32 replies to this topic

[zendiver]

Coo's Toe....glad to have you aboard. Very impressive dive history....congrats. Looking forward to getting to know ya and the possibility of diving with ya soon.

-Zendiver

[Walter]

Blublood,

A true advanced course is a great learning experience. OTOH, AOW isn't a true advanced course.

Walter

[Blublood]

Walter,

Yes, I have heard it called a ticket to start learning.

[Walter]

"I have heard it called a ticket to start learning."

I'd be ashamed to describe one of my classes like that. If you aren't learning in my class, I'm not doing my job.

[Bubble2Bubble]

Welcome Coo's Toe

Looks like you already have a fan club here!
Thanks for diving in at SD.com.

Mike

[Coo's Toe]

My deepest apologies to Wreck Wench on the name thing. Apparently all the time I've spent in the garage has affected my basic reading skills. I'll pull out the McGuffys reader and review all the "See Dick, see Jane, see Dick run" stuff to hopefully whip those 1st grade reading skills back into shape. LOL.

For those that don't know me, the garage Jen is referring to is my little workshop, where I have fun building and repairing dive gear. I've completed a number of interesting projects, and have several in the works as we speak, but as you can plainly see, all those lonely nights spent with power tools has played havoc with my communication skills. Hopefully hanging out here will help with that.

To answer your question, WW, I live in Yakima, WA. If you check out a map, you'll realise I must be VERY addicted to salt water, since I make the trip over the mountains to dive at least once a week unless something drastic comes up to stop me.

Walter, I've really enjoyed the singles bar at The Scuba Stop, but it's been so quiet lately I'd kind of given up on it. Hopefully this board will be just as lively, or even better.

Gar, get yourself up here and we'll put that boat through the paces. I can also show you some great places to shore dive, and clue you in to the best commercial dive boats.

Diverlady, I'll keep you posted.

WisconsinGal, hello to you, and thanks for the welcome.

And just because I love all the wierd vibrating smilies around here, I'll leave you with my favorite...

[sapphire]

Coo's Toe is also being too modest. He neglected to mention that, in addition to his diving experience, he had the honor of winning a weekly "SALP" award on another Board!!

Jennifer


PS - "SALP" = "Sea Jay Award for the Longest Post"

[Coo's Toe]

AOW... You've all added some thoughts. I'll add some of my own.

First of all, my local dive shop instructor ( who happens to be PADI ) apparently made a mistake when he let me take the Rescue Diver course. PADI requires you to be "Advanced" before becoming a Rescue Diver. I suppose it was an easy assumption to make. We first met when I came lumbering through his shop with twin 104's asking where his compressor was. Then we did some dives together with the dive club and he saw me doing all the "Advanced" stuff out there in the real world. He was pretty embarrassed when he found out a couple months after the Rescue class that I didn't have an AOW certification.

I never saw the need for that cert, though. Because I was certified in Monterey while working out of town ( I'm an electrician, and had a 7 month job in San Jose ), I really didn't know any local divers, outside of the employees at the dive shop. So being instantly addicted to diving, I was in the shop every other day trying to find buddies to dive with. The shop started signing me up for boat trips, and the buddies who joined me ( when I wasn't heading to the boat alone ) were either instructors or divemasters with the shop. I was doing deep dives and boat dives right out of OW class. By the time I made it back to my home state, I had a good deal of experiance under my belt already. My first buddies in Washington were real night diving junkies, so by watching them and using a little common sense, I was night diving safely. I learned to navigate in OW class. We practiced using our compasses up on the beach. Since I continued to practice this skill after OW class, I soon reached the point where an AOW class wouldn't teach me much about it. I needed a drysuit for the chilly northwest waters, and bought one. The shop who sold me the suit was going to give me an orientation class, but couldn't schedule a pool session while I was in town, and I would've had to make a special trip back. They had been diving with me before, so they walked me through a few pointers and sent me on my way knowing that I probably wouldn't need to schedule the pool session at all. They were right. After a couple dives at the "easy" site where I usually go to try new gear, I was diving dry like a natural. I am a total nerd when it comes to fish ID, so I was playing amateur biologist on every dive, building my knowledge base with books and the internet to satisfy my curious nature. I built a DPV in my garage and taught myself how to use it using common sense and by reading a lot of experianced opinions on the internet. When the DPV exploded underwater and I had to leave it behind, I got to do a search and recovery dive to bring back what was left. As I slowly but surely made friends in the local dive club, I was soon being invited pretty regularly to dive in the San Juans off my buddy's dive boat, where most of our diving is live boat drift diving. All of this experiance kind of made taking the class moot.

Now PADI, and the other OW training agencies will gladly take your money in trade for a plastic card that says you are an "Advanced" diver. But all you'll get is a few dives that only scratch the surface, giving you a limited sampling of the variety of diving experiances out there. But putting any faith in that card is a foolish thing to do. You can take AOW back to back with OW, if I'm not mistaken. What really makes a person an advanced diver is experiance. Anything else is just fluff.

I had the unfortunate luck of having to rescue a couple divers once. They both had AOW certs. But they both nearly drowned because they didn't follow the rules that I can clearly remember learning in my OW class. Things like dropping weights and orally inflating BC's. Sure, they had the credentials. But they didn't practice skills after class, or follow the training they'd recieved in the classes they took. Were they "Advanced"? They do have the c-card that says they are. But the painful lesson they learned that day was that c-cards don't provide any extra positive buoyancy at the surface when things go wrong, and they don't give you any extra air at depth in an OOA emergency.

So keep the skills practiced up. All the c-cards in the world won't save you if you don't practice what you learned in the class out in the real world. An AOW class is a great way to get exposed to new diving situations, but it certainly won't make you an overnight superman.

[Coo's Toe]

Oh no! I think I was busy earning my SALP award while you posted that last comment, Jen!!!

Are you reading my mind or what???

[sapphire]

Oh no! I think I was busy earning my SALP award while you posted that last comment, Jen!!!

Are you reading my mind or what???

LOL, Erin!!

[Walter]

Erin,

That is classic!

Walter

[WreckWench]

So Coo's Toe...you only get forgiven for giving yet ANOTHER nickname IF you tell us why you have Coo's Toe as your handle???? Inquiring blondes...females and probably everyone who has read your posts wants to know as well!!!

As for the SALP award...the only person I know who can rival you is me...and the super admins threaten to edit my posts when I try to win the famed SALP award!

So all I can say is...."Coo's Toe...you are my hero"!!!! LOL!!!

- Wreck WRENCH and WENCH

[Coo's Toe]

I think I'll just shut up and crawl back to the to the other board now... Can't be earning too many awards in one day. LOL.

[Coo's Toe]

Coo's Toe is my little joke. Think Cousteau, and it'll all make sense.

[zendiver]

Uh-Hummmm, I actually think that I could give you a run for your money, but then I would find the need to not only EDIT my own post, but give myself a WARNING also....ROFLMA

-Zendiver

PS - Coo's Toe, don't you dare leave and crawl anywhere....you are welcome as long as you can stand it.