3 day or 4 day courses

[caseylary]

wow I wrote that and what a response!

Just to inform people, this was the schedule given to me by the school:

Here is the four day program;

Day 1; Classroom session (8am - 4pm)
Day 2; Pool session (8am - 4pm)
Day 3; Two ocean dives (8am -11am, or 11am - 2pm - depends on tide)
Day 4; Two ocean dives (7am - 5pm)

Here is the three day program;

Day 1; Classroom session (8am - 4pm)
Day 2; Pool session & one ocean dive (8am - 6pm)
Day 3; Three ocean dives (7am - 7pm)

 

[DutchDown]

For what it's worth, I did a three day course in Bali with Aquamarine. I was the only student, so naturally I had the instructor's full attention. I don't feel that I was short-changed, nor taught to a lower standard. But I also realized that it was a beginner course and that much more time and real-world diving experience would be necessary before I could begin to consider myself somewhat competent. I will say, however, that because of the compressed length of the course, I was worn out at the end of the training day. I think I would opt four the four day course as outlined in your post, if only because you'll enjoy the actual open water dives more if you spread them out. I did my very first open water dive on the Liberty wreck at Tulamben. I doubt it gets any better than that!

Best regards,
Phil

 

[spectrum]

You show up with a certificate to show you did your class work and they throw you in the pool. Friday evening with 3 confined water dives, Saturday will be 3 confined and 2 open water dives with the rest of the dives on Sunday and voila, new diver.

That's brutal, especially for someone just touching the gear for the first time. I wonder how many cylinders actually get used. I bet it's not 10 per diver!

 

[Steve50]

wow I wrote that and what a response!

Just to inform people, this was the schedule given to me by the school:

Here is the four day program;

Day 1; Classroom session (8am - 4pm)
Day 2; Pool session (8am - 4pm)
Day 3; Two ocean dives (8am -11am, or 11am - 2pm - depends on tide)
Day 4; Two ocean dives (7am - 5pm)

Here is the three day program;

Day 1; Classroom session (8am - 4pm)
Day 2; Pool session & one ocean dive (8am - 6pm)
Day 3; Three ocean dives (7am - 7pm)

Between these two, I'd go for the four day.

 

[jbichsel]

With the new changes to PADI coming in May you will be able to do your classroom study and testing online and only see the instructor for the water portions. Many dive shops may offer a "weekend" to be certified. You show up with a certificate to show you did your class work and they throw you in the pool. Friday evening with 3 confined water dives, Saturday will be 3 confined and 2 open water dives with the rest of the dives on Sunday and voila, new diver.

Putting my money where my mouth is, I just emailed Johnny Wetzstein, Director, Training, johnny.wetzstein@padi.com , at PADI with my opinions on the upcoming online training.

I urge anyone else interested to do the same.

 

[Tigerman]

With the new changes to PADI coming in May you will be able to do your classroom study and testing online and only see the instructor for the water portions. Many dive shops may offer a "weekend" to be certified. You show up with a certificate to show you did your class work and they throw you in the pool. Friday evening with 3 confined water dives, Saturday will be 3 confined and 2 open water dives with the rest of the dives on Sunday and voila, new diver.

:shakehead
Thats just plain insanity!!
Ok.. im gonna start asking people I dive with how they did their theory in the future..
How hard is it to give correct answers when you have the whole world to ask?
Yeah, I know "thats only fooling yourself" but anyone with a brain realize that people do that all the time..

 

[rushingwaters]

If you plan on a 3 day OW dive class:

Buy your books before you go. Read the entire book at least 3 times and do every quiz and chapter review after each section every time you read the book.

Go over dive tables again and again. There is a book that will have some examples in it and will show you how to make the calculations.
***Good point Tigerman**** Make sure you are show how to do them first by someone who knows how to do them.

Check the class size. In a 3 day class the smaller the better for 1on 1 time. If you can get private lessons or with 1 other diver, smaller is better.

Once you are back try to get some dive time in to practice what you have learned. Even if it is in a pool. Practice Practice practice…

NEVER stop learning!!!

 

[Tigerman]

If you plan on a 3 day OW dive class:

Buy your books before you go. Read the entire book at least 3 times and do every quiz and chapter review after each section every time you read the book.

Go over dive tables again and again. There is a book that will have some examples in it and will show you how to make the calculations.

Check the class size. In a 3 day class the smaller the better for 1on 1 time. If you can get private lessons or with 1 other diver, smaller is better.

Once you are back try to get some dive time in to practice what you have learned. Even if it is in a pool. Practice Practice practice…

NEVER stop learning!!!

I would actually recommend NOT learning the tables on your own...
If you have learned to use them wrong, learning to use them RIGHT afterwards could be a beotch..
Im not saying you neccesarilly should leave it to an instructor, but I would recommend you should learn using the tables from someone thats experienced with it.

 

[stargazer61]

:shakehead
Thats just plain insanity!!
Ok.. im gonna start asking people I dive with how they did their theory in the future..
How hard is it to give correct answers when you have the whole world to ask?
Yeah, I know "thats only fooling yourself" but anyone with a brain realize that people do that all the time..

I don't think how people learn the theory is the problem here. Different folks learn best from different media and some will find they get a better result from the elearning than taking the book home and doing the knowledge reviews.

The issue is can you do the confined and open water dives over a weekend?

My personal experience (starting out in my early forties) was that I found the theory side straightforward. When it came to the practical I found this considerably more challenging. This surprised me a little as I had done 4 open water dives 2 years earlier on a discover scuba resort course. We did 4 pool dives one weekend and the 4 open water the next weekend. This was the "rushed" version at my LDS, the other option was to spread the confined water dives out over 4 weeks doing them in the evening.

I must say you would need considerable natural aptitude to learn all the skills from scratch in 2 days diving - I couldn't have done that.

 

[Tigerman]

stargazer61: Of course how you learn best varies from person to person and some people will never see any logic in the SCUBA theory either. Something else to consider is that if you dont do the theory with your instructor, he dont have that time to figure you out. A good instructor will know a lot about you from the hours he talk with you during the theory sessions as well which can be used during pool and OW.