Blackwood
Contributor
Certification without experience is possible... and worthless.
Certification vs Experience
- Thread starter Sarahann
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I was taking an AOW with a woman who just got out of open water the week earlier. She almost killed herself and her partner on her second post cert ow dive. During our boat dive, she thought that the boat crew would take her reg off the tank, put a tag on her tank, fill it, then put the reg back on. We were doing out deep dive when at 85 feet, she realized that she had 500 psi left in her tank. she had to do an controlled emergency acsent with one of the dive masters, and had to be put on oxygen just to make sure. Get easy dive experience before you rush into take AOW. Take peak performance as soon as possible. It was the most rewarding class i've taken so far.
Jobar: I've got to ask what happened to the buddy check then...
I don't disagree about the fact that some additional dives are vital, but someone, somewhere should have checked her SPG pre-splash... That was a failure by multiple people.
I don't disagree about the fact that some additional dives are vital, but someone, somewhere should have checked her SPG pre-splash... That was a failure by multiple people.
Diver Dennis
Contributor
I just took another course after 1900 dives last week being AOW, Advanced Nitrox and Deco. Rescue is a worthwhile course as is Nitrox but I hold little regard for card collectors.
SparticleBrane
Contributor
This is what I have to say about certification vs. experience:
"Certified doesn't mean qualified."
"Certified doesn't mean qualified."
I find this topic very interesting. I dive with a guy who has been diving for 11 years, 5 OW certified. he owned all of his gear and 6 tanks before he got his card. I still don't think he could use a table effectively. He dives 12-15 times a month in season, although it is never over 55-60 feet. I would guess he has 600 unlogged dives. He dives until he has 300 pounds of pressure, but says he doesn't look at his gauge, he can feel in his reg when it is time to ascend. He dives like he was born underwater.
I don't want anyone to mis-interpret that I am condoning his dive behavior. He is just the classic example of all experience and no training. He "knows" things we all learned in our training, yet he doesn't know anything about the physics of diving. It is just a feel thing for him. It is inevitable that he is going to get hurt, and I am trying to help him understand the risk issues that he is exposing himself to, making him do longer surface intervals and pay a little attention to his time at depths, instead of just staying down until the air is gone, and staying up long enough to strap on another tank and have a pack of nabs, a sprite and a cigarette. Some guys just think they are "immunized" against danger.
I got my AOW this past summer after 80 something dives. It was a piece of cake, and I found that the principles that I learned in OW class made a lot more sense when I expanded upon them in AOW after having a fair amount of bottom time. I think it is silly that you could call yourself "Advanced" after 12 dives or so. I don't think there is anything wrong with continuing your education quickly, but only with the understanding that only training coupled with experience can make you an advanced diver.
I don't want anyone to mis-interpret that I am condoning his dive behavior. He is just the classic example of all experience and no training. He "knows" things we all learned in our training, yet he doesn't know anything about the physics of diving. It is just a feel thing for him. It is inevitable that he is going to get hurt, and I am trying to help him understand the risk issues that he is exposing himself to, making him do longer surface intervals and pay a little attention to his time at depths, instead of just staying down until the air is gone, and staying up long enough to strap on another tank and have a pack of nabs, a sprite and a cigarette. Some guys just think they are "immunized" against danger.
I got my AOW this past summer after 80 something dives. It was a piece of cake, and I found that the principles that I learned in OW class made a lot more sense when I expanded upon them in AOW after having a fair amount of bottom time. I think it is silly that you could call yourself "Advanced" after 12 dives or so. I don't think there is anything wrong with continuing your education quickly, but only with the understanding that only training coupled with experience can make you an advanced diver.
Yes, it was Laurel's class. Four three-hour lecture/slide sessions and two dives. Invaluable!
Please help me understand something. Why is it that whenever a discussion about training takes place on SB everyone jumps all over the "training doesn't make you an expert". This isn't unique to diving, I have taken advanced statistics, it doesn't make me a statistican let alone an ADVANCED statistican. I referee soccer and take all kinds of training classes to improve my skills, it doesn't make me an EXPERT official. I could go on, but won't. Why do we down grade training by saying it doesn't make you this or that? There are very few things in life people are good at without experience. Training helps the experience be good experience doing the correct things - why do we equate training with expertise?
JR
JR
DeputyDan
Contributor
It looks like Dive Dive Dive - definitely Stress & Rescue - Dive Dive Dive - maybe Nitrox - maybe AOW (you should do both at some point) - Dive Dive Dive - romance - Dive Dive Dive
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