Learning to become a scuba diver takes a lot of time and study.  Once you have signed all the documents, filled out the medical statement, and have been fitted for your wet suit you may begin to wonder how all this equipment will fit together. Now it’s time for the Instructor and a dive master to get things started for your first classroom session. The instructor and the dive master will be with you until you have finished the open water and received your open water certificate. This is just the start of a sport that will take up a lot of your time if you love it. For singles it will be no problem, but if you are married you might want to consider taking your wife into the sport as well. 

    You may think that the open water will be a breeze. Well don’t get over confident! Right at this point there is a lot of study, book work, and getting into the water before you get to the real test, the open water which can be a bit intimidating to some and a lot to others depending where you will do the open water session. A good attitude is a must throughout the class for the confined water training, or pool session. Here you will learn the skills on which you will be tested in the open water. One of my very favorite, was removing the mask, and putting it back on while at 30 or 40 feet. I could never understand why I needed to remove my mask because I would never do that while under water. Well believe me when I say that you want to get this skill down to an art. Several times I have had my mask kicked off while diving much deeper. It’s vital to your success be able to put the mask back on, clear it, and continue to dive.

    Depending on the certifying agency there are a set number of skills that you must master before you meet the requirement of the open water. This is not the place to list the learning objectives because they may differ from the certifying agency that you choose. These learning objectives continue and become more in depth as you continue your scuba diving education, but it all starts with the open water. If you build good diving habits from the start it will benefit you as you continue the sport.

    A scuba diver is a person who loves to get into an underwater environment and become one with it, not harming or removing any of the beauty that is found there. The keys for me were relaxing and buoyancy, “I am here, I am ok, I am continuing to breathe, I can do this, and down I go.” If there were any questions why you couldn’t do this, you would have been told by the Instructor and Dive Master before you ever got to this point.  Remember, “I can do this.”

    You have come a long way; you have taken the written test; you have done well in the pool session; now you are ready; and at last off you go with all your gear that has been provided, in most cases, by the dive shop. Tanks, weights, BCD, (Buoyancy Control Device) fins, mask, snorkel, wet suit, boots, hood, gloves, knife, regulator, and log book which is all the same type stuff you used in the pool from the start. You now know your equipment; you passed the written test, and now for the real thing, the open water test. “Remember you can do this.” 

    In your open water test all you have to do are the same things you did in the pool and always  remember to stay off the bottom of the dive site. These are very important and they will always be the most important while diving. In the places you will be going while diving, you will become the guest in a new and exciting environment. You should remember that you may want to come back to the same site and explore the life that is there. Part of diving is not to disturb the life that’s there; leave it for the next diver who is coming along behind you.

     © 02-03-2005   G. L. McK.