Hey Katt, nice seeing a fresh video surface up just as I'm catching up with this playlist today. Found your channel earlier this year when I started taking my PADI Open Water and Advanced Open Water courses during my fieldwork in Curacao. The original video was one of the first I found, and was fun getting new perspectives on your views as a young instructor doing this for a while. I plan to keep practicing and soon go for my Rescue and eventually Dive Masters. Glad to see you keep doing this

Hi Katt pancake ,, Good to see you

Did 3 Dives on one day. Third Dive was almost Zero Visibility. Separated and Lost during Descent. My Instructor Gary trained me well enough to know what to do. Had to perform an Unsupervised Ascent from 30 Ft. And to rejoin my Class on the other side of the training area. At least Willow Springs Park in Richland PA is working on the Visibility problem now.

OW done in month of Sept, 2023.. hardest thing, CESA.. which was not hard, just did it twice

I just failed mine, mainly due to 2 failed CESAs. I think the instruct gave up and didn't complete the remaining tests she had allocated for the day. I asked to try on the next dive, so we did that. I succeeded from 4.5m, but she didn't want to retest me on it from 6m, effectively failing me from dive 3. She sufficiently gave up on dive 3 that we didn't even complete a 20 minute dive even though I had sufficient air left for the 2 minutes needed to make 20 minutes.

It's same with learning to drive, none would ask you how many lessons you had, okay if you go 100, maybe driving a car isn't for you. ☺️ But I always tell, every lesson you made is experiance, so none should be judged because of this. Same with diving, if you feel you need 100 dives before you do the deep diver, fine. I did it with less then 30 dives, but my reason was different. I went several times diving in lake Zurich, we were I guess at 31 or 32m and because I was just AOWD, someone argue with me, it's not allowed etc. But to me it wasn't a big deal 31m fresh water is similar to 30m salt water. So I didn't want this argue anymore, so I did the deep dive certification. Another reason, to me a diving certification is like a driving licence, it doesn't mean you can dive/drive it just started. I alwas say: you can tell you can drive if you drove 100000km by yourself. I did SSI and PADI, SSI was to me to slow, I don't say I hate it, but I think, to enjoy diving you should be allowed to dive until 30m. And then it's okay to slow down. I don't know what you think about? If I was SSI/PADI: - scuba diver (18m) (OWD) - open water diver (30m) - AOWD (40M) as soon as you get rescue diver - dive Master I wonder, what you think about my idea of the certifications. You were dive instructor, may you would think my idea is smart, maybe stupid. Just tell me honest what you think.

Katt, I have a Good One for you. A guy I talk to at the Harley Dealership asked me one day, "How deep can you go without worry about getting the Bends"? He told me he did a Scuba Dive(Not sure if Intro or Course) with a Dive Instructor. And he's asking me that question. Really??? I had to explain to him Depth, Duration and Ascent.

When did you do your open water course? What was the hardest thing

I'm taking the course now. I thought the swim test would happen the first day. But they said we have to do it to earn the certificate. I have already paid for the course and some basic equipment. It feels like putting the cart before the horse. If I can't do the swim, it could be months for me to earn the certificate or be out the money.