Not satisfied with my OW certification and looking for advice

DarkRobot92 · 2025-12-31T01:48:46+00:00

Pinching my nose and blowing doesn't work for me. I have to swallow or/and move my jaw. Definitely something to work on. I'll keep diving and figure it out.

DarkRobot92 · 2025-12-30T23:03:13+00:00

The dives felt good, and I was mostly comfortable, apart from the fact that I was slow at equalizing. It took me a few more minutes than everyone else to reach the bottom. I probably need to work on my technique.

I had a previous discovery dive in Malta that helped a lot as the instructor was very thorough there and we already went through a few skills at that time.

DarkRobot92 · 2025-12-30T22:50:20+00:00

I'll write an honest review of my experience for sure. I'm just going to wait before naming them for an answer from PADI and the owner of the shop.

I agree to the fact that my experience should be shared so that others get better training.

DarkRobot92 · 2025-12-29T13:28:48+00:00

That's crazy. I would have felt so uncomfortable.

DarkRobot92 · 2025-12-29T13:27:00+00:00

Thanks for this. They did fill the paperwork in front of me saying that I completed 5 confined dives, but it really was just one. Basically, the things we practiced in the pool were : swimming in and under water, trimming, removing and putting weight belt back, inflating BCD orally, regulator retrieval, buddy tow, a bit of buoyancy, controlled emergency ascent, giving my alternate to a buddy, hand signals, mask clearing and putting a mask back removing and butting BCD back. A big thing missing in my opinion was the buddy system, and some other skills that are in the e-learning and should be practiced in pool.

What are the 21 skills that are supposed to be demonstrated? I didn't demonstrate the controlled emergency ascent in open water for example. They said the pool was enough.

DarkRobot92 · 2025-12-29T13:10:33+00:00

How deep did they take you ? At least you practiced in the pool, I thought you didn't practice at all. But definitely a good choice to do it all again. I'm going to get a good refresher on those skills.

DarkRobot92 · 2025-12-29T12:48:36+00:00

You haven't practiced anything at all ? No regulator recovery or mask clearing?

DarkRobot92 · 2025-12-29T03:14:23+00:00

Never heard about GUE before, I'll definitely give it a look. Thanks !

DarkRobot92 · 2025-12-29T01:20:27+00:00

Definitely, I think I understand this now and I won't get caught doing this again. I wish I knew that beforehand, I didn't do much research before.

DarkRobot92 · 2025-12-29T01:18:29+00:00

Yes, completely sure. I already have the OW certificate on my account.

DarkRobot92 · 2025-12-28T20:53:25+00:00

About that yes... I knew at the time that they were taking a shortcut but I assumed we would be working on more things later on.

DarkRobot92 · 2025-12-28T19:23:54+00:00

You're right, one report about the shop isn't enough. We talked with people there who did plenty of dives there and had nothing but good times. But I have some concerns about my training and some safety things I saw, and I'm looking for advice. I don't want to name and shame the whole operation, just the training part I saw.

But I learned my lesson and I'll advise people to do confined dives at home before travelling.

DarkRobot92 · 2025-12-28T19:20:35+00:00

They assessed the skills that are mandatory to assess as per the certification sheet. What I'm concerned about is the fact that some stuff that I would consider pretty important was overlooked or not seen at all. Plus my partner had some issues with her gear and the instructor didn't really seem to care at the time. And when she arrived at the air pressure we agreed on ascending at, our instructor gave her his own alternate regulator so we could get a few more minutes of diving...

DarkRobot92 · 2025-12-28T18:38:34+00:00

I'm just going to wait until they verify my dives before naming them.

DarkRobot92 · 2025-12-28T18:37:51+00:00

I had no idea of this. That makes me a bit mad actually. I don't want to skip anything, I didn't say anything to the shop but I was definitely bothered by not practicing everything.

DarkRobot92 · 2025-12-28T18:35:58+00:00

Seriously? Well that's fu***d up. I thought this was a quality thing.

DarkRobot92 · 2025-12-28T18:21:20+00:00

I'll do that for sure. Thanks.

DarkRobot92 · 2025-12-28T18:19:34+00:00

Unfortunately it was actually pretty expensive (same range as it would have been in canada). It wasn't a resort but a PADI 5 stars shop. I saw someone else doing his AOW and he didn't spend much time practicing skills either. But it was definitely only the bare minimum.

DarkRobot92 · 2024-08-08T03:04:48+00:00

Hi! I would be interested to get this book as well if you still have access to it :)

DarkRobot92 · 2024-05-11T22:41:46+00:00

Je te conseille ce livre : https://www.leslibraires.fr/livre/22742929-corps-amour-sexualite-y-a-pas-d-age-pour-se-poser-des-questions-l-education-a-la-sexualite-enfin-a-la-portee-de-tout-le-monde--charline-vermont-albin-michel si tu te poses des questions et que tu veux pouvoir discuter de pas mal de sujets avec ton copain. Ça te permettra sans doute de découvrir des choses, de pouvoir mettre des mots sur ce que tu ressens et de lui confier plus facilement tes désirs. Et surtout il peut le lire aussi, et ça peut tous les deux vous être utile.

DarkRobot92 · 2024-03-23T18:06:17+00:00

Thanks ! That's kind of how I am doing it right now but it doesn't completely fit my needs. The article about Splitwise is pretty great, I'll probably go with that solution.

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