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About Learning Basic Scuba
Diving
At the finest
teaching facility in the Bay Area!
Cal School of Diving, 1750 6th St.
Berkeley, Ca. 94710 www.caldive.net
COSTS:
Our Scuba education courses
include 4 pool sessions of 3 full hours each. Many Dive stores these
days have gone to a "quickie" 2-daycourse. This is not good
training. It is important you get comfortable with SCUBA gear and
practice you're skills until you are as comfortable underwater as you
are driving your car, or bicycle! The cost of your training including
lectures, pool skill training, the use of our SCUBA gear, a textbook, 4
ocean dives and certification card is:
$475.00
PS.. Please be skeptical of $150
courses - they do not include many of services and products listed above.
SCHEDULE: 6:15PM -
9:30 Tues./ Wed./ Thurs. for 2
weeks
OCEAN DIVES:
You have 4 basic choices on where
you do your ocean dives.
Monterey, California
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Cozumel, Mexico
Anywhere there is water (and
diving facilities)
Obviously the ocean dives are more
expensive in Mexico, but the water is much warmer and it includes
4 boat dives rather than 4 shore dives in Monterey. This can appeal to
those over 50 or those not in the greatest physical shape, or those who
just want to go abroad and like to travel to rich beautiful coral
environments. We
have set up our remote locations carefully with safety, price and
comfort as the important parameters.
Our travel department can quote
you current lodging, airfare and lengthof your stay prices.
There are 3 basic parts to SCUBA
education:
1. Academics. The physics of using compressed air, the knowledge
concerning nitrogen absorption underwater, marine and
environmental conditions, assembling and understanding of SCUBA
apparatus, and pre-pool overviews: these are best taught in the lecture
room.
2. Pool work: This is where you
learn to SCUBA dive. Practicing with your mask, snorkel, fins, and
scuba gear. Learning entries and exits from boats or shore, learning
and practicing safe ascents and descents, practicing over and over mask
clearing, ear pressure equalization and monitoring one's air
supply. (Sounds important yes?)
3. Ocean dives: You cannot become
a SCUBA diver just in a pool. You need to demonstrate your learned pool
skills in the ocean with an Instructor doing 4 dives over 2 days. This
is an industry standard and should not be compromised.
Additional costs: Snorkeling
equipment: mask, snorkel, boots, fins and possibly gloves. SCUBA divers
own their own mask, fins and snorkels. It is much more important than
surface snorkeling. You cannot have gear problems 80 feet down.
Costco quality mask/fin/snorkel kits won't do the job.
The first night of class is an orientation lecture including info on
snorkeling gear; orientation to SCUBA gear, and all pertinent physics
for your first pool session. By the time you finish your first
pool, your Instructor will give you an honest appraisal whether you are
going to be a SCUBA diver.
What
it is like to learn to Dive
Most people who walk in our store
are a little intimidated by the gear involved and the creatures in the
ocean. Or even a little shy about the ocean. Well, don't be! The gear
is less complex than your car, by a lot, and the only dangerous animal
in the sea is mankind. Sharks won't eat your head, and you won't run
out
of air and drown because like in an airplane, there are important
gauges
(air, depth, etc.) to keep track of.
The first class is an orientation
class to give you an outline of what's to come including your ocean
diving. We will teach you a few VERY important rules of physics that
are easy to understand but you must be constantly aware of. If you
drive
a car at 60 mph on a 2-lane road and swerve into the traffic on your
left, well, you're toast. We all understand this and drive without fear
paying attention to which way the car is going. New laws of physics in
diving must be understood and in the same way.
You're first pool session is fun!
A swim test is a reality check to see if you should participate in
water
sports. We use wet suits in our warm outdoor pool because even though
the water can be 85 degrees, we talk a bunch and stand around in the
shallow (4.5 ft.) end of the pool a lot.
The hardest skill to master is
mask clearing - purposely flooding your mask underwater and clearing
the water out by exhaling through your nose.
The next few pools are mostly
about safety procedures. You will have been taught all possible trouble
scenarios, two or three times. By the 4th pool you most likely will be
sick of seeing the drain, the fake plastic fish, etc., and will be
craving to see something alive in a bigger environment. Your first
ocean dive will be like your first pool - a little intimidating..
A lot more water and getting in and out of the water and it's deeper
and a bit darker so you will probably listen and stay close to your
Instructors. But after 4 dives over 2 days again you will probably want
to get away from these silly skills and go DIVING.....
We (all Cal Diving SCUBA
Instructors) want you to enjoy yourselves and NOT get hurt. If this all
sounds tough or scary, you're wrong. It's easy and VERY safe.
Television documentaries always play up the drama of big fish and big
storms: why else would people watch. Think more like "Finding
Nemo" without the 12 stepping sharks. Big fish stay far awayfrom
humans! We Homo Sapiens are the dangerous ones.
If you like sports, seawater,
fish, assorted sea animals, quiet and adventure like none other
SCUBA is probably for you.
THE
SCHEDULE
Lecture 1
An overview of you complete
training scenario.
Discussions of: The compression of
gases as you go deeper in water.
Effects of pressure on wetsuits
and buoyancy compensators.
Effects and importance of
expanding air on ascents and time limits underwater.
Effects of holding one's breath
while ascending.
General explanation of the
varieties of snorkeling gear as to pricing, quality and needs.
Hands on description of Scuba gear
including wetsuits, weight systems, tanks breathing regulators,
back-up breathing systems, buoyancy compensators, air supply gauges,
nitrogen absorption computers and compasses.
Assembling the Scuba gear
yourselves.
Pool 1
Over view on the evenings
activities.
Putting on wetsuits (Oh what fun
it is the first time!!)
Assembling your Scuba unit.
Practicing:
Putting your face in the water and
breathing from your Scuba tank.
Going to the bottom (4.5 feet) and
breathing on Scuba.
Taking the Scuba mouth piece out
of your mouth and replacing it while underwater.
Recovery of your mouth piece after
dropping it.
Clearing water from your mask
while underwater.
Using your fins for propulsion.
Discussion on ear equalization to
water pressure as you descend.
First trip to the deep end (IF you
are comfortable about it!)
Free time for practice and zooming
around (WITH the Instructors permission!)
Pool 2
Deep end entry into the pool.
Practice: Review time for mask
clearing and regulator recovery.
Descents in the deep end (another
reminder about ear clearing.
Buoyancy control (shallow end)
Discussion on ascents.
Ascents in the deep end and
filling your Buoyancy compensator upon surfacing.
Out of air situations using
buddy's extra mouthpiece.
Lecture 2
Lectures on:
Review of pools skills.
Review physics from Lecture 1.
All emergency situations possible
in water.
Computation of nitrogen absorption
using Dive tables and mathematics.
Use and parts of a compass.
Underwater navigation.
Description of Scuba gear: its
differences, needs and pricing for future reference (in case you really
get into the sport.)
Description of future dive courses
and their relevance to you.
Pool 3
A different deep water entry.
Review of all skills learned
before.
Taking off you weight belt
underwater and replacing it.
Taking of your Scuba underwater
and replacing it.
Same as above 2 skills but at the
surface.
Emergency ascents.
Towing a tired diver.
Bringing up another diver to the
surface.
Pool 4
Review all previous skills.
Descent down a static line.
Use of hoods and gloves for colder
water diving.
Individual work on particular
skills that need improvement.
If all skills are OK in the
Instructors opinion, free time to zoom around again. (No putting the
plastic fish in the drain!!)
Ocean dives (minimum 4)
All or some of your pool skills
done in the ocean over 2 days.
Classes
starting
every other tuesday!
The SCUBA Instructor Course:
I am sorry I have not offered this course for the last few years. I am old enough to have to spent some time replacing hips and the like, so I can physically remain an active Instructor Course Director. Unlike all other SCUBA agencies, with NAUI; one of the teachers who grades you throughout, also is the person who writes your license - or not! This does not mean our course is tough, but it IS very thorough. Ultimately, I decide whether I would trust you with young children: now 10 - 14; to teach them SCUBA which includes taking them safely into the Ocean! Not too worry! I conduct a free ( for those who continue) weekend mini-course too check on your responsibility. watermanship, and academics. (Read thoroughly the NAUI advanced text). All the technical knowledge you will need is within. We will teach you teaching. All the good paying jobs in SCUBA are primarily NAUI. All Colleges, universities, large tour boats, Police, Firemen/ladies, CIA, Coast Guard, all branches of the military. All Search and Rescue professional teams. Etc., etc. Why? No other agency teaches as much as us and is not interested in making you a walking advertising agent for their agency. Our liability insurance is literally 10 times better than anyone else's! Can you figure why? I hope so. Typically the course is about 100 hours long and requires serious studying on your part. The NAUI Instructor rating is the top rating and you become a voting member of NAUI. No other agency does this. We NAUI Instructors decide the standards of training for NAUI, and by default, the rest of the sport and professional diving community. We are the ONLY non-profit and answer only to ourselves. It is the most prestigious certification in SCUBA Diving! Instructor trainers and Course Directors are only Instructors with specialty training. Each Instructor gets ONE vote on everything NAUI does!!! Divemasters and Assistant Instructor candidates will join in at their appropriate lectures, pools, and ocean work. If you seek one of these levels of Diving, this is by far the best way to get your training. Figure on 25 hours for AI and 35 hours for DM. Hope to see a lot of you this year. Summer, of course, is warm and sunny! Mother nature has a special relationship with NAUI and, well, usually gives us pristine weather for training. Would your Course Director lie?? Jim Larson 5/24/8 Jim Larson 1150 Delaware St. Berkeley, Ca., 94702 H 510 526 7900 C 510 604 6464 Cal School of Diving 1750 6th. St. Berkeley, Ca. 94710 W 510 524 3248 F 510 526 2082 WWW.CalDive.net FrogmanJim@Yahoo.com
Ongoing Assistant
Instructor classes
|
Ongoing Divemaster classes
|
NAUI Instructor Courses: See Jim
Larson
|
Cal Dive and Travel is a unique
educational facility
|
Anyone
for some serious dive medicine?? Just click
8/15/06