If you could change one thing about dive training...

[Manatee Diver]

The point is that checking an SPG is a clear sign that you're checking your SPG. Looking at the computer means nothing.

Hardware solution to a software problem.

 

[Wibble]

Hardware solution to a software problem.

Sort of. But you have to beat into people the importance of checking their gas consumption to verify their actual consumption.

Forcing them to use a different way for checking remaining gas vs. checking depth will batter it home in the place it needs to be: between the ears.

Nobody, but nobody, ever gets more intelligent underwater and especially in the narcosis zone (30m/100' to 40m/140') where their single tank is getting emptied at an alarming rate.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

I'd delete CESA training.

 

[J-Vo]

I'm not an instructor, but I will comment on what I see locally.

Is there an agency standard for visibility in OW class? In our local lakes by myself 5' visibility is a good day. You put students in the water and your lucky to be able to see your gauges. How in the world can an instructor teach any skills in those conditions? Not to mention the safety concerns of not having any idea what your students are doing. The practice should be illegal.

 

[lowwall]

I'm not an instructor, but I will comment on what I see locally.

Is there an agency standard for visibility in OW class? In our local lakes by myself 5' visibility is a good day. You put students in the water and your lucky to be able to see your gauges. How in the world can an instructor teach any skills in those conditions? Not to mention the safety concerns of not having any idea what your students are doing. The practice should be illegal.

It is a violation of standards if the instructor (or an assisting DM) cannot monitor his or her students during the dive.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Nitrox should be incorporated into basic open water. Straight up air is a lousy gas for diving except for rare situations. It either doesn't have enough Oxygen, has too much Nitrogen, or typically both.

 

[kmarks]

I'm not an instructor, but I will comment on what I see locally.

Is there an agency standard for visibility in OW class? In our local lakes by myself 5' visibility is a good day. You put students in the water and your lucky to be able to see your gauges. How in the world can an instructor teach any skills in those conditions? Not to mention the safety concerns of not having any idea what your students are doing. The practice should be illegal.

By the time you get to open water checkouts, the instructor isn't teaching any skills. We don't even demonstrate the skills for students at OW checkouts. We tell them to do a skill and they do it. Skills are taught in the pool, with end to end visibility. In our old quarry, we had visibility that might range from 3-20 feet from day to day and I have literally seen the two extremes on Saturday and Sunday. We're starting our checkout dives in a new quarry this weekend, and I am diving it for the first time tomorrow with another instructor and one of our DMs. No matter the class size, we always have at least one DM in the water with the instructors because of unpredictable conditions and how stressful checkout can be for students in even the best conditions.

That brings me to my point and my answer to this question: I think that the experience required for instructors should be instructor based. SSI requires 50 dives and 32 hours underwater to become a DM, 75 dives and 50 hours to be an AI and 100 dives and 65 hours to become an instructor. My shop does a person by person evaluation beyond that and won't let you just go straight to the next level without gaining some experience, but it's not in the standards. I don't think an instructor needs to have 500 dives, but they need to have journeyman/apprentice type work on their resume. Who cares if you have 10,000 dives in your local flat water quarry, in a tidal basin that requires careful planning, or with hammerheads on the north side of Wolf Island? If you can't teach somebody to be a diver, you shouldn't be an instructor. I would add to the standards that in order to progress from DM->AI->OWI you need to have assisted with a certain number and variety of classes in the classroom, pool, and open water (as required).

 

[beester]

More days / Time of training... on all levels. (from OW to instructor trainers). For the beginning certifications (anything up to divemaster), more focus on core fundamental skills.

 

[Rae HalfTheHill]

Instead of an arbitrary number prerequisite for DM/AI/Instructor rating, perhaps needing several reference letters or an "interview dive" to begin the class/earn the rating.

 

[Preach]

Nitrox should be incorporated into basic open water. Straight up air is a lousy gas for diving except for rare situations. It either doesn't have enough Oxygen, has too much Nitrogen, or typically both.

While i do hold gue certification's (anti air), i don't agree with air being a lousy diving gas. It's cheap, easy to come by and is more than enough for most of the dives.
Why should i fill my tanks with nitrox when i stay within the 15m range? or even 20m?
Some stores also blend with pure o2 directly in your tank (instead of banked nitrox), which brings more risk than diving shallow on air. Most backgas tanks aren't o2 clean, especially not at the moment of filling.