Rich Keller
Contributor
I did a quick search but couldn't find a thread; found some other interesting ones, though. I was discussing the length and content of my daughter's recent OW course to a friend of mine who was certified in the 80's. He went into a gentle tirade about how he had to go to "weeks of courses" and do a bunch of underwater skills, etc. I didn't catch all he said, so I'm curious how the OW training (PADI/NAUI) may have changed over the last couple decades: has it been "watered down (no pun intended)?" Thanks.
It has been watered down. In the 70s about 1/4 of the people who started the course did not finish. Now almost no one fails because if they fail they do not buy more equipment. The focus then was safety but that takes a backseat to profits now. If you combine todays OW and AOW you get what OW was 40+ years ago.