advice on lessons

[turnerjd]

Originally posted by Walter
[BI'll look at the list of BSAC requirements tonight when I have time to study it in detail. On the surface, it appears to include CPR, but it also seems to leave out a great deal both in theory and in skill development. My OW class contains not 3 hours of theory, but 16. I also have 16 hours of skills development in the pool. My pool sessions include everything you list as required by BSAC and lots more as well. While what you've listed exceeds YMCA standards in two (CPR & open water rescue of a submerged victim) instances, in most areas YMCA standards far exceed what you've described. Again, I'll spend some time on this tonight, this is just my first impression.

WWW™ [/B]

No, walter,

This is just IN ADDITION to your Open Water wourse!

This list is what a QUALIFIED open water diver has to do to dive with a BSAC club!

These are the skills that BSAC thinks are missing from an open water course.

Jon T

 

[Walter]

..........not in what they think is left out of someone else's course.

WWW™

 

[turnerjd]

Walter,

When I quit my last club to move here I handed over the vast majority of my paperwork (like the DO handbook - the club bible), but I kept copies of some of the bits. I will have a good look around and try and find a list from somewhere, but from my basic course I remember doing,

Watermanship
600m swim
X00m swim wth mask fins snorke and a 10Lb weightbelt !!!!!!
600m swim in full kit
snorkelling skills such as duck dives, and swimming under water

General skills
Buddy check
Reg removal and clear
Reg retrieval
snorkel - reg changes
Full mask clear - had to be done 3 times perfectly one after the other.
Doff and don,
AAS use
Buddy breathing
Ascent and descent procedures
Bail out

Rescue skills
Tired diver tow
CPR + AV
CBL
Rescue assessment

There was lots more, but I can't remember it all. The theory, you have to learn their 200page Sport diving manual, This covers pretty much everything from the PADI encyclopedia sections on physiology, Physics and chem, But it also had lots about different types of dives, Deep, night, naviation, drift, boat, (and in more depth than the PADI AOW manual. I will find an old copy of it, and put everything down in list format, but it will be long!

Jon T

 

[Walter]

............I only take info for the comparison directly from agency standards. There are several reasons for this. Memories fade. Text doesn't always reflect standards. Some instructors teach more than or less than the agency requires. I want to compare agencies, not instructors. When challenged on facts, I need the reference to see if the challenge is correct. If you can get a copy of standards for me, that would be extremely helpful.

WWW™

 

[Donna&Scott]

Thanks to everyone for the great advise! After talking to a friend of mine (he and his wife both dive, and his wife is finishing up her NAUI Instructor cert) we decided to go with a local dive shop in Annapolis that offers the NAUI course.

The instructor has been a NAUI diver since 1972, and an instructor since '78. He made us both feel very much at ease and his program offers flexible scheduling and free "extra" sessions if we need additional time mastering particular skills.

We start in May and can't wait to get wet!

thanks again!
---Scott

 

[Tavi]

Sound Great, Enjoy!
Tavi

 

[DennisW]

Great, you should have a good course and enjoy diving. Naui has a good program.

 

[jobowker]

I took my OW at an Air Force Base - mainly students and dependents of military people. The class seemed to go too slowly, and it was mildy annoying. He kept repeating things over and over. The one thing I had difficulty with was the mask removal and clearing. Feeling embarassed that everyone else seemed to do it ok, I went home that night and practiced in the tub - I'm not kidding. In hindsight, I now see the benefit of his ways, and would definitely take a class with him again. The reason I could deal with everything in plenty of time was becasue he was going so slow, and no one felt rushed. Had I been rushed, I would have been making a lot more mistakes, and it would have taken me longer. My sister in law later took the class through a dive shop (same PADI course) but the overall class was in a much shorter time frame. At first I wished that I had taken one like that, but then I noticed that she felt rushed through the whole thing, and a lot of people in the class didn't take their time because they felt they were holding everyone back. She descended too quickly on the second day of OW dives, failed to equalize properly, and had to go to the doctor later because of ear troubles. I was her buddy on her first two dives as a certified diver, and by the end of the second dive, her equalization skills had improved dramatically. I think that if they had gone a little more slowly during the instruction, (like the course I took) most people would have felt more at ease, and it's much better to feel like they are going too slow than too fast.