5 Tips For Beginner Open Water Scuba Divers

I do not believe that you can learn to scuba dive through the internet that is not what this channel is about that is why you don't see me in a swimming pool doing masks and regulator skills demonstration videos that's not our job here that is the job of your open water instructor and in the description of this and every video on my channel there's a little disclaimer at the bottom that says something along the lines of we do not believe that you can learn to dive through the internet always seek proper training from a recognized agency them from a certified instructor if you're waiting for the but there isn't one coming the reason we started this channel is the once you're a certified diver where can you turn to for help hints tips and advice big J and we really felt that on YouTube the world's second biggest search engine there was definitely a vacuum there so this mouthpiece Monday I'm giving you my top five pieces of advice that I offer to all my newly qualified open water students [Music] ladies and gentlemen welcome to divers ready thank you so much for being here it's so great to see all your smiling faces my name is James and I'm a professional diving instructor on this channel I use my years of passion expertise to help make you a better diver so if you love scuba diving as much as I do jump on that subscribe button down there and click the little bell icon and that way you'll never miss any of our content so as I said in my introduction this video is for you my newly certified oak water diver congratulations on passing your open water course welcome to the club welcome to the community welcome to the underwater version of a biker gang however you choose to see us we're glad you're here if you're a regular watcher of this channel if you're a regular watcher of this channel you've heard me say in other videos that you cannot become an excellent diver in the 4 or 5 dives it takes to complete an open water course that is not your instructors job your instructors job is to teach you the basic skills of scuba diving and make sure that you're not a threat to yourself or other before they put their name on your certification card so what happens immediately after your open water course you've shaken the hand of your instructor maybe giving them a hug you've taken a sick selfie for your Instagram with them hopefully you've tipped them really well and unless you learn to dive with your local dive shop chances are you're probably never gonna see your open water instructor again I mean unless they spring up on an island in the Caribbean below you're vacationing and surprise you five years after doing your open water course what kind of a lunatic instructor would do that so let me pick up where they left off and offer you my top 5 tips that I give to all my newly qualified open water students tip number one is dive dive dive dive dive dive dive dive dive dive dive dive dive dive dive dive dive dive dive local keep diving dive wherever you live don't drive past a muddy puddle without wondering what's at the bottom of it join your local dive Club go on dive weekends plan vacations around diving if you did your open water course loved the experience grab onto that with both hands jump in with both fins and dive as often as you possibly can now if you're thinking but James I live in a landlocked place there's no diving near where I live I would encourage you to check out the video that I made with Jennifer Idol the first woman to dive all 50 US states because if there's diving in Idaho chances are there's diving where you live - and I'm not hating on Idaho love your spuds tip number two is add variety if and whenever you can try and switch up your dives this is something else I firmly believe in and I've talked about this in other videos as well take two divers both for them have 50 dives one of them has done the same dive 50 times the other one has done 50 different dives this diver is way more experienced same number of dives but more variety and maybe you think you know okay hang on James I live in a landlocked place and yes we do have a local dive club and there is a quarry or a lake nearby that I could go diving in but we've really only got one dive site totally fine dives that one dive site it early in the morning dive it in the evening do it as a night dive dive in all the different seasons and when you're ready try diving it in different equipment configurations you can still get variety in your diving even if you've only got one site to play with it doesn't mean doing 50 dives in 50 different places variety is the spice of life and another way you can add spice to your diving is dive with different people it's fantastic to have a regular dive partner regular dive buddy but diving doesn't have to be a monogamous sports if you dive with new people particularly people who are more experienced than you are you're gonna pick up tips and tricks along the way through osmosis and if that doesn't work for you encourage your non diving friends to take up diving so that's tip number two add variety to your dives my third tip for newly qualified open water divers is don't just do training dives now I have to tread carefully here because obviously there are sub specialties within scuba diving that require extra training that's not my point my point here is don't look at your training agency's cost flow progression chart and they will go on on they look like this and feel like you're on the bottom rung of a ladder with the mountains climbing because first let me tell you you're not on the bottom rung of the ladder there's a rung below you which is all the people who have never tried scuba diving and you're way ahead of them and you're in our gang now it is perfectly okay to be an open water diver and do open water level dives and just go out there and have fun and do fun dives if you just do training dives and you jump from course to course to course pretty soon diving is gonna start to feel like work you go on a vacation and instead of actually getting dives in you're in an air-conditioned to class room instead of actually diving now that may sound highly controversial coming from a person who makes their living from selling dive courses and I'll sell you a dive course but what I won't do is hard sell you a course I won't say that you have to go from overwater to advanced to rescue back to back to back go out there and get some fun dives in between you see it along the Caribbean and you see a lot of big commercial dive centers where somebody comes in for their open water course and before they know it they've signed up for an advanced course and a rescue course back-to-back-to-back which according to training standards of course you can do and by the end of their time there a rescue diver with 15 training dives under their belt and they haven't seen anything it's not a race up the ladder take your time enjoy the ride tip number four do not be afraid to ask questions this is such a big point I should have made it tip number one let's just all agree that these points are in no particular order okay cool your open water course hasn't taught you everything there is to know about diving and the reason I know this is because I'm a professional technical diving instructor and I don't know everything there is to know about diving what did he say I can see the scuba headlines tomorrow technical diving instructor admits doesn't know everything fresh out of your open water course you're gonna need more information to progress as a diver and the best way to do that is by surrounding yourself with people who have been diving longer than you have but there's a little tip for B here and that is be careful who you ask spend five minutes in any of the myriad of online scuba forums and you're gonna quick realize that there is this subset of scuba divers that I like to call the armchair lunatic fanatic who will spend the wee small hours of the morning chewing anybody's ears off will read their random posts now some of these people may know what they're talking about or they may not buyer beware when it comes to getting out there and getting actively involved in your own dive community you're gonna have very strong instincts to separate the good the bad from the ugly divers and it's going mainly down to attitude just remember if you ask a more experienced diver a question and they are just not helpful or refuse to answer that says a lot more about them than it does about you so don't be afraid to ask questions but just be careful who you ask and tip number five invest in your own gear yes maybe you knew this was coming if you saw my video last week about the first five pieces of scuba equipment the newly qualified diver should invest in but I sincerely mean it it is way better to have your own gear now I will make a whole separate video further down the line of owned versus print I've made some of the points in that last video I'm not saying this from a sales perspective I'm coming from a place of loves when you're newly qualified open water diver the most important thing you can do is gain experience and experience breeds confidence if you invest in a quality set of gear that's going to give you confidence through familiarity from having the same gear when you dive in dive out if you rent gear each and every dive chances are it's going to be different gear and that's one more thing you need to learn and it's just adding a stressor that you don't need when you're starting out in your diving path now back to point number two about variety once you've got fifty or hundred dives under your belt and someone suggests hey do you want to try a side mount system hey do you want to try a back plate and wing over the jacket that you've been diving then at that point absolutely branch out and add some of that spice back into your diving but for your first dives and to have your core set of gear set up it's very very important that you breed that consistency if you enjoyed this video don't forget to hit that subscribe button for me click the little bell icon and that way you'll never miss any of our future content you now have my top 5 tips for getting you from dive 5 at the end of your more of course to die 50 we just added up a new playlist I'll put a link to it right here the same specifically at beginner divers and for an added treat I'll put a link to our Grand Cayman series just down below there thank you so much for watching my name's James this was your divers ready mouthpiece Monday for this week dive safe dive often oh you're still here go diving

Channel: Divers Ready

Views: 16,190

Rating: 4.964179 out of 5

Keywords: james blackman, scuba diver, diving, dive gear, dive equipment, open water, underwater, scuba love, diver advice, new diver, scuba certification, scuba gear, diver training, diving hints & tips, scuba diving basics, padi elearning, padi login, advanced open water diver, scuba diving near me, how to diving, scuba diving goa, scuba diving lessons, scuba diving gear, types of diving, deep dive, decompression sickness, dive computer, padi, scuba dive, scuba

Id: ALYQljPKWKQ

Length: 9min 57sec (597 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 05 2019