PADI swim test

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!

It is my observation that only about 20% of scuba divers can actually swim well enough to be called competent much less accomplished swimmers, most cannot even do a decent dog paddle, which BTW is not a swimming stroke.

When scuba instruction became a commodity or venue to selling gear and vacation trips, to actually require a student diver to be able to swim went away. Scuba instruction today is simply a means of moving scuba gear through a retail outlet for maximum profit, if they can swim, great, if not who cares as long as they have a credit card with room left on it.

N
 
How so, I know people that are morbidly obese that floats like corks. They can't swim tho. You're shooting your own argument down.

Well... when I wrote that I was thinking that the suggestion was good because it's something that they might *actually* have to do as divers....

I reserve the right to learn something from the threads I read on Scubaboard.

R..
 
How so, I know people that are morbidly obese that floats like corks. They can't swim tho. You're shooting your own argument down.

Why would it follow that a person who is morbidly obese is unable to swim?
 
I would have to disagree with this statement. Treading water or drownproofing does noting to indicate how efficiently the student can move through the water. In-water "ability" has its place in diving. It's not simply a matter of comfort in a comfortable situation. What about an uncomfortable situation or even a dangerous one?

I have my students swim 400 meters (front), 200 meters (back), drownproof for 15 mins, tread-water 2/2/2 mins (hands only, feet only, both hands and feet), do an underwater swim of 25 meters and pick-up a 10 pd weight belt from the deep end. Regardless of how you feel about this requirement. Who would you feel is most comfortable with diving in current and high waves in the North Atlantic? A student who meets this requirement, or a non-swimmer who has learned to drownproof and swim 400 meters with FMS? It comes down to where the diving is being done, but more ability is always better than a lack of it.

Depends. I would probably have trouble with your 400 meter (front) ?freestyle? and maybe even your 200 meter (back) requirement. Between old age and the Itis sisters (arthritis, bursitis, and tendinitis) I'm not sure I could do those to your satisfaction. Yet I "swim" 2 miles, 3 days a week using mask and snorkle (and part way with swim training fins). I suspect that many of your students would have trouble with such a 2-mile swim.

Swimming on the surface, as you require, is quite different from moving efficiently U/W or on the surface in scuba. After a couple hundred meter surface swim in scuba, I usually have to wait for the young ones to catch up and catch their breath before we can descend.
 
It is my observation that only about 20% of scuba divers can actually swim well enough to be called competent much less accomplished swimmers, most cannot even do a decent dog paddle, which BTW is not a swimming stroke.

I don't know what you mean by "competent much less accomplished swimmers." This is pretty much in the eye of the beholder. My personal view is that the PADI minimum is probably OK for the entry level recreational diver. if one can swim, non-stop, at least 8 laps in an olympic sized swimming pool without fins, snorkel or flotation aids that is probably sufficient to demonstrate adequate swimming ability for diving. Divers who are dealing with more severe dive conditions need to assess their personal swimming/water abilities. At age 59, I do 30 laps 2 or 3 times a week and consider myself to be in decent swimming condition for the kind of diving that I do.
 
Depends. I would probably have trouble with your 400 meter (front) ?freestyle? and maybe even your 200 meter (back) requirement. Between old age and the Itis sisters (arthritis, bursitis, and tendinitis) I'm not sure I could do those to your satisfaction. Yet I "swim" 2 miles, 3 days a week using mask and snorkle (and part way with swim training fins). I suspect that many of your students would have trouble with such a 2-mile swim.

Swimming on the surface, as you require, is quite different from moving efficiently U/W or on the surface in scuba. After a couple hundred meter surface swim in scuba, I usually have to wait for the young ones to catch up and catch their breath before we can descend.

If a person has a health problem, I'm happy to adjust the requirements of style and time is not a factor. The fact remains that masks are lost, as are fins. In a recent poll, approximately 75% of divers surveyed didn't carry a snorkel. Some citing losing them too often. Equipment fails and divers have to deal with it. Moving efficiently above and below water are both important. I've only related my pre-course swimming requirements... :wink:

As I've already mentioned, what a diver requires to dive in warm ideal water, holding the hand of a DM is different than diving with a buddy, unaided by a DM, in more challenging conditions. It's the job of every instructor to assess the requirements and to refrain from certifying a diver, until s/he can dive in the local conditions safely.
 
This discussion shouldn't come down to an Agency's fault, because every Agency has there requirements and minimum standards. In the end, it comes down to your instructor!!
We require the 200 yard swim (no mask, fins, or snorkel) and 10 min Tread. I think that a little bit of a swim test is important because it does show an element of comfort. It is my feeling that every diver should be able to be comfortable at the surface with or without gear.
 
Personally I would never involve myself with any watersport, regardless of what equipment I have, without knowing how to swim adequately. It's just the extra margin of safety for myself should an accident happen, for instance I slip and fall into the water at the wrong time. I don't want to realize after the fact that swimming lessons would've been wise because it would be too late.
 
Scubagolf:
My personal view is that the PADI minimum is probably OK for the entry level recreational diver. if one can swim, non-stop, at least 8 laps in an olympic sized swimming pool without fins, snorkel or flotation aids that is probably sufficient to demonstrate adequate swimming ability for diving.

Except that's not their minimum (unless you're in Europe).

Dive Junkie1:
This discussion shouldn't come down to an Agency's fault, because every Agency has there requirements and minimum standards. In the end, it comes down to your instructor!!

Why are you willing to put the blame for low standards on some instructor who's just trying to do the best job he can? He didn't write the standards, the agency did. Some agencies allow instructors to add requirements, but some do not. If an agency has inadequate swimming requirements, in the opinion of the instructor, but does not allow their instructor to add requirements, it does not come down to the instructor!!
 
Personally I would never involve myself with any watersport, regardless of what equipment I have, without knowing how to swim adequately. It's just the extra margin of safety for myself should an accident happen, for instance I slip and fall into the water at the wrong time. I don't want to realize after the fact that swimming lessons would've been wise because it would be too late.

Agree 100%. Just makes sense anytime you're around water, not specifically to dive. I've seen people (and with their kids) wading way too far into really rough surf in the Gulf of Mexico in winter. If they could swim well they wouldn't be in there because they would know the dangers and what little help swimming would be if they get in trouble in that. Add to that the rip currents that come there.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom