Top 5 things to do after passing your Open Water

Congratulations, you passed your Open Water, well done! Your shiny new C Card is in your hand, here are some ideas for what to do next.

1.  Fill in your logbook.

OK, you recorded your training dives, your correct weighting and other info, now go back and write down what went well for you and what did not go so well.
Think about the areas where you would like to improve your diving, make notes you can refer to later.
Now, the next time you go for a dive you have a guide to what to watch out for and where you can look to improve.

2.  Do some reading.

The interweb is full of diving advice for new divers, some of it is very good, some of it (in my opinion) is downright rubbish and even verging on dangerous!

To help sort the wheat from the chaff here are some of the more reliable sources:

The archives of this blog is an excellent starting point.

PADI, NAUI, SDI, SSI or any of the other training agency sites or blogs, lots of content here.

Scubaboard, the oldest and most reliable of the scuba forums, been around almost as long as the Interweb.

Scuba Diving .com, some good articles and videos.

Watch some videos on the Alec Peirce Scuba Channel on You Tube  – This Canadian guy has been diving and teaching for many years (he is even older than me) and has really good advice for both beginners and more experienced divers alike.

For fun follow some of the Facebook groups, some of the comments and the flaming that goes on really makes me smile 😂😆, just make sure to double check any information, lots of armchair experts on Facebook.

3. Join a local dive club

Clubs always make new members welcome, new friends and new dive buddies. Scuba Diving always has a great social content, enjoy it.

4. Visit your local dive store

Introduce yourself, ask about diving opportunities, make friends with the staff, you don’t need to spend anything, just enjoy yourself. They most likely will have access to an indoor pool for you to try gear and keep your skills sharp

5. Go diving

I left this until last because its the obvious one!
Seriously, if you leave it too long you will forget everything, the more dives you get in when a newbie, the easier everything will become even if you stay away for a while.
Just get out and blow some bubbles.
Come and visit us on the Island of St Kitts.

Remember the mantra “Dive More, Post Less”, don’t become a “Tim Hortons” Diver.