Skifletch Dives Molasses Reef

[andywg]

There's one thing with the PADI set up I can't work out. Look at the octo position below:

Now when he hands the octo to you there are two choices: have the reg upside down, or have the hose go across your face from left to right before entering the reg from the right.

Why not just put the octo on the other side of the First stage and have them come round from the left hand side of the diver?

/shrugs

I'm now doing my advanced so Wrecks here we come! UK diving is ok but dry suit only! unless you go semi dry and get real cold!

If you seriously want to do UK wreck diving, I would advise looking at the British based club diving organisations. PADI just don't give as good training for our waters as those organisations which were born and grew up here.

 

[jeasko]

Andywg
ref octo position, once qualified its your decision where you wish to place/route equipment, most emphasis is on location and colour, this set up could easily be similar to mine where the octopus is a 360 deg swivel unit so it can be used in any location, also it may be positioned due to twin set or dry bag configuration, plenty of instructors accross the world have personal prefrences, that said the kit may be hired.

As for the club issue, i will have to dissagree, the PADI centre I use down here has way more knowledge than anyone else on this stretch of the coast so much so SAC and BSAC clubs often ask for advice on locations and conditions and charter our RIB, likewise I have been to other clubs (PADI included) that are so clicky its put me off, i'm quite happy to dive with any organisation as long as I have my buddy but you reeally cant make a statement that PADI in the UK are not as good as BSAC, as most dive shops said while I was OZ if they dont all work together in the dive industry no one will survive.

 

[andywg]

Andywg
ref octo position, once qualified its your decision where you wish to place/route equipment, most emphasis is on location and colour, this set up could easily be similar to mine where the octopus is a 360 deg swivel unit so it can be used in any location, also it may be positioned due to twin set or dry bag configuration, plenty of instructors accross the world have personal prefrences, that said the kit may be hired.

Even on a 360 swivel unit, the reg is upside down unless it is a DV that you can change the inlet side on. Most people on twinsets will have a longer DV for handing off (assuming they are on manifold and not twindies) so that the fact the reg may have to have the hose go back on itself is less of an issue (such as the DIR standard set up).

As for the club issue, i will have to dissagree, the PADI centre I use down here has way more knowledge than anyone else on this stretch of the coast so much so SAC and BSAC clubs often ask for advice on locations and conditions and charter our RIB, likewise I have been to other clubs (PADI included) that are so clicky its put me off, i'm quite happy to dive with any organisation as long as I have my buddy but you reeally cant make a statement that PADI in the UK are not as good as BSAC, as most dive shops said while I was OZ if they dont all work together in the dive industry no one will survive.

Being someone who dives in the UK and having trained with both PADI and BSAC I have no doubt that the training on offer from PADI is not as adequate to British waters as BSAC is. Coldwater diving has a completely different set of skills and issues, and that is without touching on the fact that BSAC teaches rescues from day one, not when you feel like being able to help out at a later date.

It's not a matter of working together, it's a simple matter of who has a training structure written up with British waters at the front of it. For example, a very large number of the wrecks in the UK are from 35m down to 50m. On PADI you are looking at very low bottom times due to their lack of decompression diving. On BSAC (or TDI) training you can plan for a longer dive and then get a much better look at what is down there.

This is not about diving with a club, but training with an organisation. If the local club is cliquey, then you move on to another one. Every other diver I have spoken to at other clubs and at dive sites agrees that for holiday diving PADI is more than adequate, but once you are in British waters then the clubs have the edge (or TDI if you fancy some more task loading).

 

[SkiFletch]

FYI, the kit he used was rented . And I'm not sure what his cert was, only that his training was different than my own NAUI/US Navy training