Scuba_Noob
Contributor
So with PADI, a diver can complete his/her Open Water, then Advanced OW, and then Rescue Course back-to-back-to-back, with no dives in between.
How does everyone feel about this method? I assume there is some controversy.
With me, I think it's a flawed methodology that creates overconfident divers without proper diving control. By doing all these courses, it makes people think that their skills are advanced more than they actually are. You can have divers with Rescue certification with only 12 dives. It's also a lot of information overload, where divers may forget some skills learned because of lack of time to practice the skills before forgetting. Plus, I think there are a lot of lessons that are learned based purely on experience. For example, with Peak Performance Buoyancy, a lot of it is based upon practice versus a course, yet some people think their buoyancy is perfect just because of that course. I prefer the SSI method that requires a certain number of dives before the advanced course.
I ran into a very experienced diver that said she used to feel the same way. Now, she approves of the consecutive courses because she feels that the lessons learned within are necessary for all divers to know. I'll reiterate my point of "information overload", where the diver just learned so much but has no opportunity to practice and remember all of it. Although all the lessons are important, there needs to be time to apply the lessons.
In my case, I did my AOW at around 15 dives (i.e., signed up nearly right after), but I wanted to be decently experienced before I did the Rescue. Now I'm doing the Rescue with nearly 100 dives.
How does everyone feel about this method? I assume there is some controversy.
With me, I think it's a flawed methodology that creates overconfident divers without proper diving control. By doing all these courses, it makes people think that their skills are advanced more than they actually are. You can have divers with Rescue certification with only 12 dives. It's also a lot of information overload, where divers may forget some skills learned because of lack of time to practice the skills before forgetting. Plus, I think there are a lot of lessons that are learned based purely on experience. For example, with Peak Performance Buoyancy, a lot of it is based upon practice versus a course, yet some people think their buoyancy is perfect just because of that course. I prefer the SSI method that requires a certain number of dives before the advanced course.
I ran into a very experienced diver that said she used to feel the same way. Now, she approves of the consecutive courses because she feels that the lessons learned within are necessary for all divers to know. I'll reiterate my point of "information overload", where the diver just learned so much but has no opportunity to practice and remember all of it. Although all the lessons are important, there needs to be time to apply the lessons.
In my case, I did my AOW at around 15 dives (i.e., signed up nearly right after), but I wanted to be decently experienced before I did the Rescue. Now I'm doing the Rescue with nearly 100 dives.