Same with SEI. The SEI Master Diver cert is essentially instructor level knowledge and skills without the teaching portion.
To get back to TMHeimer's questions. I will tie all this in with the original question regarding AOW so I stay on topic.
Bob already answered for NAUI so it saves me from having to get out those books.
SEI requires at the OW level non responsive diver from depth, panicked diver at the surface, and rescue tow while stripping gear. An optional skill is supporting a diver at the surface and helping them establish positive buoyancy. Mandatory in my classes.
These tie in with our advanced level (AOW) classes in that they are required skills for the class. I was part of the team that wrote and edited the SEI advanced level guidelines. After having had several students come from other agencies that did not have this requirement I felt it important to include those in the classes. When the new standards were written it was at my insistence that those skills be required for any advanced level students who came to us from other agencies. There are two options to meet this standard. Include the skills in the class itself at some point as part of one of the dives or as a separate dive. Or remediation of the skills prior to admission to the class. I choose the way to cover this based on the student. Some will be required to learn them before the class. Others get the skills tossed in on one of the dives. Usually the "buddy skills and assist" dive that is required for the class I teach.
The reasoning for this is pretty simple. You have students with a card that now gives them access to dives and sites with a higher degree of risk. This has the potential to expose them to greater stress and to expose them to others that may be experiencing higher stress and more challenging conditions. The rationale is that due to this we want divers to be prepared to assist themselves, a buddy, or another diver. There is not always going to be a rescue diver, DM, or Instructor there to handle an emergency.
Given the higher risk of these dives it is also possible that there will be some apprehension on the part of other new(er) divers doing them. This can lead to mistakes, omitted items, missing something in the buddy check, and general stress. These are why I also recommend Advanced Level (AOW) training after Rescue has been taken. The Rescue class goes deep into recognizing problems before they turn into incidents or accidents. There is heavy emphasis on overall awareness. Seeing equipment issues, seeing stress in divers, knowing when to step in and head off an issue. These are the extra items as well as more advanced care and first aid. The SEI course also includes O2 provider. It's not a separate course.
To me it makes more sense to better prep divers to respond to an emergency before you give them an advanced card as Bob stated.
Requiring a nav dive when many accidents happen on the surface to newer diver is just silly. Requiring one deep dive that is not even conducted properly with enough information to make it as safe as it could be before rescue is downright dumb. Before anyone does a deep dive they should have some kind of rescue training given the increased risk.
How much is actually learned on the AOW Nav dive anyway? I've seen a few of these done at various places and for the most part they are a cluster. It is obvious that no instruction was given as to functioning as a team, communication, or proper nav techniques. Students are given tasks that, while they may work in warm clear water, in lower vis common to my area they set them up to fail. Especially when their buoyancy and trim are not well defined, they have never been shown or required to do a proper turn, and they have had 15 -20 minutes of compass practice on dry land walking.
When you take rescue before AOW it increases the understanding that this is a dangerous activity. You need to take it seriously. It reinforces teamwork and situational awareness. It emphasizes the importance of effective and clear communication.
As for whose is better? This is one that I am not going to choose one over the other. The NAUI student manual is the best one IMO of the three. It has the most useful material. The PADI manual has a lot of content. The SEI is the thinnest but that's due to the expectation that the instructor will add material and supplement it with their own experience and knowledge. Plus we can use other references as well.
All three suck in one area that I feel is important. The after effects on the rescuer. There is squat about that in any meaningful manner. It's why I wrote an essay on PTSD in recreational rescues and include it in my course. It's another one of those articles I send out free to anyone.
Each course can be great or very poor depending on the instructor. Just going through the motions by the book in all of them will result in a mediocre, at best, experience. The instructor needs to use some imagination and add a bit of realism to the course. I've heard of instructors getting the local fire dept or EMS involved as part of their own con ed training. Having an ambulance or heavy rescue truck show up and cart someone off down the road would be pretty cool. I take and try to get as many different configurations as possible as far as gear goes to show. My dream course would be to have a chopper land and take away a "victim".
So as to which one is best? The one put on by the instructor with imagination and willing victims:shocked2: who enjoy acting the part
. The worst - probably the one done by the book with no imagination used and just the motions gone through.
Any good one will make the diver better prepared and safer in the AOW class that follows.
