Wondering if this is a problem for anyone else, any suggestions?

[RJP]

We were allowed to wear our wetsuit during our pool swim for PADI OW cert.

Did you wear any weight with the wetsuit? If not your instructor violated PADI standards, which do not allow you to wear a wetsuit for your waterskills assessment unless you're weighted to offset the suit's buoyancy.

Per PADI instructor manual: "If conditions warrant, students may wear an exposure suit as long as they are weighted for neutral buoyancy."

Otherwise, you're using the suit as a flotation/swim aid... which is not permitted.

 

[Texasguy]

Stupid observation maybe, but...

We were allowed to wear our wetsuit during our pool swim for PADI OW cert. This usually adds a bit of buoyancy.

If you were not wearing a wetsuit, maybe you would float/swim better if you did.

I don't think any instructor will say NO to that. If you want to do a pool session in a wetsuit, who cares, people get cold... Wear a 7 mil with 25 pounds of lead.

---------- Post added April 20th, 2015 at 02:00 PM ----------

When I was doing my OW, there was no swim test at all, there was a floating test but from the looks of it, the instructor didn't really pay attention (from what it seemed like). When I was doing my "solo" cert, I also had to swim (in full gear, though) maybe 1/3 of what a course showed on paper. To me it seems that these portions in certification are really not followed through in real training. Maybe, it takes too long, maybe, for instructors to give it as much time as required?

Anyone else had their swimming skills not really checked?

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Swimming lessons is a pretty good idea. You will, on a dive, sometime, have to swim a ways on the surface in water way too deep to stand up in, whether due to a shore dive, drifting a ways from the boat, or some other reason. Consider swimming a couple of hundred yards as a necessary skill. Also, practice makes perfect. Pick a stroke and stick with it, even if its something you make up, and then pace your self. It is not a race, just a need to complete, and you should be able to do this before certification, certainly before you go diving, even on you open water certification dives.
DivemasterDennis

 

[dmaziuk]

Anyone else had their swimming skills not really checked?

I swim in the lap pool next to the diving well where classes take place. My instructor has seen me do laps -- before and after I signed up for the class, we say hello and chat every time I'm there when the class is on. So I don't think my case really counts.

Also, if you can comfortably float for 10 minutes, you can float a little forward and you will cover two hundred eventually. In a pool with no chop or current and no time limit I don't think PADI's swim requirement actually makes that much sense. So I can see an instructor being a bit lenient there, provided the student seems at ease in the water in general and shows no problems floating.