Continuing Education

[mickd]

One of the biggest things I'm doing is diving as much as I can. Any day I have off of work, I'm in my LDS seeing if conditions are good for diving and if anyone's going out. I always pick tidbits here and there from the variety of different divers that are around.

Aside from diving, as I complete one cert, I'm looking at the requirements for the next. Just finished AOW and am enrolled in an upcoming Rescue class.

And then there's just general knowledge. I've been reading all sorts of books from general SCUBA to building a dive light. I'm also currently learning how to rebuild regulators at my LDS.

 

[texswamper]

Along with getting in the water on a regular basis. I train my students to come back for continuing education only because they want to. Never because they have to. It is not necessary to take class after class to stay safe. OW and Rescue are the two classes I feel every diver should have if they have not received rescue skills in their OW training. A safe diver can continue to learn by diving with more experienced divers. They do not have to be DM's or Instructors. Fact is that some divers are safer staying away from some DM's and Instructors.

And your last statement has a great deal of truth to it. The OW class is supposed to provide everything a diver needs to safely plan, execute, and return from a dive in conditions equal to or better than that in which they were trained. With a buddy of equal skill and training. To me that says that nothing else should be required unless the diver wants more.

I believe then that if this is the goal then yes they should get rescue skills, emergency deco procedures, good instruction in buoyancy and trim, and the admonishment that if they wish to expand their limits they do so gradually with careful thought and preparation. That preparation can be coming to an on line forum, dive club, or instructor and getting information they can use to do just that.

My OW students are technically certed to 100ft. They have the basic knowledge and skills to do that. It is strongly recommended however that if they choose to do that they build up gradually to that depth. Using a recommended maximum of 60 until they gain experience and take time to read and expand their knowledge base.

If they want to get there quicker then I have the classes that will allow them to accelerate their pace.

My husband and I are having to get our AOW certs to dive most of the dive sites where we are going in Mozambique. Because the sites are below 18m, most of the operators wouldn't allow unless you are AOW. It's costing $240 for the online course for both of us and then $350 per diver at the location for the 5 dives. That's pretty expensive and we've already been diving below 18m many times.

I think education is very important and I want to learn all I can to be a safe diver but I honestly think it's sometimes just a money maker for some. Since we live in Angola, we don't have lots of choices for shopping around. I hope it will turn out to be informative and beneficial more than just getting to dive the locations we wanted to see. I'll try to post back here on my experience and whether it was worthwhile for the AOW certification.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Before you pay for the course interview the instructor and the shop. Ask to see the standards for the course. Do not let them add fluff dives that don't increase your skill level. In my book I cover how to interview them, what questions to ask, and there is a section on what I feel an AOW class should contain and why. PDf is only $10 USD emailed to you. I have a few emails from readers who said it has saved them money on alot of fronts.

 

[mitridate]

Well im sorry you feel that way. No amount of study of i.e Scubaboard, The Deco Stop, The Cyber Diver or any other online forum can substitute for actual guided practice for scuba diving. And yes that does cost money in most cases... If anyone doesnt like that they should have thought about it or been made aware of it by someone before they joined the 3rd most expensive sport...

uuhhh
I am diving now for 51 years now, I have logged well above 3000 dives, my certification level is CMAS Moniteur and all I can say is, that in order to qualify or increase your diving skill you need to practice diving as much as possible, try to join a local diving club to have access to a large pool for weekly training and read books written by professional divers!
But most important, stay away from any PADI-linked facility since their philosophy is to provide "diving education" at the lowest possible level, so everybody has to sign up for more courses in order to become more than a half-baked diver, which of course means more money for PADI etc.
PADI has just one goal, to rip off divers and their way of "training" has significantly contributed to the p... poor skills of the great majority of divers devastating reefs all over the world.
We had to log 16 dives with an instructor before even being allowed to join classes for the first CMAS certification level (1 star), PADI releases so called OW divers after a mere 5 dives!!! This is bullocks, nobody is able to dive with that kind of "training"

 

[texswamper]

Before you pay for the course interview the instructor and the shop. Ask to see the standards for the course. Do not let them add fluff dives that don't increase your skill level. In my book I cover how to interview them, what questions to ask, and there is a section on what I feel an AOW class should contain and why. PDf is only $10 USD emailed to you. I have a few emails from readers who said it has saved them money on alot of fronts.

Thanks Jim, I'll download it today and read it before we leave next week for Vilanculos Mozambique!

 

[Blackwood]

There is really no point going back and forth here, so to keep the thread on the right track I will say this. "I appreciate your point view..."

I do not agree with most of what you have said. On that note you have said the most intelligent thing I have heard in along time... The concept you have described above is a great idea! Now how do we make that happen? Any Ideas? Anyone? That could have so many positive impacts to the diving community. Maybe take that one idea and repost on a new thread to see what happens. Get some people involved and get this thing going ASAP!

At least one agency does this already. Divers must submit 'proof' of the requisite quantity of dives at the level appropriate for the certification.

I'd think some agencies would be all over the idea if they added a renewal fee for newly printed cards.

It's really the honor system, though. Anyone can fake a logbook entry or whatever. Perhaps a more controlled option would call for regular checkout dives. Want to renew? Prove you can still dive at the level you could when you got the card. That would be another money making mechanism.

Personally, I prefer the honor system.

 

[TMB]

A balance between the practice of diving and acquiring new skills is they key to becoming a better, safer diver. The challenge is knowing what this balance is. Pushing through all the available education in the first 50 dives, IMO is too much too soon, a course every 30-50 dives gives you an opportunity to think about things, apply the skills and take advantage of the next piece of education. This means you might do a DM qual with 100-200 dives under your belt, rather than the allowable 40-50 in some systems, probabaly to early for all the information to mean as much as it could.

Prior to every summer dive season, a couple of hours in a pool doing the pool skills that are taught on various course levels, scuba/snorkel bailout, doff and don equipment, mask clear, etc allows you to practice skills that usually you manage to avoid in day to day normal diving unless you do a training course.

Something I did for a number of years (and need to return to this habit), read up three things following each dive, something on diving techniques/physics, something about diving medicine/first aid, and something about marine life. Nothing too esoteric or large, just a topic in each, that would take me a total of 30 mins on stuff relevant to the dive. This way every dive was reinforced with some theory around major aspects of diving.

Other specific dive experience, education, etc was then a seperate decision and usually opportunistic, but I knew that by small increments I was adding to my knowledge in a practical sense and over time would improve my knowledge and skills without making it a big chore.

 

[Brendon]

Thanks for your input TMB!

 

[Brendon]

Mitridate

Diving 51yrs... You know the old saying cant teach an old dog new tricks "Just Kidding". Although you probably wouldnt benift from any class considering your disposition... I agree with comments about PADI. I am not with that organization, and I do not operate that way.

 

[ReeferBen]

This year I hope to take my rescue class. At $300 for the rescue portion, $100 for the First aid portion plus books it is an expense.

I also plan to dive a lot with my son, he is 11 now and every dive we do together we try to improve our skills. I got him a nice suunto compass in a DSS boot so he can lead the dives and master his basic navigation skills.

When I took my YMCA OW my instructor Cecelia Connelly really IMO turned out some great students. The class was long and no one slipped out of her class with a c card and very little skill. Her class was truly pass or fail and if you failed you were invited to try again in her next OW class, with out paying again of course. She had us doing fire drills chucking all of our gear in the pool diving in and gearing up, doing underwater gear exchanges, and lots of things I don't think are included in open water training much anymore. I remember her always saying your mask is a privilege not necessary for diving, and by the end of my OW class you should be comfortable operating all your gear blind. It was a good training class I got a ton out of. It was IIRC a 12 week OW class.

It was almost 10 years later I took my PADI AOW, and didn't learn anything. So although jumping right into additional training might not be the best, waiting too long might also not be the right idea. By the time I took the AOW, YMCA wasn't doing their own course anymore and my original OW instructor had passed away.

I hope my rescue class is worth my $400+ and I come out of it better prepared, with new skills.

I also plan to work on my drysuit skills. It's new for me, and want to feel like my buoyancy and trim are just as good wet as dry.