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

[happy-diver]

Yes when you learn comprehensively the PADI manuals post course you can become any diver you want

 

[TMHeimer]

My first course was LA County (we had to import Roy France from California to Salem, Oregon to get certified). That was in 1963. I started diving in 1959, and my "Manual" for learning Scuba was reading Jacques Cousteau's book, "The Silent World" about three times. For the LA County course, we used "The New Science of Skin and Scuba Diving." We were high school kids, members of the Salem Junior Aqua Club, affiliated with the Salem Aqu Club, which imported Mr. France for the combined class.

Now, I have a question. For our final pool exercise, Mr. France spread a very large gill net over each buddy pair, and we had to get out from under it, helping each other untangle the net from our Scuba and ourselves. My buddy was Elaine McGinnis, and it took the two of us well over five minutes to get untangled. As soon as I untangled her scuba unit, mine was tangled again. What would happen today if the instructor spread a gill net over a dive team and had them use their resources to get out from under it?

SeaRat

My guess is the results would vary. It was your final pool exercise. If it were my buddy Eric and myself I think we'd have been OK, but we were DM course buddies. And both had a lot of in water experience prior to OW certification. Some people today sign up for OW with less than enough experience in the water.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Now, I have a question. For our final pool exercise, Mr. France spread a very large gill net over each buddy pair, and we had to get out from under it, helping each other untangle the net from our Scuba and ourselves. My buddy was Elaine McGinnis, and it took the two of us well over five minutes to get untangled. As soon as I untangled her scuba unit, mine was tangled again. What would happen today if the instructor spread a gill net over a dive team and had them use their resources to get out from under it?

That's an easy answer. The agency lawyers would never allow it!

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

That’s why I wrote my own retentive dive planning doc and I’m sure other instructors have done similar, I just haven’t seen it

I would love to see what you came up for this. I use a whiteboard and teach my divers planning on that. It works well for square profile dives. However one of the main sites to dive here is a beautiful reef system with a ton of different species of fish and the site varies from 1 meter to 14 meters. You don't do a square profile dive on the site. This is where the instructor needs to get creative.

If there was a struggle, repetition or help from the DM was in order. I THINK a majority of OW certified divers churned out were good enough to dive without a pro.

What is a DM? I know many shops where a DM is not used for courses. It is just the instructor with no certified assistant.

 

[CT-Rich]

I would love to see what you came up for this. I use a whiteboard and teach my divers planning on that. It works well for square profile dives. However one of the main sites to dive here is a beautiful reef system with a ton of different species of fish and the site varies from 1 meter to 14 meters. You don't do a square profile dive on the site. This is where the instructor needs to get creative.



What is a DM? I know many shops where a DM is not used for courses. It is just the instructor with no certified assistant.

What planning is required on a dive that has a max depth of 14 meters? Entry, exit, most interesting features, turn pressure, etc... unless there was a previous dive that was pushing the NDL, I am unclear what planning you are worried about. As a repetitive dive plan, treat it as max depth 14m dive, watch your computer to keep track of your N2 load (just in case). The NDL is so long few divers are going to go anywhere near it on a single tank recreational dive, even with a square profile.

 

[AfterDark]

That's an easy answer. The agency lawyers would never allow it!

Which is why the task loading test at the last of the pool dives was eliminated long ago. A very useful test of ones reaction to cascading failures.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I would love to see what you came up for this. I use a whiteboard and teach my divers planning on that. It works well for square profile dives. However one of the main sites to dive here is a beautiful reef system with a ton of different species of fish and the site varies from 1 meter to 14 meters. You don't do a square profile dive on the site. This is where the instructor needs to get creative.

Here you go. Now please note, there is no way I'd expect an open water student to memorize all this It is used as a guideliine to work through it. I also don't think divers need to do this for every dive. However, for the student who is nervous, I do believe that by verifying they have at least the amount of gas expected, as they go from point to point in their dive, they will feel safe and build confidence.

If you have any feedback on how to improve it, I welcome all input. My hope is that people who use it (I know instructors in my area use it) in different parts of the world, write an addendum for their area.

Kosta

 

[TMHeimer]

I would love to see what you came up for this. I use a whiteboard and teach my divers planning on that. It works well for square profile dives. However one of the main sites to dive here is a beautiful reef system with a ton of different species of fish and the site varies from 1 meter to 14 meters. You don't do a square profile dive on the site. This is where the instructor needs to get creative.



What is a DM? I know many shops where a DM is not used for courses. It is just the instructor with no certified assistant.

Our OW courses maybe had 6-12 students, even more. For a class of 6-8, one DM was there as a certified assistant. More students than that and there would be 2 DMs, perhaps even 2 instructors. DMs are paid by the shop to assist with courses. I believe that other than the pay, this is common, at least in N.A.

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

I saw that in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

We have a tendency to romanticize the past, aka "The Good ol' Days". I can't tell you how often I heard how much better buoyancy was back then and it just doesn't match my experience. I'm tired or rolling my eyes in response.

I dove very heavy back then. Didn’t know any better and no one told me any different.

 

[The Chairman]

I dove very heavy back then. Didn’t know any better and no one told me any different.

Indeed. Most of us had no clue. I bought my first pair of fins from Mr Scuba, aka Hal Watts and I consider him a good friend. I bought the most expensive fins he had, the ScubaPro Jet Fins because he said I could kick the crap out of the reef and I wouldn't hurt the fins. He denied saying it at first when I saw him again around 2002. But then with that twinkle in his eye and grin he confided "I really said that, didn't I?" None of us knew any better and to his credit, Hal is properly mortified that he said that so many, many years ago. Cavers were taking mammoth tusks out of the springs as well as other fossils and even artifacts.