Looking Back - Did Your OW Teach You Enough?

[Oldbear]

:fish:It seems on ScubaBoard that a general line of thinking comes up quite often in threads or statements similar to the following:

· “The diver should have known, it was covered in their Open Water (Basic Diver) course.”
· “When I teach an OW course that is thoroughly covered or I don’t pass the student/”
· “That is part of the PADI OW course…everyone knows that.”

There is a paradigm out there that if a student/diver was shown a skill, process or procedure once before during their OW course and then demonstrated or repeated it to a “level of proficiency” that they comprehended it for a lifetime. While this may be true for some students/divers, I do not think it is true for all, especially that recreational diver who takes the OW course one summer while on vacation and does not dive again until the next summer…or even later. Just think about the “lesser experience divers” you have read about or even seen who got themselves into predicaments beyond their capabilities.

I have heard the argument, “That is what continuing education is for; to reinforce the OW skills and develop them to a higher level of proficiency.” And for the most part I agree as I have sought out such education. But with that OW C-Card…look what types of diving it states the holder is certified to do.

Challenge yourself and think back to your OW course and critique it against what you know now and what you should have learned at the conclusion of the OW course. I have stated on SB many times before that from what I know now, I should not have been granted the PADI OW C-Card. I did not have the tools needed to dive responsibly and thus had to learn those skills months and years later. Yes, I demonstrated the skills…but it was more of “Monkey See, Monkey Do” and nowhere did it include “Monkey Understands Why”.
:monkey:

Happy Bubbles...
~Michael~
:fish::goldfish:

 

[Pane]

I was lucky enough to have a pretty good instructor for my PADI OW course, and I was keen to suck up all the information that was handed out. I believe that after this, I was prepared to follow a dive guide and safely return from recreational dives in tropical calm water. This is what I wanted/expected out of it, so in that sense it was enough.

But the c-card actually allows me to get a fill and dive in the North Sea. Granted, you will receive a warning during your classes to stick with diving conditions you have experienced before, but I doubt many fill stations will check that. Considering I knew (or even know now) bupkus about planning dives, dealing with zero-vis, currents etc, it is highly likely I would have become a diving statistic if I would have tried something like that for my fifth dive. So in THIS sense, it wasn't nearly enough.

But I believe firmly in personal responsibility. If a c-card tells me I'm good to dive without a guide in a cold, zero vis, high current nightmare of a dive site, but I don't feel comfortable with that, I simply won't. Same as I didn't think I was Michael Schumacher just because I got my driver's license, or had the idea of climbing K2 with my introduction course rock climbing.

My experience with (PADI) courses is actually really good; I have been lucky enough to get all 3 of my cards at really good dive centers, with exceptional instructors. But I have dived with guides in places that didn't nearly measure up to that level. For example, for my 5th dive I was stuck in an way too big wetsuit and taken to 36 meters in Malta, where I could watch the guides tease the wildlife while I was literally numb with cold. I think the most important lesson I've learned from those kind of experiences has been to research the dive center and own the responsibility for my own safety.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Interesting discussion. My OW class did teach me all i need to know, but then I had a 1 on 1 book and pool class with a very experienced instructor, and did my open water dives in Maui with Bill Hannan, one of the great instructors (and course directors) of the 2oth century. My wife too had a one on one private instruction here and 2 on one for open water dives in Cozumel. She has remained at that level of certification and is an excellent diver with hundreds of ocean dives, half or more of which would be classified as "advanced dives" in any conversation. Each of us have learned and still learn from every dive, and we are clearly better divers after 50, or 100, or several hundred dives then we were after 5 dives. That is not an indictment on the quality of our instruction. That is as it should be.
Sadly, not all people have the privilege of private instruction and not all instructors are of equal competence. When I am involved in teaching new or continuing students, I strive to convey information, practical application, competence and an understanding of diving. That is what I can do. Student divers can do their part by being through in their reading and written work (many are not), asking questions, paying attention, and focusing on what is being taught. The student and the instructor need to both be invested at a high level of engagement in the material if we are to turn out competent divers at the end of a basic course.
DivemasterDennis

 

[Thalassamania]

But I believe firmly in personal responsibility. If a c-card tells me I'm good to dive without a guide in a cold, zero vis, high current nightmare of a dive site, but I don't feel comfortable with that, I simply won't.

Where is it that you get a card that tells you that?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

At the conclusion of my OW class, I felt like I'd learned everything I needed to know. But if that were true, how come I've learned so much since?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Colliam7]

I learned to assemble a scuba unit. I did not learn anything about gear selection.

I learned to breathe underwater, from a regulator. I did not learn to breathe slowly, and deeply, and comfortably.

I learned to swim underwater with a scuba unit. I did not learn to ‘Go slow’ while underwater, and enjoy my dive.

I learned the basics of buoyancy control. I did not learn much about trim.

I learned to regularly check my cylinder pressure and to surface with 500 psi in my tank. I did not learn much about gas management.

I learned how to descend and ascend, safely. I did not learn much about underwater navigation for that time after I descended, and before I ascended.

I learned how to log a dive. I did not learn much about dive planning.

At the conclusion of my OW class I was not a proficient diver. Certainly, I was not the diver I am today. I could not have learned most of the things that make me the diver I am today in an OW class. And, while I learned many skills during the course, it is not enough to know, you have to remember. Muscle memory development takes many, many repetitions, far more than could reasonably be accomplished in a class, be it 6 hours, 6 days, or 6 weeks - or, 6 months for that matter.

I should have been granted a C-card as an Open water Diver. I learned what I needed to learn, in order to begin to learn how to dive.

 

[Pane]

Where is it that you get a card that tells you that?

PADI OW certifies you to dive with an equally certified buddy in open water up to a depth of 18 meters. Nothing mentioned about temperature, visibility or current. That first of all.

Second of all I was simply illustrating a point. I could have said "If I had a card that allows me to skydive naked into a kiddie pool filled with razor blades, but if I was uncomfortable with that, I simply won't." Maybe that would have been clearer for you?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Enough? Yes. All that it could have taught me for that level? No way.

 

[Them]

Enough for what?

No education I have ever received, in any context, has ever taught me "Enough" if by that you mean, "All I wanted to know."

On the other hand, if by "Enough" you mean, "Enough to have a good chance of surviving the next phase of my lifelong learning process," well, time will tell. Given that my course sounds better than many and worse than some, and scuba fatalities are as low as they are worldwide, the odds are probably in "enough"'s favor. That's my working hypothesis anyway.

 

[fire_diver]

Looking back, I left my OW course with sufficient knowledge and skills to dive without killing my self and to be able to continue practicing and refining what was taught to me.

I have learned in the years since, that a few instructors do a bad job in training students, but the students don't know any better.
I think many of new divers blow-off the majority of what they learned and wind up being very poor divers because of thier own laziness. When you ask them if they were taught XXX during training, they have no idea because they have forgotten most of what was taught to them.