00:00 – Intro
00:50 – Twin Set Training
02:53 – Recommended Waiting Periods
04:57 – Dangerous Regulator Failure
11:14 – Deep Diving Training
15:17 – APEKS
17:35 – XStream Regulator Any Good?
Mark Gardner
I’m thinking of going to twins partly for a little longer bottom time but primarily redundancy. I’m not chasing depth. Do I need to do any additional training or is a case of strapping them on and doing a few easy dives till I’m comfortable
cags51
hello Mark, I just became open water certified and was wondering if there was recommended waiting period before going to advanced open water or nitrox?
Benjamin Szabo
Hey Mark, great stuff in all your videos, thanks for them! I have a debate with my buddies about a specific danger of regulator failures. Not the stop-of-airflow side (it is obvious) but the other end of the spectrum – overblowing our breathing system.. Some say technically it is possible to get in a life-threatening situation in case a first stage fails in a specific way (probably combined with second stage failure at the same time), while others say it is technically impossible to get a dangerous pressure in your mouth (and way forward). Where is the truth?
MpPhotoPro
Hi Mark, I would like ask you for your opinion about Technical courses / diving. I’m Rescue Diver / Deep / Nitrox diver with over 120 dives mostly in drysuit (quarries, oceans and seas) and I’m thinking about step in to technical diving. Would you be able share your thoughts about Padi Tech40 vs SSI Decompression Diver. Both are max 40m however with SSI I don’t need to change all equipment yet and stage bottle always will be useful in the future. sorry for long question and thanks for videos, they very useful
Kent Georgeson
heard from an LDS here in Texas that I need to sell my APEKs kit as APEKs has gone into receivership and we can no longer get APEKs regs serviced locally. Sounds suspicious but any insight on what’s happening with APEK’s? I have sunk a lot of money in BP/W, regs (sidemount) etc on APEKs….. Should I be worried???
David Hoffmann
What do you think about the Poseidon XStream as a regulator set. I‘m thinking about buying one but recent reviews a very rare and I don’t want to spend this amount of money while being unsure. Thx a lot
Hi, i have my advanced but “only” 25 dives under my belt. Was about 6 years since i last was under water (except my recival that i just did) i live doing cpurse work and learn, and really like beeing with an instructor.. but, should i wait taking some speciallity courses or should i take one or two on my upcoming trip? And, if i should do some courses, which ones would ve recomended? #AskMark
A specialty course can be a good way to ease back into diving after a long hiatus while boosting your skills at the same time. One of the five that you did in your AOW would make sense as you already have credit for the 1st dive, or you can do a local specialty for where you’re travelling.
That being said, if you’re going on a trip that has guided dives then guides tend to be Instructors so go diving with them and just enjoy your diving knowing that an Instructor is close by.
As far as specialties I recommend. Nitrox is always #1. Wreck if you plan on diving wrecks. Drift helps to boost your confidence in current. Otherwise Rescue is always rewarding and some of the Tec courses are good for learning more about gases and diving physiology
@Scuba Diver Magazine Thank you! Nitrox booked, also been thinking about this since my last dive trip, and will take some guided dives as well, and also gotten in contact with a local dive center to get the regular dives in 🙂 Just hoping for the wind to calm down so that the dives can actually happen…
I have used Poseidon Cyklon regulators since 1978. I recently upgraded to the XStream Black. I never thought anything could beat my Cyklon regulators, but DAMN! Easy breathing, light weight, so very little jaw fatigue. And they are good for ANY dive, cold, Nitrox, O2, and rated to 200 meters. They just can’t be beat.
No waiting necessary for AOW in my opinion… But you should take it easy after AOW for your actual experience level to catch up.
Nitrox definitely just do it. I think it was super useful for understanding the basic physics and physiology because OW courses are a bit too brief on this.
Do TDI Nitrox or equivalent rather than a simpler “computer Nitrox” course. You don’t need any prerequisites and it isn’t too hard.
Mark please ramble ….. next question?
Just my opinion, AOW should be done straight after OW, and then you should have the mind set that the AOW was the basics for diving. I think that O.W is daft that after two friends passing they can now go diving on their own anywhere. Yeah good luck.
#AskMark
Hi Mark!
Suunto D5 or EON Core?
almost the same price, and I don’t really care about the size or some kind of smartwatch features. You can also hear a lot about battery life of D5… Which would be better to choose? I’m thinking that maybe one day go further for a tec diver.
#AskMark, thanks for the Q&As love them. I bought a brand new set of Apex DS4 regs DIN ATX40s second stage and octopus, however I have also got a set of Scubapro regs A clamp MK2 with R295 second stage and octopus (second hand but serviced). Which ones are the better regs? I am diving in our Scottish cold Sea Lochs. Any advice welcome.
As a dive professional (NAUI 49497), I would recommend doing the advance course after putting in some quality dives as an open water diver. Getting the buoyancy right, the trim right and generally getting more comfortable in the water. I am very wary of advanced certification and with only 10 dives. Generally, those are the ones I watch over. At NAUI, nitrox course is not a dry course, you still need to get 2 dives on nitrox to get certified.
I waited 1 year (plus 30 dives or so) and it was fun enjoying being an open diver. The rest of the divers dont expect much from you and you can go chill and perfect your skills before the AOW.
#Askmark Hi Mark, love the videos, really look forward to them, I am thinking of upgrading my dive computer from the Suunto Zoop Novo.y budget is around £600 and would want air integration, what would you recommend as the best in this price range ? Many thanks Dale
Don’t worry about waiting. Lots of people will tell you that it’s not ‘advanced’ if you don’t wait and do them back to back. Personally, I think it’s more of a misnomer to call the AOW ‘advanced’ as it teaches skills that should really be in an extended version of OW. If you want to dive frequently and without having an instructor/guide with you all the time (for confidence purposes), I would go for the AOW. You’ll learn basic nav skills and get comfortable with a bit more depth.
If you only intend on diving with instructors/guides anyway, you can hold on for a bit. I would still dive with someone who has some experience and in conditions you’re used to, but the AOW just gives you a little more confidence and some skills to continue to hone.
I took the AOW almost immediately, purely to roll it into the dry suit spec (UK cold water diving) and super glad that I did. It gave me a little more confidence to go out and just dive with other club members. I started off tagging along with instructors/more experienced friends and within a few months and another 50 dives I was the one helping other people to do the same. If I had waited the 50 dives and then done my nav etc, I might not have had the confidence to help lead/tour others around.
Nice to see the XStream getting some love. I got mine a month after getting certified in early 2020 and love it. 251 dives and counting.
I signed up for my AOW after some 15 dives or so. I think its more effective for what Im paying the course for since by then I have more understanding of how things work and how my dives tend to go and therefore I have more specific questions and set more time on things I do really needed to train. And I also have understood more of what my dive comp trying to say relating to the deeper and safer dives.
little longer bottom time and redundancy, I choose a 6l sling tank over twins.
I was told not to bother with AOW unless you find it an absolute need to go down to 30 mts, just do some dives with an experienced diver. I thought PADI now say its necessary to have 20 logged dives to do AOW
I’m a fan of doing the full specialty certs to get AOW. Get your deep, navigation, nitrox, night, dry suit if that suits your environment or pick a 5th you’d enjoy. You’ll get AOW by default. Complete your rescue course and after 50 dives you’ll have master diver by default
I went straight from OW to AOW but it is very much a personal choice. After I finished AOW and asked my instructor what course to do next his answer was “none, just go enjoy what you know now, and enjoy diving for fun.” Best advice ever!
I believe that you can do the AOW course at any time, not the certification makes you advanced, you will be advanced in time, with over 75-100 dives in different places with experiences that make you calm and relaxed, aware of your limits and self-assessment of your current state, which may be different from one dive to another.
don’t mind the rambling. the video is segmented so if i’m not interested in the details i can easily skip to the next segment
#Mark, you are English, feel free to ramble….:)
#askmark I just did a charter dive and we went to 85 feet. My computer Aqualung 200 signaled for a deep stop but the dive master said that deep stops are actually more dangerous. I cannot find a definitive answer. What are your thoughts?
Happy with longer ramblings mark 👍😊
OW to AOW depends solely on your comfort in the water. If you feel you can relax already – then go for AOW right away.
Great video mark!
Personally I quite enjoy the rambling! Makes for some more entertainment!
👍Allways enjoy your scuba experience 👍
#AskMark
Mark I recently bought a Halcyon H-75p Single cilinder pakage, I use to dive recreationaly, I dive once a month. At the first use it work pretty well. In my second dive when I was testing my second stage the air didnt flow… I try to push air but it seems that the valve was stuck, I had to blow pretty hard to the valve back to work. Is this normal ? it happen again in my third dive … Maybe im cleanning or storaging my regulaters wrongly I really dont know, I always dry the cap before the dives and protect the first stage, I always rinse tham and let tham dry hang. Can you help me ?
Many thanks Mark for answered my question. Really appreciate your opinion, thank you