The only thing anyone could find in that highly contentious previous thread was a specific mention that caves are not allowed.John, maybe not a "rule," but are you sure it was never something like an official guideline or recommendation? Never anything official from PADI? If so, then VERY interesting. I don't recall many specifics from OW class, but one thing I remember taking away was that "overhead environments" were strictly a no-go for us.
I agree that this information should be more readily available, but it took a whole lot of persuasive writing to get the Understanding Overhead Environments class approved. The clear fear is that the class will be perceived as training for overhead environments, and it is not. The approval process included a requirement that students will be informed clearly and specifically that its intent is to make them more aware of the different levels of challenges in different levels of overheads and not train them for them. No open water training is allowed in the course, although it is permissible to do pool training in non-silting kicks. The last chapter tells them where they can get appropriate training for more advanced overhead environments.It is inconceivable that this is not part of the standard OW class.