A lot of great information in this thread. My own personal experience, as my daughter (13) and I just completed our OW this past weekend (SSI) went like this:
- Took online/e-learning course. This was theory, basics, videos, etc. Provided a good foundation for what we were about to embark on. The online stuff probably took 8-10 hours I imagine.
- Went into dive shop and took 50 question exam. Needed 80% to pass but his rule was you couldn't miss any questions that were life threatening safety type questions that would/could get you or your buddy killed.
- Went to some springs to do our pool dives 2 weekends later (from the exam). The instructor (very very good instructor w/5600+ dives) provided some classroom type instruction first thing in the morning, then we got wet. We went through 70% of the skills training. We would have done more but my daughter had trouble clearing her ears when we were going to practice them in deeper water (15-20'). Being the springs are 72 degrees, that was enough time to be in the water for everyone - FRIGID, even with a wetsuit... as we weren't moving around a lot. The instructor ratio was my daugher and I to him... so VERY good ratio.
- The next day we went to a location where we could do our open water dives. It was Blue Heron Bridge in Florida, so the water temperature was great (mid-80's). Since we didn't finish our skills training the previous day, we stayed in the shallower area and worked through a few things then we went out into the deeper waters where we practiced all those same skills but now at depth. The twist to this time was he had 2 friends of his, one was an instructor, the other was another very seasoned diver (wife of the other instructor) with him. So it was basically 2 instructors plus an assistant to my daughter and I - Outstanding (unique) ratio for sure. We got through about 90% of everything and since the first day had challenges with my daughter equalizing, he wanted us to come back down to Blue Heron Bridge another time for the final things plus a more "fun dive" to test them all out.
- So we met again at Blue Heron Bridge about 2 weeks later. This time it was just him and us... so still a VERY good ratio. We went through the skills we had learned plus a couple final ones and then we went and played for the most part with him following and watching. After we were done, we headed home and me and my daughter used up the remaining air in our tanks in our pool where we practiced more buoyancy and skills drills (OOA, etc.).
After that (which amounted to 3 days with the instructors), I do believe my daughter and I are ready to begin the diving adventure which will entail plenty more learning for many years to come. I also know that if we wanted more time in the water, he would have had no problem if we had asked. Every situation is unique I guess.