Beginner 8 minutes
Which course should I do now?
A situation-by-situation diagnosis, including the possibility that the answer is none
The question usually arrives poorly framed. It's not which course comes next, as if there were a line to follow, but what's limiting me today. Changing the question changes the answer, and sometimes the answer is that you don't need any course at all.
In this article you'll find a diagnosis for real situations (from never having dived to having been out of the water for years) with the recommendation that makes sense in each case, the most common ordering mistakes, and the three scenarios where the right move is not to sign up for anything yet.
Choosing the wrong course doesn't just cost money: it uses up the time and motivation you needed for whatever was actually holding you back.
The right question
The ladder of levels gives the impression of being a queue: entry-level, advanced, rescue, and so on. But there's no timeline, and the real prerequisites are few: the entry level is essential, and at several agencies, such as PADI, the rescue course requires the advanced level first. Beyond that, the rest have no mandatory order. They're tools, and a tool gets bought when there's a job to do.
So the diagnosis starts somewhere else: what frustrated you in your last dives? Did you come back with less air left than everyone else? Did you stay on the boat because the site went below thirty meters? Were you cold? Did you get lost and have to surface to figure out where you were?
Each of those situations points to a different course, and none of them is simply the next rung on the ladder. That's the point.
There's a second question that's just as useful: what do you want to do next year that you can't do today? A trip to a site with current, photography, cold water, wrecks. The answer points to the right training with the same precision as the earlier frustration.
If neither question has a clear answer, hold onto your money for now. Come back and read this again in twenty dives.
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