My Advanced Certification by Chris Robinson

My Advanced Certification

On a warm Southern California fall day I was on a fast boat heading for Catalina. I was doing the Advanced Open Water certification that particular weekend and so far things had gone smoothly. “Now when we get there, we’re going to head down the anchor line“ Beth, my instructor for this two-day adventure, was almost yelling to be heard above the dull hum of twin diesel engines. For the past 20 minutes we had been reviewing the PADI knowledge reviews which constituted our homework for the class. During the week was Peak Performance Buoyancy and a fun little Night Dive. Yesterday’s program had been two dives at the beach—Navigation and Search and Recovery—today we were going Deep.

There are a number of different classifications of divers. Recreational, Commercial, Tec, Military, etc. The vast majority of us who embrace the adventure and exploration as non-professionals are lumped into the category of Recreational Divers which means we don’t do dives that require decompression stops. The “no-stop” limit is 130 feet. Between the Open Water limits of 60 feet and the no stop limit of 130 feet is Deep Diving. And there’s something about deep diving that gives it an allure all its own in recreational scuba.

We had gone over the knowledge reviews from the Adventures In Diving book and Catalina loomed, Beth was going over the dive briefing. “There might be some current so be sure to hold the line and don’t forget to clear your ears early and often.” Solid advice to be sure. I’m taking this briefing with the only other person in my class, John, a college student who was recently returned from a semester studying in Mexico. There had been five of us, but the three of the group couldn’t make today’s boat trip. I haven’t met John before, but he seems like a nice enough guy, nodding enthusiastically at the advice for the imminent descent. “When we get to 100 feet we’ll level off and do a couple of skills.” I feel a little tension in my shoulders. 100 feet. 100 feet. 100 feet. Suddenly I’m in the twilight zone where all I can hear is Beth’s voice saying “100 feet” over and over again.

So what was I doing here? I mean why was I even taking this class? I’m certified. It’s done. I have a card that will let me go diving anywhere in the world. It’s the only card I need, right? Why did I even bother to enroll in Advanced Open Water and the deep dive that’s core to the class? Was it just ego and the desire for a card that said “Advanced” that brought me to the brink of a 100-foot drop off? Maybe. Then again, maybe there was more to it than that.

Two weeks before this class I had been on a boat in the South Pacific. That day the divers were split into groups—Open Water divers on one side, Advanced Open Water and above on the other side. Jacque, the on-board dive master with the thick French accent and dark tan of a long-time ex-pat, explained the segregation, “I will be guiding zee open water certified divers to zee south side of zee reef where zee depth is about 18 meters. We will have many anemone and small fish. Marco, will take zee advanced divers to zee other side of zee reef where eet drops off to about 40 meters and you will get to see some shark and other beeg fish.” Now it was a great dive for my group. Jacques was a fantastic guide and we did indeed see lots of anemones and more small tropical fish than I had ever seen outside of the Aquarium Of The Pacific. When my group got back to the boat the advanced group was already back aboard talking in loud animated voices. Bouncing on the choppy water during the 25-minute ride back to the dock I listened in amazement as they raved about the sharks and rays they had been swimming with.

That was pretty much how the week went. Almost all of the boat excursions divided the divers into open water divers and advanced divers and while my open water group had some amazing dives, I was always listening enviously to the advanced group. Toward the end of the week I asked Jacques if I could dive with the advanced group. They were going in search of mantas and I had never seen one in the wild. He was polite but firm, “Zis ees for zee Advanced divers only.” I still had a great dive, but later when I was listening to the stories about the mantas, I was plenty envious.

That was my last dive of the trip. On the plane ride back to Los Angeles I was going through the week’s collection of photographs while my friend Budd was doing the same in the seat next to me. I got some great stuff, but when Budd showed me some of his manta and black-tip reef shark photographs, I was mesmerized. At that moment, I decided that I didn’t ever want to be shut out from a dive that was “Advanced Only.”

So here I am talking with John. It’s the usual pre-dive small talk between divers who have never met but are about to buddy up in the water. “Where are you from? How long have you been diving? Where have you been diving? When was your backup regulator last serviced?” In a few minutes we’ll be heading into deep water to see what’s there and when we’re done I’ll have a new card that lets divemasters around the world know that I can line up on the “advanced” side of the boat.