Last night brought the last and final classroom and pool sessions for my Open Water course, we were again happy to have Mathew Mendes join us in class and in the pool and the always wonderful Virpi Kangas was able to walk everyone through their questions and put everyone's minds at ease over the upcoming impending 50 question final exam! It was a good class, again most people had their homework done and it was great to have a few minutes to discuss gear with Matt and Shannon. They were able to educate me on the downsides of buying used equipment especially regulators, especially given the cost of service and the warranty on new ones. Case in point, (actual example) I was looking at a used Apeks XTX 200, only $400! New, this reg is $800, that's half off!! What Shannon was nice enough to point out though, is (1) this is your most important piece of equipment, without it, you don't breathe, (2) a used one will need to be serviced, add $150, plus any parts count on at least $100 (if not more), plus any additional parts down the road. A new XTX 200 comes with a lifetime parts warranty and won't need servicing for a year (all regs should get serviced every year). Overall, used is $650+, and any parts until the end of time... a new one is $800 parts included... for $150 (or less) in difference, I'm going new. Shannon and Matt were also great enough to walk me through how to check tanks (as this is an item Shannon says can be a great deal used), they showed me where to look for the inspection labels, hydro stickers and engraved codes required on tanks in Canada. All things that if you didn't know about could result in spending a ton of money.... twice! Once to buy the "Great Deal", and once to pay full price for one you can actually use. The conversation then turned to Dry Suits (which I was learning how to dive last night) and what to look for and the different levels and costs and accessories... etc. Bottom line, if you want to do this right... it's not cheap!
As mentioned, class was great, we reviewed our Review Questions, and took our quiz... 10/10.. yeah me! and then watched our Dry Suit video, and then got into the discussion (this was one of our review questions) on next steps beyond Open Water certification. These steps include, Adventure Diver, this includes a taste of a couple of specialties (typically Deep Diver and/or Wreck Diver), then Advanced Diver, this includes LOTS of specialties to chose from and you get to try out 4 or 5. Then there is the big daddy of them all, the one I am looking at, the Master Scuba Diver Challenge! In this program you get all 12 offered specialties over the course of the year, your Advanced Diver and your Rescue Diver certifications. This is the highest level of recreational diving and the door way to Dive Master and beyond if one is interested. You end up saving almost half the cost over what you would pay if you paid for each specialty separately. This is an amazing deal!
Last night finished at the pool as we learned and practiced our "dry" suit training. After practicing our Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent, righting yourself from an upside down (feet first) ascent, buddy breathing, mask recoveries (yes, again...) and practicing our Neutral Buoyancy we exited to clean up and found out that Dry is a relative term, I WAS SOAKED!! Apparently doing aquatic acrobatics is not conducive to keeping all your seals closed... I have been moderately assured that I shouldn't leak in the cold ocean... at least, not as much... weee! Well, here's looking forward to an early Saturday morning, and my first of 5 Open Water ocean dives.
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