NAUI, Old School

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Heffey

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Location
Toronto, Canada
# of dives
25 - 49
Is anyone still teaching NAUI courses, old school?
When did it change?
Why did it change?
Do you think the change is good?
 
Heffey:
Is anyone still teaching NAUI courses, old school?
When did it change?
Why did it change?
Do you think the change is good?

I'm not sure how many responses you will get to this question. I don't think too many are teaching the old school, that's why I got out of the system and only teach privates that want that.
 
Just curious, what is meant by "old school"? I understand the term, just not sure what "old school" is for NAUI. I like to be informed. If you don't wish to answer, that is OK. Just thought I would ask.
 
Heffey:
Is anyone still teaching NAUI courses, old school?
When did it change?
Why did it change?
Do you think the change is good?
Old school is good. Much better to get started with. It was quite different in 62 when I got my first cert. A lot harder and a lot more failures. Even back then it still wasn't quite enough.

Contact Walter, he's got a good handle on Naui.

Gary D.
 
gecko2gecko:
Just curious, what is meant by "old school"? I understand the term, just not sure what "old school" is for NAUI. I like to be informed. If you don't wish to answer, that is OK. Just thought I would ask.
I took a NAUI course in 1976 and it was tough and comprehensive.
That course is what I would consider old school.
Here is a list of some of the course elements.
In class and pool.
1. Long pool swim (don’t remember exact distance)
2. 20 min treading water then 40 minutes water survival techniques.
3. Buddy breathing. (drill done many times and unannounced too)
4. Gear recovery
a. Turn your air off and leave your tank on bottom of 15 ft deep pool.​
b. ESA to surface.​
c. Drop mask while treading water hands above head.​
d. Drop one fin while treading water hands above head.​
e. Drop other fin while treading water hands above head.​
f. Finally you get to pass off your weight belt which is kindly deposited somewhere on the bottom of the pool.​
g. Then swim down and recover your gear and put it on.​
5. CPR instruction (mouth to mouth was preformed on classmates)
6. Rescue techniques
a. Unconscious diver rescue(surface and bottom)​
b. Combative diver (evade, control and rescue)​
c. In water mouth to mouth​
7. Basic classroom instruction including high altitude diving and deco diving.

We spent hours and hours in the pool building PVC pipe puzzles, performing out of air drills, playing games and working on buoyancy control using hula hoops and a PVC pipe swim through.

It was not uncommon for the instructor to slip up behind you and carefully shut of your air or flood your mask just to see how you handle it.

Open water.
1. Skin dive (water temp 36 degrees)
2. Open water rescue (unconscious diver, breathing and combative diver(water temp 36 degrees)

I got bronchial pneumonia and could not complete my other dives on the next weekend.

I know that the next dive was open water rescue (unconscious victim, not breathing) but I am not sure of the other dives or what the skills were tested but my buddy said they were tough and nothing had given him trouble up to that point.

I never completed that course and now many years later I finally completed my NAUI Scuba Diver course. The course was very good but it was nothing like that first one and for that I am glad because I don’t know if I would have made through the old school course if I took it today.
 
So, kinda like boot camp. :wink: Thanks for all the info...learn something new every day.
 
I took NAUI classes 3 years running, 1973 to 1975. I was too young to be certified (I was 12 the 1st time), the club decided that if I could pass it I could dive with them. I passed it the 1st time, and the other 2 years I took it just for something to do. It only cost $20 then.

It took either 6 or 8 weeks. The written exam was pretty brutal, with lots of math & this was before we had calculators. We did it all long hand on scratch paper. We covered various gas laws, diving physiology, regulator design & function, etc. I had to answer questions on air embolisms, subcutaneous emphysema, narcosis, bends, dive planning including simple decompresson dives. Though we never actually did a deco dive, this was on an Air Force base in Turkey & the nearest chamber was somewhere in europe. Germany, maybe. Far enough away that we simply dared not take a chance on bends.

In water skills were rigorous, but not as bad as others have posted. We did buddy breathing, ditch & don in 15 FSW (we had no pool, all water work was done in actual open water), blow & go from 30 FSW. We had to swim, I don't recall but I think 200 yards, plus tread water for a while, float for a while, swim a distance under water & retrieve a small weight in shallow water. There were no BC's, I never even heard of one until I got certified for real in 1978 back in the states. Steel 72, J valve, 2 stage reg with no octo, and a plastic backpack & web harness was the std setup. Some guys had SPG's, many did not. I was growing too fast then, so I did not have a wet suit, not even boots. I wore cheap sneakers in my jr Rocket Fins.

We did do some basic rescue drills, with & without gear, and basic first aid & CPR was covered.

It was good training & anyone who did it came out prepared to be a good diver. What they taught me has stuck all my life.
 
I went through several years before you guys and it was about the same back then. Even back then the training was still lacking in content but much better than todays.

I have been saying that todays training would have to be OW, AOW, Rescue and a bunch of other specialties to get closer to what OW used to be. But due to this being a kinder gentler world it will never get back to the way it was. Someone would sue the instructor for bring too hard or flunking them.

Gary D.
 
gecko2gecko:
So, kinda like boot camp. :wink: Thanks for all the info...learn something new every day.
Very much like boot camp with one difference. I had to pay for that adventure.
 
Gary D.:
I have been saying that todays training would have to be OW, AOW, Rescue and a bunch of other specialties to get closer to what OW used to be.

True, but are we comparing apples to apples? Back in the days OW was much more thorough, but was it basically it? Were there other courses?
 

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