Flutterby™! : Pool portion of PADI open water SCUBA

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Pool portion of PADI open water SCUBA

2016-01-17 06:30:07.802878+01 by Dan Lyke 1 comments

Pool portion of PADI open water SCUBA cert complete. But

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#Comment Re: Pool portion of PADI open water SCUBA made: 2016-01-17 17:28:13.38863+01 by: Dan Lyke

I started to write something about... well... lots of things, but erased it, and then lost the "But" on my tablet. Tablets and phones are still media consumption devices... Anyway, a few notes:

  1. There's a bunch of cognitive load that isn't yet automatic. It's easy to have the snorkel in, and dive. Tracking the computer and the pressure gauge and what I'm doing to equalitze and, especially in the tight confines of the pool where we're swilling tight circles, keeping track of my buddy and whether my tank is listing is still tough.
  2. Loved my instructor, but... I'm not keen on PADI's educational material. Seems like there's a lot of fluff and promotional crap in it, and with that strewn across the important material, it's hard to glean the bits. I'd like to see what SSI's materials look like.
  3. I could spend another pool day working on neutral boyancy. Granted there wasn't much to track depth with (oh, look, different pool wall), and there wasn't a lot of depth to work in, but just trying to float at a level and "oh, my fins just hit the bottom, oh, I'm right near the surface, oh, my fins..." was tough.
  4. It's amazing how much the day took out of me. I need to make sure I don't cramp up today.

Short version: If you have the option to do your closed water as a 2 day, spread that SOB out. Open water next weekend.