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

[_Ralph]

Locally (landlocked NW)?

Simple, teach people HOW to dive and not sell them on the next course.

I see too many 'local' divers with less than 20 dives and 10 certifications (seems like), with next to no actual dives outside of a course! .... I was apart of an ICE course a few years ago, all other students were AOW and many specialties. It wasn't until after the first day I actually asked how many dives they had .... on average 15 dives!


The HOW?
Stop conducting 10 courses with 20 students with 1-2 instructors and 5 DM's over a weekend (all dives are done separately)

Invite OW divers to the final dives of OW courses, so divers can meet and get away from the stigma of 'I'm a new diver, people don't want to dive with new divers'

Actually do 'real' dives for the OW portion. Teach new students the dive site, and how to efficiently dive. I see way too many divers take 20 minutes just to put on fins in ponds! They spend hours getting into and out of the water for a 10-15 minute dive because they either get cold, or blow through an AL80 in 4-5m of water!

And a personal rant ... STOP PUSHING SM TO NEW DIVERS! I've yet to meet a diver, let alone an instructor that dives SM actually can dive it properly, or efficiently (OK, exaggeration, I know quite a few awesome SM divers, who rarely dive up here from this area). I've done a few dives with a few shop owners, and their staff (who all 'have to dive SM for xyz reasons). I'll wait until they are in the water, with ALL of their gear (it takes them a few attempts), then I'll start changing into my drysuit, walk from the street with my BM rig and be ready to dive before they can figure out how to clip in their 6" boltsnap or keychain oversized carabiner to their SM rig ......... then they forget that they need more weight for the rig as they realize they can't sink without 30lbs of lead with double steels and drysuits in fresh water .. on average, it takes them (shop owners and instructors an HOUR to get geared up once they hit the water ... no exaggeration) ... end of rant.


_R

 

[Johnoly]

(ducking head down)....3 year C-Card Expiration dates....(/ducking head down)...

 

[nolatom]

Why do the vote percentages add up to 114%??

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

(ducking head down)....3 year C-Card Expiration dates....(/ducking head down)...

Except if someone has continued to dive at the level for which they were trained.

Though I'm in full agreement for instructors to recertify.

 

[TMHeimer]

Disagree. All certs. good forever. Instructors/DMs judged on performance by shop or agency is OK--ie. student feed back, owner/staff observation, whatever.
Non pros--ei. people not officially responsible for the safety of others--
Take responsibility for yourself--do a "scuba review" (reactivate, whatever you want to call it).
Why not have all drivers take a test every 3 years also.......? Cost, for one thing.

How would one prove that a diver hasn't continued to dive at a level for which they were trained anyway? And what is the criteria for "continued"--once a week, month? Who would monitor this? Faked log books to avoid the cost of re-certifying (somebody's got to pay the instructor)? As well, I would imagine that like here and other Northern locales, many don't dive for months over winter--where does that fit in?

To re-certify does that mean the whole OW course? Or like an hour "scuba review"? I never taught that because I'd spend more in gas than the pay was. Anyway, my belaboured point is that it just isn't practical.

 

[admikar]

Overall the commercial agencies do what the market demands which is to provide low cost classes that are barely sufficient. The students don't know the classes are marginal going in. But most of them are not going to stay around long enough to care.

^^This.
My course was not that bad, but it could definitely be improved. I learned on my knees, not having problems going neutral, but only by myself after the course. I had 4 pool sessions and 4 OW dives. Since it was a 15 ft pool, big revelation for me was how improved my free diving was. On my final pool session, we had to leave all of our equipment in the middle of the pool, follow bottom to the wall and then ascend. Take a minute, dive down the wall to the bottom and then go to your gear. To make things complicated, instructor closed my tank, so it was valve first, then donning. If someone asked me before my course if I could do that, it would be resounding "NO". At the end, it was easy.

One thing no one mentioned so far....in this age of social media, all instructors should give links of videos to their students. It's one thing listening how it should be performed, quite another seeing it. Of course, it depends on students' motivation whether they take the time to watch those videos.

 

[JamesBon92007]

On my final pool session, we had to leave all of our equipment in the middle of the pool, follow bottom to the wall and then ascend. Take a minute, dive down the wall to the bottom and then go to your gear. To make things complicated, instructor closed my tank, so it was valve first, then donning. .

I haven't heard of anyone having to do that for quite some time

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I haven't heard of anyone having to do that for quite some time

Look at where he’s from on his profile. Maybe they still do doff and don’s there?
I use to do D&D’s when I had my double hose. Kind of fun actually and not a big deal. With a double hose you have to shut it off otherwise they just freeflow away.

 

[admikar]

I haven't heard of anyone having to do that for quite some time

It's not a location thing, it's agency thing (CMAS). I might be wrong, but this kind of D&D is not required. "Normal" would be straight up and straight down. It is up to instructor to decide whether to push you a bit. Anyway, I found it to be a great confidence booster.

 

[boulderjohn]

The doff and don went away about the same time that the UHMS released its study showing that the CESA was the part of dive instruction most likely to produce a fatal accident. After that, agencies around the world almost universally accepted the UHMS recommendations for making it safe, including especially requiring that the regulator be in the mouth at all times during the ascent. In the Doff and Don, the student has to do a CESA from the bottom of the pool without a regulator in the mouth, so most agencies dropped it for that reason.

About 8-9 years ago an SSI instructor at the University of Alabama was doing Doff and Dons, even though it was not part of the SSI course. A student died from an embolism after the ascent, and the resulting lawsuit did not go well for the instructor.

So, the Doff and Don is a great exercise, as long as you live through it. If you don't, your family won't be happy, and in the ensuing lawsuit your instructor will have to defend using a practice that has been dropped by most agencies because it is believed to be an unsafe practice.