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Training -
I received my dive training at a NAUI affiliated dive shop. The training was extensive, and covered alot of dive science that other organizations don't teach. You may have heard horror stories, like a friend of mine has told me, of the ONE DAY training and licensing schemes that some vacation & dive resorts have put into practice. Stay away from these, as they only teach you enough to get you underwater. It's like learning to fly a plane, but not learning to land the plane. As with anything in life if you want to learn something properly, you must work at it. But don't let that discourage you, because when you are 60 - 120 feet down, watching your bubbles float up, and you Know you have the training to "Land" you back to the surface safely, the feeling is very gratifying! Training Never stops though. You should get and keep a subscription to Dive Training Magazine or one of the other fine dive knowledge magazines, to help stay informed on new techniques or trends.
Graduation -
I graduated from diver training on September 19th 2003, and was third in my class of 9. Since then I have tried to get at least one dive in a year, or as many as I can fit in. It helps at least a couple of weeks before a dive, to keep up with some type of aerobic work out. I like to do some bike riding or skating, and then top it off with some weight lifting. This will help you create more lung capacity and reduce air consumption while diving.
Diving -
So far I have been diving in the local quarrys of my home state. For my future dives I plan to expand outward, throughout America, to Lake Erie, the East Coast, Florida, Texas, The West Coast, and finally Overseas. By then I should be an Old Fart, but at least I will have something to do in my old age.
NAUI Dive Tables - The Dive Tables are a set of letter and number group figures that will help you determine your Residual Nitrogen level after a dive. This is important if you plan on making more than one dive in a 24hr time period. Using the tables you can figure out how much nitrogen you have after a dive, and how much Surface Interval Time you must spend to expel Nitrogen to get to a specific lower Nitrogen level. This can help you to plan your dives so that you can dive longer or more often in a 24hr period, or over a few days. The tables are meant for recreational depths only. So they only go to a maximum depth of 130ft. Technical divers who often go below recreational depths will formulate their own dive plan which they will adhere to strictly. They will also use a dive computer, and other specialized dive equipment.
Dive Logs -
You will find below My Dive Logs. It is important to keep a log of your dives for future reference. This way you can keep track of things like, Air Consumption, Temperature, People you dove with, Best places to dive, and Dive costs etc.
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