10-15 years ago ( a time reference) many shops were going under. training turned to absolute bare minimum to maximise as many classes before closing. any lake around met ow needs and that is just what they got bare minimum check on skills and exposure for students. Basically they got taught to dive the shallow lakes and nothing more. Then came the boats that did not question the skills of the divers. they accepted the word of the diver as qualified to do the dive. I seldom made a trip where someone did not go low on air or at minimum one divers tank falls out of a bcd hanging by the reg that is being breathed on. There is no one point of failure. it is a cascade of failures in the system that cumulate. I dont see this problem on the coasts like fla. or many places in the north where the cold waters make diving a much more serious thing to do. most of them are frequent divers. but other places diving is a once a year thing done by peoole (snowbirds) with very little experience on vacation. This goes way beyond doing the dog paddle at 40 ft. These deep dives are the first time many have been below 30 ft. In our area we have no place to do AOW dives unless you travel 2-300 miles one way. It becomes cost prohibitive to complete a AOW class. We have one lake that is 50+ feet deep adn prior to flooding they put in a culvert verticle in the lake bottom to get to 70 ft so they could issue AOW cards. Consequently many divers do not get any experience and just go for it to deep waters.
Here is another thing I have noticed. college scuba classes. 30 bucks a head for any class and the state pays the rest of the costs. instructors run these folks through like cattle going to slaughter. started in the spring and by end of summer had his DM and never been anywhere but the same 70 ft lake. Gold mine for the instructors for sure. Padi taught those courses supposedly because the padi curriculum followed the documentation format required by the college.
