Instructor:Student ratio?

[DougFL]

Just curious what I should look for as a good instrucor top student ratio for my OW checkout dives (south florida 40-60 ft), and then later for my AOW. Also, is including AOW students in with a basic OW class something to avoid?

Not sure what to expect - any help would be appreciated.

 

[scubasean]

All I know is that my son's recent OW class had six students, and had a staff instructor and two assistants in the pool.

For the actual Ocean dives, there were at least the two, but I think the second day there were three.

But, the LDS he took them from has a Course Director as the head guy, and they train instructors there.

As for AOW, there might be one dive (nav) that overlaps with OW, but I doubt it will happen in most normal scenarios.

For PADI AOW, you need a deep dive (no OW divers there...) and a nav dive (could have OW divers there, I guess) plus three more dives of various types.


--Sean

 

[SubMariner]

Directly from the Instructor PADI Instructor Manual

Open Water Course:
The maximum inwater ratio for confined water scuba training is 10 student divers per Teaching status PADI Instructor, with a certified assistant required for every four additional students.
When using confined open water instead of a pool, the maximum student diver-to-instructor ratio is 4:1 if 10 or 11-year-olds are participating. No more than two children aged 10-11 may be included in the group of four student divers.

Open Water dives:
The maximum ratio of student divers to instructor during the open water dives for this course is 8 students to 1 instructor, with a certified assistant for each two additional students, to a maximum of 12 student divers. You may use more than two certified assistants, but the maximum number of student divers remains at 12.

If conducting the Open Water Dive for Discover Scuba Diving articipants, the maximum ratio is 4 to 1,with 2 additional participants allowed with the use of a certified assistant. You may use more than one certified assistant, however, the maximum number of participants is 6.

During any open water training dive that includes children aged 10-11, the maximum instructor-to-student diver ratio is 4:1. No more than two children aged 10-11 may be included in the group of four student divers. You may not increase this ratio with the use of certified assistants.

Adventures In Diving Course:

During training, a Teaching status PADI Instructor must be present and in control of all activities. The maximum diver-to-Instructor/certified assistant ratio is 8:1. When children aged 10-11 are participating, the maximum ratio is 4:1. No more than two children aged 10-11 may be included in any group of four student divers.

You (the instructor) may indirectly supervise all Adventure Dives except the Deep Dive, Night Dive and Wreck Dive.... You must directly supervise all dives that include 10-11 year olds.

During the Deep Dive, you must be in the water directly supervising the diving activities. You may accompany a maximum of eight student divers (8:1) and can not increase this ratio with the use of certified assistants.

During the Night Dive and Wreck Dive, either you or a certified assistant must accompany student divers. The maximum ratios are eight divers to one instructor— 8:1, or four students to one certified assistant — 4:1.

I want to stress that these are MAXIMUMS. Good Instructors rarely do the max ratios. They are prudent/careful to have as many Certified Assistants and/or Instructors on hand as possible.

They also gear their ratios to the conditions: if the vis is poor or there are other considerations, they will scale down the student to Instructor ratios and have more Certified Assistants &/or other Instructors on the dive.

Also, while there may well be a trip that has Open Water AND Adventures in Diving people on it, the two groups will be on separate dives; there will not be Open Water students doing dives with Adventures people & vice versa.

~SubMariner~

 

[nickjb]

I find that absolute numbers rather than ratios is important. Even if there are several assistants on hand if the class is too large it is easy to miss out out the personal attention you may need.

I'd say a max of six. Four is a pretty good size and fairly common where I have trained.

 

[Walter]

I wouldn't want more than 4 OW students in the best of conditions. If I have OW students, all I'm doing is watching them. It's irresponsible to mix other classes in. I don't mind mixing advanced and specialty students (as long as there's no penetration involved) and I can accomplish the objectives of both courses without adversely impacting the quality of either.

 

[Arnaud]

I don't know that there is a magic number. We had six students this WE for the OW dives. One instructor and 3 DM. Each buddy team had their own DM. Except for one slightly weaker student, the other ones had excellent and consistent skills.

The group initially started with 8 participants. One "student" dropped out at the pool. Couldn't swim the 200 yards... A second student was politely given a refund...

Eventually, as always, it all comes down to the instructor. If he/she spends the same amount of time per student, the only real downside to a larger group is that it makes for longer sessions.

Also, unlike some quick & dirty dive ops, our instructor will not let his students do the OW sessions unless they've passed all required skills in the pool. Some students will have an opportunity to practice in private lessons if needed, some others will just be refunded their money.

I've been lucky to do most of my training one-on-one. Having the instructor's devoted attention is definitely a plus. However, I've missed the interaction with other students...

 

[greg somers]

The water ratio is best at 4-1 with an assistant. Especially in poor visibility. As an instructor, you need to pay attention to the skills and you can easily miss things. If the training establishment has a good staff to client ratio, then that's half the battle won. Class size can be higher, but generally a larger class will get get split into more managable sizes for the water component.
Cheers Ears

Gasman

 

[Ron Brandt]

Right now the vis here is less than 5 feet.

Two students are plenty and I never like more than 4 when the vis is better.

If I had 60 ft vis I would do 6 unless I had a assistant

Ron

 

[Windwalker]

For my openwater, we had four students three instructors. We were also in Very low visibility areas of the Puget sound. One instructor took the lead the other two stayed above and behind us in case someone did something unexpected or lost contact with his/her buddy or lead instructor.