An agency standards question for instructors

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

ScubaFishee

Guest
Messages
531
Reaction score
0
Location
Southeastern Michigan
Instructors, I need your help.

I know a student who took a semi-private beginning divers course from a local dive shop here in Michigan. The academics portion was self-study. I know for a fact that this particular student completed all of the in-water training sessions without ever having finished reading the book, watching the video, turning in the chapter reviews or taking the final exam.

Because of personal reasons unrelated to scuba, the student never did complete the academics portion or go out for the OW cert dives.

My question to you instructors out there is this:

Does your agency standards manual specifically address whether or not the academics section must be successfully completed and/or reviewed BEFORE a student can participate in the corresponding in water training module?

Obviously, the study portion SHOULD BE completed first, but I'm interested in knowing if it is a WRITTEN agency requirement... and, if you happen to have your manual handy and can provide the quoted text, that would be awesome!

Oh, please also let me know which agency your response is representing.

I already know that this particular LDS in question has issues. Now I'm curious to know just how closely they are walking the line...
 
In a PADI class there are multiple options but...

Before confined water dive 1 students must complete the acedemics for module 1 or go through the discover scuba diving review. Students may then participate in OW dive 1. Confined water dives 2 - 5 can take place before knowledge development sessions have been completed.

In order to participate in OW dives 2 knowledge development sections 1 - 3 must be completed including quizes and confined water sessions 1 - 3. Prior to participating in OW dives 3 and 4 all knowledge development including quizes and all confined water sessions must be complete. The exception is that the test may be taken after the OW dives but prior to certification.

So to answer your question you can't complete all OW training dives without completing the knowledge development section.

If you want to know how the IANTD standards work let me know and I'll post it but I doubt that it was an IANTD OW class.
 
NASE requires all class, confined water and tests be completed prior to OW
 
Sounds like this person did confined water training only, and did not complete academics or go out on any OW dives.

Some PADI Instructor Manual quotes:

"Prior to Confined Water Dive One, students complete either the Discover Scuba briefing, the Discover
Scuba Diving Instructor Presentation, or Knowledge Development Session One.
"

"Confined Water Dives Two through Five
Knowledge development for these sessions may precede or follow the confined water dives."

"The final exam may be administered any time after the final Knowledge Development session."
 
Mike, cudachaser, Drew,

Thanks very much for the information.

MikeFerrara once bubbled...
If you want to know how the IANTD standards work let me know and I'll post it but I doubt that it was an IANTD OW class.
Sure, if you find spare time on your hands, I'd be interested in IANTD's requirement as well. :)

Although the student was enrolled in an SSI class, I am interested in learning what positions the various agencies take on the subject.

Drew Sailbum once bubbled...
Sounds like this person did confined water training only, and did not complete academics or go out on any OW dives.
This is exactly what happened. The topic came up in discussion with a group of divers recently. We thought it odd that a student with no previous diving experience at all would be allowed to proceed with the pool training without ANY academics or at least a briefing, a required sign-off that the material had been read or the tape watched, or something.

None of the divers involved in the discussion had ever heard of this being done before, but none of us are instructors either. So, we may be lacking the necessary frame of reference to draw proper conclusions.

Still, we wondered whether or not the agency standards permitted this practice and if it could, in fact, be more common that we suspect... although we would hope not.
 

Back
Top Bottom