fran2bo3, it never seems to fail, I always tend to have students that ask, why must I be able to swim to scuba dive. Here is my explanation. In short, every skill the student will learn, even the 300 yard swim (200 depending on the agency), has value for a particular situation in scuba. I use the scenario of a tired diver or worse an unconscious diver being dragged in by his buddy that may be 100 yards off shore (as most of our quarries around here match that description). Dragging the buddy 100 yards, with out him helping, is the equivalent to the diver swimming 300 yards with no aids. Think of it like resistant training, add weight decrease repetitions or distance. Now from an Instructor's stand point, I have taken a personal vow to do everything in my power to protect my students, so the increased swimming skills both distance and time restraints keeps me in optimal performance for my students and my sake. As far as why each agency tends to continue to use the swimming skills as minimum standards (primarily the WRSTC and the RSTC), I believe because it does set a minimum standard for the Industry as a whole. In a situation where a student dies while in training or even after training (in today's world you can sue anybody for anything at anytime), being able to fall back on standards that are pre-set and have been set that way for a while, will possibly give the Instructor more of a defense in court. I for one have spent well over 600 hours in court (estimated of course, most likely more than that) both in criminal (both local and federal trials) and civil cases from small claims (less than $2500.00 in retribution) to large civil cases (millions of dollars being sought by the claimant) and have learned that no matter how well a lawyer presents a case, it all comes down to, did the defendant follow the rules or not. Now granted there are no guarantees, especially in court, however, I would rather be on the side that has already set standards that are time proven, than to be on the side that says, well times have changed so these old standards are no longer applicable. In 2013, while at DEMA, I spoke to one of the Board of Directors about standards for a particular training agency because of the way it was printed in there Instructor Manual. Now I already knew the answer to the question I was asking (mostly due to my training and experience and common sense, though my wife would disagree with the last part), but I was asking because it was an age restriction on a certain class, and it seemed to be out dated. The answer I got, matched what I already knew, however, it did open the floor for discussion on possibly changing that particular standard, which it did get changed. The point of that last part is, instead of asking on Scuba Board (though if you can weed through all the junk, this is still a great place to ask other Instructors, even crazy ones like me, questions), I would start at the head of standards the WRSTC and RSTC. I might would even start with the agency that you teach for, and see what they have to say about it. I teach for multiple agencies and there has yet to be one that I haven't called at some point and time to ask a question. Agencies in general want their Instructors to call them with questions and concerns, it assures them that the Instructor is giving the best quality of training to his students. In 2014, I called 2 of the agencies I teach for, because of a handicap that a student had, particularly on the swimming. And the advise I got was something that I would have never thought of. One student had a recent knee surgery, and another one had a back problem. Now as smart as I sometimes come off to be (according to my wife), I could not figure out a way for them to do the swim without asking the agency for permission to omit that part of the confined water work. After contacting both agencies, I was giving advice on how to proceed. In the end, both students performed the required swim, (1 did 300 yards / and 1 did 200 yards). Hope this does not confuse you, only trying to give you my perspective on the subject, but I would start with the training agency then contact WRSTC and RSTC. Happy Diving.
Then I lost hold of the line. 
