How much classroom and pool instruction do you need to be ready to dive?

[tbone1004]

it depends on how good of a diver you want to be. Inhale exhale, repeat as necessary. Don't hold your breath. Come up when your computer says 0 NDL

that's about all you NEED to know. There are a whole lot of things that you should know. We have 20x 2 hours pool sessions before students go to open water. That's honestly more pool time than many instructors have had through most agencies. At your age, if you're going to college, I'd look to see if there is a scuba course offered as part of the PE department, most universities either have it or have some sort of scuba club that will give you a huge leg up vs going to a dive shop

 

[oly5050user]

Hi guys, I'm an 18 year old girl who wants to learn scuba diving. I've noticed there are classes available that offer one 6 hour pool session, and are then followed by beach dives. I don't want to rush the learning process, and I'm skeptical that one pool session can really teach you everything before you enter the ocean. An online portion also has to be completed, but I feel that learning something online and learning something in person can be very different. Do you guys think that this is enough time to learn everything and be prepared for the certification dives?

One 6 hour session is really not the way to go. If a PADI course you need to assemble, disassemble tank,bcd,regulator minimum of 5 times. It is a required standard. I would bet that this is not done. If they shortcut this required standard what else are they cutting out of course?

 

[Aviyes]

Depends on the person. We had 1 classroom session for 2.5 hrs. Where we practiced using dive tables, rehashed the e-learning, setup/removed our gear multiple times and took the exam. Then, we spent about 6 hours doing the confined practice in the pool. Followed by 2 days of the OW training dives on another weekend. It was plenty of time for me. I did have experience from some discover dives in the past, so that helped a bit. I was used to skill drills as well from time spent in the military and pick things up quick. There are just too many factors that affect the learning speed of students.

Is the assemble/disassemble prior to/during pool session or over the course of the training? Either way, it wasn't too hard to knock it out easily between the classroom session(4x) and pool dive(1x).

 

[boulderjohn]

One 6 hour session is really not the way to go. If a PADI course you need to assemble, disassemble tank,bcd,regulator minimum of 5 times. It is a required standard. I would bet that this is not done. If they shortcut this required standard what else are they cutting out of course?

It is hard to make hard and fast statements about things like this. Depending upon the "rules" of your sessions, time allotted can be more than it seems. I worked for two different shops. One had its own pool, and the other rented time at a recreation center. The one with its own pool scheduled a lot more time than the one renting time at the recreation center, but the time in the water ended up being about the same. With the recreation rental situation, we did equipment setups and breakdowns on the side when we were not scheduled to be in the pool. We did the swims and the floats during lap time, not on our scheduled time. There are many ways you can take care of the on the surface time outside of your scheduled pool time if the situation forces you to do it that way.

 

[2airishuman]

Hi guys, I'm an 18 year old girl who wants to learn scuba diving. I've noticed there are classes available that offer one 6 hour pool session, and are then followed by beach dives. I don't want to rush the learning process, and I'm skeptical that one pool session can really teach you everything before you enter the ocean. An online portion also has to be completed, but I feel that learning something online and learning something in person can be very different. Do you guys think that this is enough time to learn everything and be prepared for the certification dives?

Darya,

My daughter just turned 19, and started diving about a year ago.

She too learned with a program that involved e-learning and then a single, long pool session. We're in Minnesota so the open water dives were in a lake, not as easy as ocean dives mainly because the visibility is worse. Nonetheless, it worked out well for her. My youngest daughter, now 14, was part of the same classes.

This particular dive shop prides themselves on having an excellent student to instructor ratio. As I recall, there was an instructor and an assistant for the pool sessions, and six students. The open water sessions had one instructor and just my two kids for students. This particular instructor was very experienced and capable which was another thing that made it work.

The business aspect of it for dive shops, here, is that shore dives at the lake cost nothing but the instructor's commission, and can be scheduled any time, while pool dives are costly to set up and have to be scheduled around other pool users.

When I took my own training, the pool session was split over two days. There was only me and one other student, and I think that for the most part we covered all the skills on the first day. The second day we just swam around the pool and worked on buoyancy and had fun getting used to diving.

So based on that, my opinion is that one six hour pool session, if well run, probably is enough, at least for some students.

 

[JamesBon92007]

My girlfriend was recently certified and she was unsatisfied with her first instructor and actually got a full refund. She felt he was just rushing her through the process so he could get it over with. This was a typcial 3-day PADI resort scuba class. I found her an instructor that has a great reputation, even amongst other instructors. She was the only student at the time but he spent a LOT of time with her and made sure she understood everything and was competent with all of her skills. So, with this kind of personal instruction I think it depends upon the student so more time might be required for one diver, and less for another. I didn't personally keep track of hours--I kept track of her progress. What matters is that you know the materials and have confidence in your skills and understanding so you won't be standing on the deck of a boat feeling unprepared to jump in. I have seen that many times. I suspect that the high attrition rate in scuba diving might be attributed to newly certified divers having doubts about their abilities.

The general trend now seems to be if you don't feel like you learned enough on the first course, take a second course, And a third. And a fourth. I know it can be done in one course, at least at the basic levels.

 

[AZNetEng]

@Darya3018 , welcome to the forum!

There are as others have pointed out several factors that will play into the the confined water portion of your training. 6 hours is enough to learn the skills but IMHO doesnt give you the time to cement much with repetition. Depending on how you learn best will be as important as the number of times and sessions you execute the skills. When my wife got certified a couple of years ago her PADI class had three weekends, with two of those in the pool (4 days total, about 20 hours) and one weekend in a local lake doing the same skills and doing some basic dives with the group.

Equipment assembly and just time on the gear and in the water is going to suffer, but in the end post C card, your diving skills will be rounded out in the open water areas you choose to dive.

Welcome to the sport!

 

[Kharon]

The absolute best diver I ever met gave me this advice: "Your card is a learners permit. You need to practice all those skills you were introduced to till you have them down to a conditioned reflex. Do only one at a time till you perfect it before you move on the next. First buoyancy, then trim, then ... And always, ALWAYS minimize your new task load."

I would advise that you get the longest amount of confined (pool) experience and theory over the longest amount of time - one session of two (or more) hours per week over 4-8 weeks. It takes time for everything to sink in. Trying to remember everything from a single six hour session session is nuts. Even equipment assembly takes attention and practice.

 

[Neilwood]

My personal experience is the pool work was done over two days with probably about 6 hours in the pool. That being said it was 1-1 with the instructor so that probably allowed far quicker skill uptake on my part. 6 hours in a single pool session? No thanks - 6hrs split over 3-4 sessions is ok though. You will probably need some time for skills to "sink in".

If part of a group tuition setting, I would definitely look for longer in the pool.

 

[Colliam7]

I will echo some of the comments already posted.

First, it depends. It depends on how you learn best. It depends on whether you are one of 1-2 students in that 6 hour pool session, or one of 8-10 students. It depends on the instructor's skill and teaching techniques. I could add to the list, but I hope you understand my point. It is hard to answer the question FOR YOU. All we can do is share what works FOR US, and that is very individualized. In my own case, knowing what I know now, and understanding how I learn best, I would not find a single 6-hour pool session to be best - for me. I like repetition, I like building muscle memory, I prefer to become comfortable with techniques so that they come easily if not entirely naturally. I have had a chance to work with several students, to complete their open water dives for certification, after they completed a semester long university-based OW course. And, I found them to be VERY well-prepared, and comfortable in the water and with the gear. As a result, their open water dives went quite well. I am not saying that every new diver must spend several months in weekly pool sessions, only that there is value in time taken to learn.

Second, I view the open water course, and certification as an Open Water Diver to be only a license to learn how to dive. You DO NOT learn how to dive in an OW course, be it a weekend or a semester. You learn techniques and skills that allow you to begin to learn how to dive, in a reasonably safe and comfortable manner. In a thread about open water training, probably 5 years ago (Looking Back - Did Your OW Teach You Enough?), I made the statement, 'I learned what I needed to learn, in order to begin to learn how to dive.' I still believe that to be true about OW training.