General
Open Water Skills
Now
let's start looking at what you'll be
doing during your open water dives.
Depending on the course location, schedule,
your preferences and other logistical
concerns, you may have already made
Open Water Dive 1, or may make Open
Water Dives 1 and 2 after you successfully
complete Confined Water Dive Three.
You'll do this ifyou're completing only
the Scuba Diver certification. Alternatively,
you may make all your open-water dives
after completing all five confined water
dives.
During
your open water dives, you'll apply
and further develop the skills you've
learned during the confined water dives,
and you'll start picking up some new
skills that you can't practically learn
in a confined water environment. Skills
in both categories may include : 1)
evaluating dive conditions. 2 ) gearing
up for a dive in open water, 3) making
entries and exits through mild surf,
4) swimming on the surface and 5) descending/ascending
in open water.
Evaluating
Dive Conditions
When you arrive at a dive site, you
want 16 know whether the diving conditions
are within your training and experience
limitations. As you learned earlier,
you normally check out the point unpacking
and putting everything on only to find
conditions don't warrant diving. Your
instructor will show you how to account
for considerations like weather, water
temperature, bottom composition, waves,
depth, local area hazards and anything
else that has direct bearing on the
dive. You'll also preplan your entry
and exit points and procedures as part
of this evaluation.
Decide
whether you can make the dive safely.
Remember: This is your decision - you
are ultimately responsible for your
safety, and only you can make the final
decision to dive. If You don't feel
confident about it, your instructor
may have you check your alternate site
for acceptable conditions. If conditions
aren't good, it's best to go do something
else - diving in poor or potentially
hazardous conditions isn't fun. You're
doing this for fun, adventure and challenge
- not to expose yourself to unreasonable
risks.
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