How is it different today?
Diver Training, Has It Really Been Watered Down???
- Thread starter Lake Hickory Scuba
- Start date
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AfterDark
Contributor
It is common these days to pay a DM / instructor / to guide a newly certified diver on a charter, because by their own admission they don't yet feel ready to dive without a more experienced person. Back in the day that was not an option because there were no DMs to hire and such a low self-confident dive would not have a card. I had mentors but they expected a lot out of a new diver and if they didn't get it they cut ya loose. Today just the opposite seems to be true, the DM is responsible and the newbie follows along.
I will add that the depth of knowledge required (I took SCUBA as a college class), was much more comprehensive. From my subsequent classes starting over a decade later, the "SCUBA Diver" certification I received had knowledge and skill requirements equal to the AOW/Rescue/MSD classes I have since participated in.
YMMV
YMMV
AfterDark
Contributor
+! All day long. My course took 96 hours, 12 weeks, 2 days per week, 4 hours per day, plus 3 open water dives, that was a complete course, there were no other courses, go out and dive little tadpole. I've been able to fall back on and use that training to self-learn the use of single hose regulators, BCDs, PDCs, I was able to pass the PADI nitrox course and AOW after sleeping thru the class. I even passed the deep dive with a leaking wing, the instructor was surprised my air was gone so fast but didn't know why until I told him post dive. He fixed my wing for me.
Also did air only deco diving. During my 5 decades of diving I've saved 2 divers one from certain death the other one thinks so too. Not too shabby for one course @ $125.00 in 1968 dollars.
Diving with a DM is not even mentioned in the PADI course. It is assumed that you finish the course with the ability to dive with a buddy without supervision.
And back in the 1800s, it took months to cross the country. Nowadays people take a couple of hours. It was so much better before!
Long winded lectures are the very worst way one can convey information. Home study of written material is much, much more efficient. Online programs are even more efficient at conveying information. Students learn much, much more in much less time. I am truly sorry you suffered through an inferior instructional program, but at least you get to brag about how much more unnecessary time it took.
AfterDark
Contributor
As someone who wasn't there and has no idea what went on in the class, your sympathy doesn't mean much to me. The state of training today is self-evident, and reported here on this site in many threads. If you wish to defend it have at it, but trying to ridicule me thru misplaced sympathy isn't getting it done.
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I think this is quite prevalent in many dive destinations where people want to get a quick certification that is guaranteed. I had an exchange on FB with an instructor (I forget where) who admitted certifying students who had not met the performance requirements. He balked at certifying at the scuba diver level as his customers deemed that as inferior, so he focused on just making happy customers rather that following standards. I have no idea as to how pervasive this is, but I’d place a large bet that this instructor is not the only one doing it.
Just out of curiosity, how much pool time did you have? Did you practice skills dry? How long were your open water dives? Were you on your knees during most of the course or offthe bottom and somewhat trim? (Or somewhere in between?)
Not looking for confrontation, just understanding what training was like back then. My understanding was that @boulderjohn was one of the pioneers within PADI pushing for courses to be taught neutrally buoyant and trim when he co-authored that article back in 2011.
Sadly, teaching this way is still controversial 7 years later.
Having gone from teaching on the knees to midwater (and working on proper weighting of students), I have found that I am able to produce better results much faster.
So in that case, it makes sense that less time is needed today than in the past. I understand that some skills have been dropped (like buddy breathing) and some have been added. So I’ll make the assumption that the number of skills and complexity hasn’t changed
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I believe people will find this History of NAUI to be illuminating. It was co-written by Al Tillman, a co-founder of NAUI and NAUI instructor #1.
In it he talks about a problem NAUI had from the beginning (it started in 1960). Instructors wanted to be able to hand students their official certification cards when they completed the class. To do that, they had to send in their class lists when the students registered so that the completed certification cards could be in their hands by the end of class. As a result, many a student got a card before actually completing the class. In fact, in some cases, students got certification cards without attending a single session. As is true today, it all depended upon the instructor. Some were absolutely meticulous. Some, not so much.
My cousin completed his training in the early 1960s on the floor of the sporting goods store where he bought the equipment. from his description, I would guess it took about as long as it took me to type this response.
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