Do You Approve Of Quickie Certifications?

Al Mialkovsky · May 31, 2003

While I've been diving since the late 60's my wife only got certified two years ago. Her OW class only took two days. While she did great, as she's very comfortable in the water, I personally know many people who would not have been ready so quickly. What do you guys think about this sort of thing. I know my LDS insists you can't be ready for a month. But then again they don't charge 150 bucks either.

double125's · May 31, 2003

My wife took a 2 day course. Before she signed up we spent many hours snorkeling and practicing skill simular to what she would encounter in class. While in class the instructor verified she could do the skills then spent all his time with the other students. The cool part is on day 2 he let me in the water so we could practice being buddies. Of coarse on open water dive days I left them alone but occasionally snuck in to take some video. also keep in mind when I say we practiced I mean with snorkel gear only. I spent lots of time helping her with mask clearing and other skills to make her confident in the water but she never used the gear until under the care of the instructer.

trymixdiver · May 31, 2003

that is not enough training time. yeah there are some that can do it in two days and be good divers, but they are the minority.

Stop giving C Cards away and make the training harder!!

Andy

kingprawn · May 31, 2003

trymixdiver once bubbled...
that is not enough training time. yeah there are some that can do it in two days and be good divers, but they are the minority.

Stop giving C Cards away and make the training harder!!

Andy

Can we rephrase that?

Make the training better!!!

trymixdiver · May 31, 2003

OW classes are too easy, they give the damn C card away. I have seen some students that shouldnt even be allowed to dive get a c card.

i say make the class more intensive and stop giving away C cards to people who dont belong in the water let alone SCUBA diving.

Andy

Al Mialkovsky · May 31, 2003

Quite often I've found it isn't the length of the class that is a problem. It's the instructor. I honestly feel that some students and instructors could cover the OW course in a day.

But one lady I know spent a month getting trained. No way was she ready. She ended up doing one dive after getting her C-card and that probably was one dive too many. It was very obvious (I watched some of the training) that the instructor wanted to end the class.

He no longer works as an instructor and I'm glad about that. But if he wants, he can go back doing it.

double125's · May 31, 2003

I agree the standards are pretty much a joke, I was basing my argument on the fact that some are comfortable in the water before the course begins. Remember the cliche "Its a license to learn". If everyone followed that rule and continued practicing after they got there c-card the reef would be a safer place.

jonnythan · May 31, 2003

I'd like to hear the person who answered "always" give an explanation.

Al Mialkovsky · May 31, 2003

Yep the standards are pretty easy to attain.

Most don't realize that the OW card is basicially a learners permit. Of course getting the OWA card would be the normal license but even that's pretty easy. My wife was shocked at how simple the advanced class is. She thought she was going to learn some important things.

One thing I'm pretty impressed with is how many people are doing a little refresher course after laying off for a long time. I'm still on Maui and each morning there are a lot of people on the beach doing refresher dives with an instructor.

That's a very good plan in my book. I'm glad to see so many taking advantage of it. Do the refresher when needed and of course practice.

Kayla · May 31, 2003

I think that in most if not all cases, learning even the basic skills needed for diving takes way more then two days! It's not that some people can't handle it, (because I am sure some people can) but more a case of people getting hurt or dying because they did not recieve the peoper training. I think that sometimes, the average two week course is not long enough..... The people that end up getting hurt after a very short time to learn the skills are the ones that make everyone else think that diving is dangerous and scary.

Maybe thats just my opinion.... who knows?

Kayla

Do You Approve Of Quickie Certifications?

Are Two Day Classes for OW OK?

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