If you were to design your own OW course, how would it go?

[Eric Sedletzky]

So much of this is indeed about geographical locations.
What somebody may get in cold low vis rough ocean will be different just by default than what someone will get in a bathtub ocean dream vacation spot.
Yet supposedly they hold the same value as an OW card.
Is that fair to someone who gets certified on vacation only to come home to their local mud hole and realize they are severely under trained for local diving?
I think that if it is explained why a local course costs more money, because there is simply more to learn and time is money, that if someone really want’s to have a good foundation for local diving they will pay it.
It might be cheaper to get certified in paradise but what about airfare and lodging/meals?
Sure you get a vacation out of it but what about diving at home then.
You get what you pay for.

I fully agree about learning to skindive/ freedive first. I was a freediver for a few years before OW class and it made it a breeze.
The others whe never did anything before had a much tougher time.

Maybe there should be a further breakdown of levels at the entry point. What about teaching snorkelling/ freediving skills combined with a scuba course that would be more than a DS, and slightly more than a resort course (if my knowledge is correct?), but not a full open water course. This level would allow a person to dive with a DM/ guide only to no more than 40’-50’ let’s say. They wouldn’t be able to get air fills on their own or get on charter boats.
The cost could be kept down to soften the financial barrier.
They also get to try the sport to see if they even like it and want to go further. If they chose to go further then they save their money and do the full upgraded OW course that’s COMPLETE in all aspects (not an abreviated course) and they breeze through it.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I would encourage the course be given over a longer time than 2 weekends. I found that quite easy to absorb the multitude of things you must learn from scratch.
I would also add Rescue skills--important ones at least, ei. dealing with panicked diver.
If possible I would include at least one dive to 60' since graduates are certified to that "recommended" depth.
I may alter the swim test--make it a shorter distance, but require a proper stroke.
I would describe drown-proofing for those negatively buoyant trying to do the 10 minute float using both arms & leg while knocking themselves out, while other lucky bast$%ds float like a cork in fresh water (is that really a skill?).

What would adding a weekend do to costs and logistics for people?
Some people may have difficulty trying to clear three weekends in a row.
I would like to see it too, but from a practical standpoint what kind of added barrier would that create?
Around here people somtimes need to go to Monterey to do OW (three hours away) and get a room to stay overnight. Two weekends could get damn expensive. It’s already expensive to stay in Monterey.

 

[The Chairman]

Extra time is wasteful if it's spent on your knees. The biggest benefit and joy of teaching trim and buoyancy first is that it shortens the time needed for the rest of the class. Put the students in control of this from the beginning and by the end of the class they have excellent skills and don't have to endure white knuckle dives. One of the biggest take-a-aways from my NAUI IDC is to never waste your or your students' time. Get them off their knees from the get-go and you won't have to break them of the kneeling habit and have to teach them how to do these skills all over again but this time while neutral. Small classes also help in this regard. I never ever want to have a bored student. Ever. In fact, that's a supreme waste of time. Put them to work on perfecting a skill while you work with others. Always make sure you're challenging students in that regard.

 

[The Chairman]

As a caveat, I learned to dive three times. The first time was the summer of '69. Masterchief Williams never got in the water with us. Most of the "class" was resurrecting the regs we would be using and him yelling at the two of us from the side of the pool. The one and only OW dive was in Lake Underhill, Orlando Fl. He didn't get in the water with us then, either. I didn't die but there was no c-card either. Most dives centered around not dying at the end. A few of those swimsuits have stains that will never come out.

The second class was at the turn of the century, and this instructor was both clueless and dangerous. He no longer teaches Scuba and that's a good thing. He once waxed nostalgic about how the reefs changed color at night. He was flabbergasted when I pointed out that you have a flashlight in your hand and the colors are there during the day as well. It was the first time I was told I should be an instructor. While I never told him about my previous experience, he guessed it and there were a number of skills we just didn't do. On the first dive after OW certification and to start off my AOW, he took me down 128ft to the bottom of Blue Spring Orange City without a light or a real plan. He lost me in the dark. I had a hold of his BC wing, but he had no clue I was back there. I finally tapped him on the side and we swam out. The light clicked on about a year later due to ScubaBoard and I finally realized the danger he put me in.

The third time was right here on SB. I joined as a DM (through the clueless instructor) and soon realized my diving sucked. I was doing safety pauses instead of actual stops and my trim was horrid. Reading peeps like @Uncle Pug and others made me realize how bad I was and I set my mind to improve. MY IDC was a near disaster with horrid rescue skills so I turned again to SB and @MB (Michael Brady) to get me straight. Another take away from that IDC was from Reggie Ross. He impressed on me the need for divers to have cave ready trim and neutral buoyancy. I didn't learn how to do that during that IDC as they taught kneeling, but the seed was planted and became almost an obsession. Frustrations with habitual kneelers and bolters pushed me to develop my no-knees methodology. One of the breakthroughs was an OW class at Alexander Springs. There were so many classes that day and the process was to go through the essential skills in a serial manner while the class was safely kneeling in a tight circle. The bottom was absolutely full of kneelers, so we did those skills just above their heads. It freaked a couple of the instructors out and I got reported to NAUI over breaking standards. As it turned out, kneeling isn't a part of their standards so I was not dinged. My quest to learn the best progression to learn diving is still ongoing. I don't have unlimited time, so I make every minute count. I want to teach them in a manner that when they finish my class they will have the trim/buoyancy skills to pass a cavern class. Sure, they have to go through AOW first, but I want their trim/buoyancy to be flawless. And I want to accomplish that in two pool sessions.

 

[kelemvor]

They should incorporate nitrox training into open water. The only reason it's not included is that it's extra revenue for the parties involved in selling training. The material could be easily covered during a regular class.

 

[The Chairman]

They should incorporate nitrox training into open water.

NASE is now offering free NitrOx when you order an OW class. I like that. To be clear, I often offer to do both classes concurrently for no extra charge on my part and I do teach a free NitrOx class at every Surge and Invasion.

 

[kelemvor]

NASE is now offering free NitrOx when you order an OW class. I like that. To be clear, I often offer to do both classes concurrently for no extra charge on my part and I do teach a free NitrOx class at every Surge and Invasion.

I know, my wife took the free nitrox course at the 2015 Cozumel invasion!

 

[Blasto]

Just curious as to peoples’ thoughts on this.
Knowing what you know now as a certified diver, if you were to set up your own OW course how would it go?
What skills would you include?
How long would it take?
And how would you price it?

Enough skills to make the students capable of independent diving.
I'd structure the course in order of equipment complexity, from no equipment to minimal to more equipment.

If I had to map out the course, it would be completely separate courses for tropical resort environments and non-resort education. They have too little in common to combine. In a tropical environment, it makes sense to get in open water right away, only then go to the pool to work on more refined or riskier skills.

Current PADI limits on student:instructor ratios are impossible and no DC attempting meaningful education even come close to them. Ideally, I'd try to form and maintain groups of 4 students+instructor throughout the course, supported by a varying DM complement. Dive centers maintaining target rather than maximum ratios would be permitted to specifically advertise it.

I realize that low ratios increase the cost, but they contribute so much to student engagement and retention that I see it worthwhile to set them at best practice numbers. Price-wise, this would probably be between open and open+advanced cost. But with little utility in the AOW course, you could reasonably hand out a 30m card after a well-designed open water one, maintaining value for customers who measure it that way.

The sequence of sessions for a tropical course would probably go as this:

Day 1 - Theory. Also theory on all other days, between and after the sessions. Up to 10:1 student:instructor ratio, target 4:1. Skip the movies and put them on the web, it's 2018.

Day 2 - Open water intro. Up to 2:1 student to SI+DM ratio.
"Dive" 1 - No SCUBA on the student, just mask and suit. Five minutes of snorkeling, 45 of surface skills and freediving, half an hour of supervised buddy breathing exercises, octo and reg sharing. This is to make the student understand that they CAN manage an OOA situation - make it the first thing they experience.
Dive 2 - Add a tank, attached with a backpack, no BC. Practice lung volume buoyancy control. Do a lot of buoyancy exercises. Practice until 1/2-2/3 of the tank is left (to reduce buoyancy swing from spent air, plus just plain cold) - at shallow depths it will last well over an hour.

Target depth for both dives at least 6 m, up to 12 m if the students have good water skills. Extensive break between the dives for theory and rest (and getting warm).
This first diving day can also be used to separate and divert students who aren't ready and need general water skills development before they can reasonably dive.

Day 3 - Pool session. Up to 4:1 student to SI+DM ratio, target 4:2.
Pool - Equipment familiarization and general skills. Learn to use wings and weights. Perform CWD 1 up to CWD 5 skills (if pool time allows). Perform the skills in hover as much as possible.
Theory - Continue with and finish basic OWD theory.
Cover basic deco theory. Just Haldane, nothing complicated.
Practice computer use, including advanced skills. Learn correct behavior if NDL is violated, practice simulated response.
Preferably interleave theory and pool sessions to reduce both information overload and prune skin feel.

Day 4 - Open water practice. 3 dives with short intervals. Up to 4:1 student to SI+DM ratio, target 4:2.
Dive 3 - First dive with full non-redundant gear. Practice accurate weighting, wing control, visual reference descent. Perform mask clearing, reg retrieval. Short and shallow dive with little N2 loading. Terminate dive with simulated OOA (valve open) and octo breathing, line ascent.
Dive 4 - Multi-level dive that begins at depth and proceeds to complete Peak Performance Buoyancy dive 1. Terminate dive normally with visual or no reference ascent.
Dive 5 - Navigation and independent surfacing dive. Self-planned dive, plan checked by the instructor. Practice instrument navigation (compass and gauges). Terminate dive with SMB deployment by the students and SMB line ascent with brief simulated deco.
Theory - interleave general OWD theory between the dives. Learn the use of dive tables, log the previous dives, ask questions.

Day 5 - Pool skills development. Same 4:1 limit.
Pool - Continue from CWD 5 to perform extensive buoyancy and trim exercises.
Extensively practice emergency drills with multiple simulated equipment failures. Shut down valves, deflate wings, drop belts, flood and black out masks.
Familiarize the student with alternate equipment configurations, practice a basic redundant setup.
Theory - Include basic foundations of diving medicine. Can't come close to EFR, but at least teach students what not to do. Explain and video demo involuntary drowning response.
Pool again - Perform basic Rescue exercises for unresponsive and panicked divers.

Day 6 - Open water skills. Firm 2:1 student to SI+DM ratio due to the nature of the exercises, split in buddy pairs if necessary.
Dive 6 - Emergency practice. If available, perform the dive with basic redundant equipment (solo config, big tank plus pony/bailout). First half as a normal dive, fill the second with simulated emergencies, including valve shutdown, mask blackout, equipment loss, entanglement. Terminate dive with multiple simulated failures, on redundant air (or drop tank if not available), perform simulated two-level decompression in hover. Top off with a tired diver surface rescue exercise.
Interleave a short but hard quiz and a Q&A session between the dives.
Dive 7 - Practice exam. Dive to be planned completely by the students, within a reasonable margin of safe tissue loading and air limits, then corrected by the instructor. Don't guide the students on this dive, let them guide the instructor. After the deliberately punishing dive 6, this one should feel easy.
Complete the day with theory exam.

Day 7 - Spare.
Makeup practice and/or theory exam for students who didn't pass on day 6, remediation, third exam if necessary. Having a spare day for this removes the pressure to pass everyone the first time.
If a 2:1 ratio couldn't be achieved on Day 6 due to staff shortage, split pairs between days 6 and 7.
For students who did pass the practice exam, include a free fun dive in a general group. This way, everyone gets 8 dives total (some think they're paying for the air...), and there's a bit of a reward for doing well.

This isn't necessarily ideal, but I think it would form a good foundation for a beginner diver, exposing them to some of the challenges of diving, but also providing the satisfaction of having dealt with them at least in controlled circumstances.

 

[TMHeimer]

What would adding a weekend do to costs and logistics for people?
Some people may have difficulty trying to clear three weekends in a row.
I would like to see it too, but from a practical standpoint what kind of added barrier would that create?
Around here people somtimes need to go to Monterey to do OW (three hours away) and get a room to stay overnight. Two weekends could get damn expensive. It’s already expensive to stay in Monterey.

Points well taken. Depends on the locale for sure. When I took OW in 2005 I THINK the normal course was the 2 nights a week (classroom & pool each night) for 3 weeks (6 sessions total, including the last one when you took the written test), then one weekend for the ocean checkouts. Each time to the shop was 100 mile round trip for me, so the 2 weekend course deal would've been what I would've chosen. However, when you do it in bits, you get to go home and think about the several skills you did--as opposed to the whole bunch being thrown at you in one pool weekend. As a DM I found that the weekend course worked fine for some, a bit too much at once for others. Of course 3 weekends or even another week or more of "nights" would be ideal, but cost more and be not as attractive in our "do everything quickly" world. I read that they used to do it that way decades before my time in scuba.

 

[Aviyes]

Feels like overall, it is very location specific.
1) For those that have a 2-3+hr drive to an OW location, it is best for the OW dives to be acccomplished over a weekend. Loved the weekend trip to Vortex & Morrison Springs for my OW and again for AOW.
2) Pool sessions can be tough as well. Not all shops have access to a pool with a 12ft+ deep end. Many are stuck with locations like the local YMCA and max depth of 6 ft. It was tough enough to just hover, without focusing on any skills. So, kneeling made sense for the practice of skills in the shallow pool only. Save the hovering for all of the OW skill drills.