Diver Training, Has It Really Been Watered Down???

[Diver-Drex]

I

I think that we can extend the driver’s license analogy with different countries to training agencies. Countries like Finland and Germany require extensive training to receive a license while United States , not so much.

I think it has more to do with the shop, where it is located and what diving they are expecting you to do. My initial training was in NJ with the expectation that I was diving in NJ. Travel for diving was something common folk couldn’t afford. In 1999 when I did my PADI Advanced it was in the Red Sea. Navigation, limitted vis, drift, multi-level (using the wheel) and deep (to 35m) were all done in open water. When I restarted diving in 2012 it was with a NAUI shop on the Jersey shore. Check out dives were again done in the ocean. My NAUI Advanced was done with an expectation that I would dive in the Atlantic. My last two Advanced dives were done at 100fsw plus on NC wrecks.
This was apropriate for the diving I enjoy doing. Is it appropriate for my wife who will only dive in water over 75 deg with 50’+ vis?
I think it is acceptable, and inevitable, that dive training will be tailored to the local environment and influenced by the diving that a student will do after their training. This can be achieved while maintaining standards. Dive travel is far more common than it was 30 years ago. People getting certs in NJ are more likely to travel to better dive conditions than they are to go out on local boats. Would they be better divers if they do their cert dives off the coast? Maybe. Is it nescessary? No. And in the case with my wife, splashing in NJ waters would likely have turned her off to diving before she ever really got started.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I think it has more to do with the shop, where it is located and what diving they are expecting you to do.

Here in the Puget Sound, there is a big difference between instructors at the same shop.

 

[Diver-Drex]

The instructor and examiner are two different people

You are correct, thanks for pointing that out.

 

[boulderjohn]

All through the educational process people take courses in which an instructor certifies you as passing, with no oversight. If there were to be oversight (that is, an administrator overriding that grade), there would usually be an uproar. Here are two stories to show what the world of education is like:

1. I took a summer school graduate class in weight training (I was a coach) from the University of Northern Colorado. On the first day, there were about 50 students in the room. The instructor called the roll, and the person sitting next to me called out "Here!" at least 5 times. When he saw me looking at him in wonder, he said he would explain later. When he was done calling the roll, the professor explained that the class was pass/fail, and the only requirement for passing was attendance. He also said he would never take attendance again. The person sitting next to me explained that he and his friends take all their courses required for teacher recertification from this guy, and each time they do, they draw straws to see who has to go the first day and say "Here!" for all of them. On the last day of the class, I was one of 5 students there, and the instructor was clearly pissed that people had shown up and required him to stay. (We were visiting a gym, so he wasn't actually doing anything while the gym director talked to us.)
2. In the high school in which I last taught, one of our students was the most brilliant student I had ever seen. He graduated two years early and was accepted at Yale early admission. He took all the high level courses we offered, and so he had to take some courses at the local community college, Front Range Community College. He took 2nd year physics from an adjunct professor there. He worked his butt off and earned a grade of B. That was the highest grade in the class, which only 3 people passed. Because of that, he was not our valedictorian.

So that is what it is like in the world of higher education. In comparison, scuba is doing pretty well.

 

[abnfrog]

i guess that's why they say PHD ..pile it higher and deeper

 

[drbill]

When I was finally certified in the late 1960s, the course lasted about three weeks with evening sessions during the week and pool or ocean sessions on the weekends. The course back then (LAC) took us through much of what the OW-AOW-Rescue sequence does today and we were certified to 130 fsw. Today this same sequence requires three separate certifications under PADI.

So, yes. I think the OW class has been very much "watered" down today. However, some of that may be a response to the economic. Taking a course like the one I had might be more cost prohibitive today. Perhaps more friendly to the pocket book to have them separated into three.

As for the quality of diver's produced by these two teaching methods, I have no firm stats to say. Anecdotally I do question the effectiveness of the single OW class.

 

[drbill]

i guess that's why they say PHD ..pile it higher and deeper

I resemble that!

 

[scubadada]

When I was finally certified in the late 1960s, the course lasted about three weeks with evening sessions during the week and pool or ocean sessions on the weekends. The course back then (LAC) took us through much of what the OW-AOW-Rescue sequence does today and we were certified to 130 fsw. Today this same sequence requires three separate certifications under PADI.

So, yes. I think the OW class has been very much "watered" down today. However, some of that may be a response to the economic. Taking a course like the one I had might be more cost prohibitive today. Perhaps more friendly to the pocket book to have them separated into three.

As for the quality of diver's produced by these two teaching methods, I have no firm stats to say. Anecdotally I do question the effectiveness of the single OW class.

The LA Co course certainly prepared one to be an independent diver for local conditions

 

[boulderjohn]

We have to remember that LA County is also the group that invented the AOW course.

Courses were certainly longer when instructors delivered all the academic information via lecture as compared to today, when students enter the classroom having already gone through all the academic material either in a book or online. Similarly, it used to take longer to get across town before they invented the automobile.

 

[tursiops]

To mix some metaphors, this is all kind of like beating a dead horse with a buggy whip.