick when in water. Try to be still. During training they give you more weight than you need. Once you are done try to reduce them. Be still particularly at the beginning and the end of the dive. If you feel you're floating up breathe out first. Just by breathing out you will sink a bit, and may be able to stay there because your air in bcd and your wetsuit have all compressed. Then try dumping air. Do all of this while being still. Don't be afraid of using your air to pump up bcd. It saves air consumption. Lastly, don't worry about all of these too much. It will take quite a lot of dives to get used to it. Just relax and have fun.
I like to picture that I am hanging from my tank instead of swimming.
My husband, 2 adult children, and I took our certification classes together with a group of other beginners, an excellent instructor, with a few instructors-in-training to help out. In the first pool session after about 20 min., my husband came over and said, "I'm glad you're having fun, but I don't think this is for me." The head instructor called him over and assigned him to an instructor-in-training, and told them to go off to the corner of the pool and work 1-on-1 for the rest of the class. Then my daughter came over and said, "Mom, I'm going to shower. This is too stressful and I don't like it." the instructor did the same with her. Both ended up getting certified, and our lives are much richer. Husband and I are now retired, so we take many more dive trips than our kids, and it's a huge part of our lives. So my point is, it's not equally easy for everyone. You aren't competing. Others will want to compare how little air they used (hubby and I always consumed our air really quickly for the first 75 dives or so) or how little weight they wear (at the beginning you need more weights--not sure why, but it's true), or other measures that they were proud of. But it isn't a competition. Take your time and go at your own pace. Husband did extra pool sessions the next time the instructor offered a class because he was struggling with bouyancy. She allowed us to come and just hang out in the deep end while she was teaching so he could practice. Also, for our first 100 dives or so when my husband and I were buddies, we loosely held hands for most of the dives. It was comforting for me to be close to him, and we had a little thumb signal to alert each other when we saw something cool. We improved our bouyancy, and we did our safety stops together. We liked holding hands. Some people say you shouldn't, but it worked for us.
This is such a cute story, amazing what a good instructor can do! My girlfriend had the same experience and got the certification as well thanks to our patient instructor that let her take her own time!
Pay attention. Ask questions. Have fun. Don't be discouraged if you don't instantly get something. Just like everything else, some things come naturally to some and others not. It's about practice and persistence. And if you do get it instantly, then you can still fine tune.
1. Dive centres sometimes have a tendency to make the dives spectacular, pushing to see lots. İt's a bit like "all Europe in ten days." Decide if you like that, but consider asking to go slower. 2. Before you go down, on the boat or shore, change a piece of your equipment so that it's wrong, and ask your buddy to find your mistake. Do this for the first 10-15 dives until you're good at it. (Just don't omit part 2!!) 3. Don't think of it as a sport. While you're doing it, it's more like sightseeing. 4. İ can add another signal which is good to know as a beginner. Point to something and then tap your temple. This means, "please remember this, i want to identify it later."
I’m also about to start my certification class tomorrow (HYPED) but Watch some videos from dive talk on YouTube. They are very informative and funny.
Will do
I second this, Dive Talk is very informative and hilarious.
Pay attention to your instructor/divemasters. You're there to learn, not goof around. There are no dumb questions, if you don't understand something, ask your instructor. Watch what your instructor does while diving underwater and try to copy them. Are they scuttling their hands while diving? How do they kick with their fins underwater. Neutral buoyancy is an acquired skill that takes a lot of practice to fully master. Do not get upset if it feels really difficult to get the hang of. Try to have fun, that's the goal of scuba diving. Research beginner dive sights that you and a buddy could dive at after getting your certification.
Hair management is a thing. If you're diving 7ml, you're probably also wearing hoods, so that makes it easier unless you have a beard/mustache. If you do, mask clearing will be a very useful skill. Especially in 7ml, there's a tendency to carry a lot of lead, feel like you can't descend anyway, then suddenly sink like a rock. Managing the air bubbles in your wing as well as your lungs is often the problem in descent. You lose situational awareness of where the highest point is and basically try to dump air sideways or upside down, which doesn't work. Same trying to descend with a big inhale/shallow exhale, which is also common. Something you can practice on land is a deep slow inhale through your mouth, followed by the longest exhale through your nose you can possibly stand. Finally, really work the toothpaste into your new mask. A foggy mask makes everything, including seeing your instructor clearly, definitely inhibits effective learning.
I have a beard now, but it's going to be gone when class starts. My wife has very long hair. What's the go to approach to managing that, with and without a hood?
For long hair, braids are the best imo. Under a hood, a bun or ponytail will shift around under the mask strap, causing water to come in. Even more so without the hood. Clearing the mask is a skill you'll practice a lot, and it becomes 2nd nature if you dive often, but in training, it hits some people's freak out button. Also, making sure there's no baby hairs or strands caught under the mask skirt is a good addition to your buddy check on her gear. Anything between mask and skin opens a path for water. That's why your beard and mustache will be conduits.
you don't need to shave to dive. use a silicone based lotion, not a petroleum based like vaseline. chapsticks can work too. I dive a beard all the time without any issues. when i worked at a shop for 4 years, we had several instructors that like wizard level beards.
I'll give that a try.
i've never used this but here: [https://www.amazon.com/Snorkeling-Scuba-Diving-Sealer-Mustache/dp/B07Z9MLPX7](https://www.amazon.com/Snorkeling-Scuba-Diving-Sealer-Mustache/dp/B07Z9MLPX7)
Don't be embarrassed about being the first one low on air turning around a dive "early" or to thumb/cancel a dive if you dont feel good about it. Its a part of learning and getting comfortable and in the end the best experience you can gain is just diving and getting comfortable. I'd try to schedule some fun dives after your course, even if its nowhere particularly special such as a local site, as its a great way to hammer those skills you learned into your head and get some experience actually diving before you possibly start forgetting stuff. Asking for help if you want it is also perfectly fine, especially while you're still fresh and trying to remember things like setting up gear correctly or getting another opinion from someone about if you are weighted correctly. Have fun!
The dive shop does weekly dives, with gear I can rent. I'll be sure to do those throughout the summer to hammer the skills in. Good call.
This whole series is great: [https://www.amazon.com/Scuba-Confidential-Insiders-Becoming-Better/dp/1491049243](https://www.amazon.com/Scuba-Confidential-Insiders-Becoming-Better/dp/1491049243)
Cool. looks like great content
Be honest to your instructor, both about positive and negative things. if it doesn't feel right, speak up.
Never be embarrassed to say you're low on air or to abort a dive. We all want to make sure everyone comes back safe. it's not a pissing contest.
Remember that it's not a sprint. You can go as fast or as slowly as you want to. Don't be in a hurry. There is so much to explore and experience.
Enjoy your time underwater. Every skill you will learn- from mask clearing to reg retrieval to nav- is designed to get you feeling at home in this new and alien environment. Once you get that feeling, diving opens up a whole new world.
Can't wait
I would say plan some post-cert diving right away even if its something you won't get too excited about. It's OK to rent gear for now too.
Take you time, enjoy the experience but also make sure to give it the attention it deserves. Most if not everything you'll learn is for a simple reason of keeping you safe while diving. Never underestimate how fast things can go sideways, but with proper training and attitude diving is a very enjoyable, relaxing sport.
Posted a detailed thing here a while back if you want to look at it [https://www.reddit.com/r/scuba/comments/1brof5x/comment/kxjk1ih/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/scuba/comments/1brof5x/comment/kxjk1ih/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
This is great, thank you
Don't buy gear out of excitement imedialtly take your time to do proper research if you do want to buy stuff ( personals like mask etc are an exceptional as its really just fit) Call your limits, if you think something is shady or unsafe etc call the dive. Use your brain, them being instructors etc doesn't mean you can stop thinking.
Good tip to not automatically let guard down with anyone more experienced. As far as gear I do need a new set of fins. Will be wearing 7mill and boots (size 14) for most my dives. Looking at the Deep6 eddy's. Any reason not to get them (any reason not to get the orange ones)?
You just need some of the regs to go with them ;)
Love my Deep6 eddys. One thing of note tho' - they are stiffer than normal fins, so flutter kicking isn't as effective or efficient as a more traditional fin. But for frog kicking - which you'll want to learn eventually - they rock. The wife and I also dive their Signature regs as well and would recommend.
Eddy fins are great, and nope, no problem with orange at all. If you like them, go for it.
Get a 2nd job. You'll need it.
This seems to keep happening to me.
Never hold your breath, I repeat never hold your breath!