A deep systemic problem with diver ed?

[Diver0001]

cornfed once bubbled...

MikeFerrara once bubbled...
Well that's just it. Students don't know what they are supposed to be getting. They don't know when standards are violated.


I'm starting to agree with Mike.

Before I took my AOW class I talked to a few people and shopped around some. Unfortunately this was before I discovered cyber-diving so I didn't have very many opinions to compare. In the end I went with SSI because they looked better on paper. The 24 logged dives seemed like a good I idea along with the fact I would get some actually specializes instead of just exposure to

<snip interesting story>

Cornfed

They're not all like that. I thought I'd throw in a positive story for the counter-balance. I had a really good time in AOW. We did the usual theory and the course consisted of Night dives, deep dives, navigation, searching and lifting.

First was natural navigation, A 15 minute swim around in shallow water with moderate (20ft) viz with the only goal of getting back to where we started. I was made to lead and look for suitable landmarks, swim from object to object and swim slow and watch time, depth, slope, current etc etc (techniques I still use today). The instructor swam beside me but didn't give me any hints as to where to go. The first time I got totally lost and the instructor signed "no" and then took me back to the starting point (he still knew where it was) and made me do it again.....and again.....and again..... With feedback and tips in between dives.

Finally I got back to within sighting distance of the starting point. I was SO inCREDibly happy with myself!

Then we did navigation with a compass. First all kinds of patterns on dry land with a large umbrella used to obscure your view. Only reference was the compass.

Then under water. We left a small marker on the bottom. You had to swim a square 20m on a side and find it again. Then a triangle. Then another square on the other side. Aftre a couple of trys we had this down. It was much easier than natural.

Today my regular dive partners call me "the homing pigeon" because I can dive for an hour and end up within metres of where I started and make it look easy. And I learned most of it in AOW (19 years of practice doesn't hurt either). My dive partners are both DM's too and neither one of them learned to navigate like this. They're learning it from me. It probably wasn't in the standards in 1985 either but I'm happy *every time* I get in the water that my instructor put so much focus on this and took the time to do it as many times as it took.

Deep dives were just short. We went to 40 metres (about 140ft) twice. It was also my introduction to the dive light. I didn't feel narced but I probably was because because I kept thinking "I could stay here forever"

Searching and lifting was interesting. First part of this was trying the U shaped search pattern under water. We were also made to learn how to tie a number of simple knots *with* gloves on and with one hand. That's was part of the homework. During the dives we were made to find an object using a U shaped search pattern and then lift it off the bottom. The first time it was an object that wasn't too heavy and we lifted it with one balloon. The second time we were made to lift a long heavy object with several balloons and coordinating between several divers. The third dive was just searching. A group of a dozen or more divers (I don't recall how many) were made to stand on the beach and wait. The instructor came zooming across the bay in a Zodiac and we saw him throw something overboard. He came to us and said "I lost my weightbelt out there somewhere. Go find it." We were made to do huge U patterns with a dozen divers spaced along a long rope.

We eventually found it. Along with many other objects that had been lost there over the years. I even found a Timex dive watch that was .... you guessed it .... still ticking

The night dives were interesting but not complicated. First time at night, first bioluminescence, first experience getting water in the lamp First encounter with a seal. Very nice dives but actually not technically complicated.

We did one in bad weather too. We had planned on doing lifiting, as I recall, and there were some pretty big waves (at least they seemed big at the time) and rain. We were made to enter at one point and swim under water using natural navigation and come out 200m futher and around a corner at the pier. Vizibility was virtually zero. We only had depth and slope as references and we made it almost all the way back to the pier.

I don't remember how many dives that was all in all but we did 6 weekends. Same length of time it took for OW. Probably it was 12-15 dives, something like that.

A bit about our instructor. He was an older guy who had spent most of his career in and teaching commercial diving. He told me he just taught PADI because he loved diving. Another thing that was a bit different is that we had organised for the University to set up a scuba club and hire him to do the course. They probably paid him too much and that's probably why he spent so much extra time on us.

R..