Making The Scuba Industry Better

I've had lots of discussions with lots of people over the past three years about how to improve the industry. Improving the industry can mean many different things to many different people, but there is one basic thing the industry can do (and by industry here I mean the training agencies and by extension the RSTC,) to instantly improve the scuba experience for everyone involved - that is cut the required number of open water checkout days from two to one.

Most everyone in the dive training industry knows you don't need two days to complete the four required checkout dives and skills. Having a second day serves little to no purpose whatsoever. In most cases, all this does is increase the expenses and costs for everyone involved.

We have to assume that someone - somewhere decided there was a good reason to require two days. I don't know who that was or when, but I do know there is no good reason for it. Lets examine it on the surface. Lets assume the reason behind this is for safety. I've heard people say it is unsafe for new divers AKA students to do more than 3 dives in a single day. This is nonsense, especially given the fact that the day after they complete their training, they can jump on a live-aboard boat or jet off to Bonaire and be doing 4, 5, 6 dives or more in a single day. I'd rather they had the experience of multi dive planning in one day - than not. So the safety argument doesn't fly.

What other possible reason could there be to limit students to 3 dives when 4 are required? It seems to me the only reason is to aggravate and inconvenience everyone involved.

How much better would it be for the student if they could be done in one day? Lets say 2 morning dives... a nice lunch break... then 2 afternoon dives... one nice relaxing day of checkouts. Up here in the northeast where quarry drives can often be two hours or more... sometimes involving overnight stays, the convenience of a single day of checkouts would make an enormous impact on affordability. No hotels, and/or no 2nd day of putting gas in the car and no 2nd day of quarry entrance fees. If you do the math is is a significant savings depending on where the operation is.

The best part is that a switch to one day hurts no one - or next to no one in the industry. Shops can still charge the same amount for their courses and rentals for checkouts - afterall the work load is the same as far as the course goes... but shops will save valuable time... perhaps pick up an extra day off and they or their instructors will also save the cost of a second day of driving or a hotel or camping fee etc...

At this point, anything that can save the customers and the stores money - especially something that doesn't impact income or safety is a big win. This type of change makes sense for so many reasons. I no longer own a shop... but when I did... I often heard from potential customers reasons why they couldn't make two days of checkouts. The church-goers couldn't come on Sundays... people with active kids had to have them at their baseball, soccer etc... games on Saturdays... but when I asked these different people what would work for them... they almost always said they could do back to back Saturdays or back to back Sundays. With that said - it brings me back to the question of why we would make them do that?

The industry has an opportunity to get this right. Make teaching scuba more convenient for everyone involved... and I believe you'll also make it safer by allowing one day open water checkouts. In doing so, students will be required to plan,execute and log a 4 dive day - which is exactly what they'll be doing as soon as they go on vacation. This valuable experience will make it safer. For shops that prefer to stay with two day checkouts... you should have that option - but you'll only be hurting your clients and yourselves.

I'll look for comments...prepare to be blasted... and hope something constructive comes out of this post.

As a new diver I was greatful that checkouts were broken up over two days. It gave me a chance to reflect on how I did, what I needed to work on and the advise the instructors and DMs gave me (we had a great ratio of pros to students (1:1) so everyone recieved a lot of feedback). Sure I could have done all of my checkout skills in one day. The benifit of two days (for me)wais that it gave me more time around experenced divers above the water and it allowed me the time to mentally process and apply learnings that directly relating to my own personal diving deficits.

In general, I find my skills improve the most by spending time around people who are better than I am. So I would have felt short changed (and a lot less safe) if I was kicked out the door after one day of diving.

There is also the issue of how long the checkout dives are. The OW site I use is on the shallow side. As a result we spend a lot of time working on buoyancy and trim while swimming and doing skills in 15 -20 feet of water with bottom times of an hour or so per dive. The avg Ow student comes out of my class with 4 + hours of bottom time after 4 checkout dives. Plus the skin dive that is required. Couple that with the extra on site instruction, gear breakdown and set up for each dive, and the debrief and logging of dives we'd be in for one long ass day. And since I don't like to start them off with a 50-60 foot dive (that is usually the first dive on day two) doing two shallow dives then a deeper one on the same day is not good practice or example of safe diving practices.

If the industry wanted to improve itself they would all put rescue skills back in the ow class as a start. Then do away with quickie cheap certs and maybe good instructors could charge what they are worth, not going cheap to compete with those who are concerned more with numbers than producing safe, skilled, competent divers who come back for training because they want to. Not because they have to.

I don't think it's a good idea to further reduce the duration of training. I also don't think most students would get the same experience from one massive day as they would from two more casual days.

Why does the training people receive for diving need to be the shortest possible? Perhaps scuba training isn't the sort of thing where convenience should be the deciding factor? If those students who couldn't make the two day weekend dives had the reasons explained to them why all the training is so important they might change their approach.

The open water section of my course was well below what I now realise I should have received, and from my experience, I just wouldn't have had the opportunity in one day to 'soak up' as much information as I should have been expected to.

offthewall1:

At this point, anything that can save the customers and the stores money - especially something that doesn't impact income or safety is a big win.

Click to expand...

At what cost will these savings be made?

I think people sometimes forget just how daunting the first few open water dives are... there is a huge amount to take in that experienced divers might not even think about (it could be one of the few times people have been on a small boat for example, or even just putting on a wetsuit can feel like a huge undertaking!)

Shortening the course won't lead to new divers being more confident! The example of planning multiple dives in a day is a minor issue in my opinion, and could easily be taught in the classroom.

To be honest, I think two days is too short as it is.

Let's say the student did the bare minimum and did four dives in one day. That's a lot of different skills to remember. Also, what if something happens during the day (e.g., drysuit flood). The student might not feel comfortable enough to make other dives. The student might feel that he/she is being rushed and pressured by the instructor. Even if the student did get through all 4 dives, he/she would be completely exhausted by the third or fourth dive and may learn bad habits or not learn skills well.

At least with two days, the student can sleep on one day's skills over the night. Plus the student might think up questions for the instructor for the next day.

By rushing students through certification, I think instructors are cheating students. You can't prepare a student for a stressful day of diving their first day of open water diving. You have to teach them to dive in normal conditions first.

I had my open water done over 4.5 days (0.5 days classroom work, 1 day pool, 3 days of 2 dives each day totalling 6 ocean dives). I thought that was great, but it could be construed as too quick by some. My instructor went through everything thoroughly, including my concerns, and I thought up new questions and scenarios every single day of instruction to ask. If I had only one day, I don't think I would have progressed as well. I would have been able to dive, but my skills would have been subpar after certification.

Here's another example. When I was learning how to surf, I surfed three separate times in one day. Each time, I performed progressively worse, as a result of exhaustion, and I learned bad habits. If I had done these three surfs in three separate days, I would have learned a lot more and had a better time.

I am a new diver (certified in June of 2009 and little over 200 dives) so this comes from my perspective.

I needed two (could use more) confined water days as I felt I was rushed through it. I also felt that two days of OW checkout dives was rushed. 1st dive (PADI) is useless as it doesn't do much but "tour" the local quarry. I understand it is meant to ease the student. I would prefer that some skills could be shown in the 1st dive based on student comfort. In both confined and OW portion I liked the night to process what happened the day before and how to adapt to the new environment.

If someone wants to go to church or ball practice so be it. There are 7 days in a week and an average little less than 30 days a month to choose from.

I agree with at least two days of open water training. Here's one perspective: The first day the students show up they are apprehensive and concerned with the big issue at hand - breathing underwater, safely. Come Day Two, when they show up, they are "divers" and the whole attitude and atmosphere could be any further from what was seen on the first morning. Now we're working together on "diver skills", and there is much more of a sense of confidence and focus present than there was just 24 hours ago. My vote: stay with at least two days!

We did two days of two dives in the pool and two days of two dives in a quarry. Not near enough to adequately cover the course. When my cert card came in the mail I realized that I didn't know jack and hired an instructor in Ft Laud to take me out for a few two-dive days on the reefs, one-on-one, to get a handle on it. Otherwise I figured I'd end up drowning myself. I guess I'm a slow learner. I would have gladly paid more for more instructions locally but there is no ocean in Ohio and I wasn't interested in mud bottoms or stone quarries.

Your one day scenario may work for those who feel comfortable in the water but it may add to much stress to someone who is uneasy. The time between dives may allow extra pool time to gain ease. Repetition for gear setup and breakdown on different days helps you understand what you know and what you think you know at the beginning.

How many new divers would be confident enough to call the rest of the dives when the trainer is telling them its not big deal just a few more dives.