Design your own OW class!

[scubakat]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...
scubakat,
Forget agencies. The question was what would you change if you could. Here we can make up our own agency and standards. You can start from scratch if you like or you could start with the class that you had.

Mike,
I'm not arguing for agencies, but it's impossible for you to know what was included in my OW class and where I start adding or taking away unless I tell you what that class was.

Maybe a reference to would help.
http://diverlink.com/newdiver/agencycomparison.htm

-K

 

[scubakat]

So here goes...

I am speaking about skills in relation to the YMCA basic open water course. I think that it would be valuable to add a couple of "fun" dives with DM's or instructors to the end of the cert. These dives would give students the opportunity to practice their skills under supervision and receive feedback on their performance. I also think that adding video would be tremendously valuable. It's one thing to "feel" what you are doing wrong and another to "see" it.

Questions for Mike... How deep is the pool where you demo without touching the bottom? and What exercises do you use to teach bouyancy control?

-K

 

[MikeFerrara]

scubakat,
Sorry I didn't answer sooner, i haven't checked this thread in a while. First of all, your right, I don't know what your class was like. I am really asking you to describe what you think the perfect entry level class would be. However I have seen enough classes from most agencies to have a good idea what most look like. I also see enough divers to know what most look like after the class. But again I was asking for your opinion.

As for the depth of pool. We (staff) don't ever use the bottom. It is required that some skills be taught in water shallow enough to stand. I demo mask clearing, mask removal and replacement, reg recovery, air sharing, free flow reg breathing and otherf in water shallow enough to stand and hold my depth and trim while doing so. I guess we're talking 4 ft of depth give or take. It depends on the pool and the size of the students. I'm only 5'7 so max depth would be a little over 4 ft for shallow water skills. Just as a point of reference if my depth varies by more than a few inches (and it can happen) I am displeased with my demonstration.
Mike

 

[bwerb]

There has been quite a bit said about instructors not making money and courses being too cheap to attract either good instructors as long term employees and overall lowest common denominator thinking. So...in my "modest proposal" type thinking, how about the agencies approach scuba training like the scuba manufacturers do and issue Minimum Advertised Pricing policies which will restrict OW training to a specific cost. No more $99 specials, now you must charge a minimum of say $500. This type of move would gurantee that Genesis would have a whole new hobby.

It is interesting to think about, if current courses are too cheap to give the type of instruction which is required, then by eliminating the price factor, it would change some things for the positive and others for the negative.

Thoughts?

 

[MikeFerrara]

I don't think we need to control the price of training. I think if we did a better job of controling the quality of training the rest would take care of itself. In my experience the cheap classes also lack quality. Now, by quality control I don't mean the stupid forms they send to students. I think quality control should actually audit classes and/or the skill of graduating students. It costs money to teach a good class. If a shop wants to do it as a loss leader thats their business but force them to keep up the quality. If theu are investing the effort to teach the best class they can they will want to be paid for their efforts. If they want to employ instructors who can teach a good class they will be people who want to be paid well.

 

[bwerb]

Controling the quality of graduates. What if there was a true standards body made up of people from each of several different agencies who acted as "independent" watchdogs of scuba training. You could take your "lessons" anywhere but the actual testing of skills would be done in a formalized manner along the lines of driver training. In order to pass your "independent open water" (no direct supervision) test, you would have to demonstrate skills and proficiencies to a higher examined standard.

There would be no "this is how I was taught" excuses. Shops would be required to uphold standards to that of an outside authority.

I don't think we would need any sort of government involvement (thank goodness), it would just be nice to know that regardless of where you took your course, or which agency you trained through, now you would have an outside objective criteria to determine if you were taught what you were supposed to be taught.

Fly by night or el-cheapo training would disappear as their students would not be able to pass the standardized skills tests.