Phish-phood once bubbled...
Out of curiosity as an instructor how do you decide when a student has good enough bouyancy skills to be checked out? I just wonder because so many times people have come on this board and asked for advice on bouyancy and told stories about how they learned their bouyancy etc. It is said over and over again that the only way to get your bouyancy is to dive and practice but how can you do that if you are not certified. On my OW we were checked out when we demonstrated the skills (fin pivots, hovers) and the knowledge and a reasonable level of proficiency in our bouyancy while swimming, ie not up and down like yo-yos for the whole dive. The difference between my diving now and diving twenty dives ago if amazing and something I would not have achieved had I not been able to go out into the open water and actually live the experience.
Again sorry if I offended, I'll take care with how I phrase things in future 
No offense at all. I just wanted to clearify that cerification really can't be guaranteed. IMO, the schools that do guarantee it aren't to be trusted.
To answer your question, often (can't say in this case) buoyancy control work in the pool consists of a short swim without hitting the bottom (30 ft I think) and 1 minute hovering. That's all that's required by standards. The student is then usually terrible in OW and not much better when certified and told that they need to get more practice (if they ask). That's true they need more practice but it should be in the pool before they go to OW not in OW after they are certified.
I don't pass a student on to OW intil they are proficient in the pool. There are still factors in OW that can cause a student who did well in the pool to have trouble like poor vis, extra exposure protection and additional weight. Since good buoyancy control is a requirement of dive one, if the student has trouble we do dive one again instead of doing dive two. If a student isn't as good as I think they should be by the end of dive 4, I ask them to do another dive with me and that can make a world of difference.
IMO, if a student goes through four dives and is then sent back to the pool, some one is admitting to a major screw up and what amounts to a standards violation because by doing dive 4 your saying that the requirements of dive 3 have been met. Clearly if a student can meet the requirements of OW dive 3 they do not need to be sent back to the pool. They have already been given credit for CW and OW dive 1-3. It's a requirement that the instructor sign off on each students log after each dive. How does the instructor takt back their signiture? Now, if the instructor conducted dive 1 4 times and never signed off on it then it might be reasonable to send the student back to confined water. Even here though there is a problem because a student who mastered CW skills shouldn't have that much trouble in OW. What I'm saying is that there is a severe disconnect here that defies all logic. Somebody didn't do their job. PERIOD
Sorry, back to your question. I simply don't certify a diver unless they can plan a dive and tour the quarry (or whatever) controling depth, maintaining buddy contact and awareness without being in the bottom ect. I need to be able to stop and have every one exchange ok's and air supply readings and have every one pretty much hovering horizontally and face to face.
On our dive 4 student plan and conduct the dive in buddy teams. That includes navigation. I follow and watch. If they need help they don't get certified. If they are kicking silt up in my face, they don't get certified. If it looks to me like they aren't aware of each other or they get seperated, they don't get certified.
Also on all dives, all skills are done off the bottom. Divers don't kneel. I won't certify a diver who is going to shoot to the surface or sink into the silt and loose their buddy if they get their mask kicked off.
Bottom line is that issuing a card says that I think this diver can dive without me. I have to believe that
