I was at a party the other day, talking to a woman who's been certified for a couple of years, and is a semi-active diver. She was extolling the virtues of her OW instructor. She then confided to me that she STILL does her descents on her back . . .
Looking Back - Did Your OW Teach You Enough?
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I was at a party the other day, talking to a woman who's been certified for a couple of years, and is a semi-active diver. She was extolling the virtues of her OW instructor. She then confided to me that she STILL does her descents on her back . . .
I have no problem with women who like to stay on their back, as long as they're willing to change it up every once and a while.
I find it very interesting to read a thread where someone with a great deal of experience now, looks back and says they did not deserve their c card after open water.
While I agree that you are the best person to make that determination, I also think that your current training level skews your thinking.
I am a newly certified diver, trained by a very experienced instructor and was lucky to have a very small class. There were only three of us that started the training and one of them had trouble clearing their ears in the pool work and dropped out to take a one on one class.
The training organization was PADI and we were required to have gone through all of the reading material, answer all of the knowledge reviews and watch the videos prior to the first day of class. This left most of our time each night of training for work in the pool. The pool work is where it was discovered that the one student could not keep up, so it was just another student and myself. This was very good in many ways, but also a larger class would expose you to more students who in the future, could become dive buddies.
Our certification dives were performed in cold water, low visibility conditions in Monterey in March. We had to contend with surf entries, surface swims and surge.
I felt quite confident to be able to return to these same conditions and dive some rec dives with this level of training. The LDS where I was trained, had a diver social the following month and I was able to get three more dives in with two different divemasters. That also helped a lot!
I have a friend who was certified in Oregon at the same time in even worse conditions. We had planned to dive together after our training and we went back to monterey to dive on our own. We tried to be very good dive buddies and did our checks both above water and below. making sure we kept close, knew where each of us were on air and made simple dive plans and dove the plans. We did 3 dives that weekend and did not do a fourth because she did get too cold at Point Lobos and we aborted that dive to get her core warmed back up.
All in all, a very successful dive weekend for two newly certified divers.
I have since completed another 10 dives in the same conditions and will be heading to Cozumel for a short 5 day dive vacation where I will get to experience my first warm water drift diving.
At that point when I return, I should have over 30 dives and will now feel like I am ready to take my AOW, which as suggested above, will be with a different instructor.
My only regret to the whole adventure is that I waited until I was 53 to start!
Keith
While I agree that you are the best person to make that determination, I also think that your current training level skews your thinking.
I am a newly certified diver, trained by a very experienced instructor and was lucky to have a very small class. There were only three of us that started the training and one of them had trouble clearing their ears in the pool work and dropped out to take a one on one class.
The training organization was PADI and we were required to have gone through all of the reading material, answer all of the knowledge reviews and watch the videos prior to the first day of class. This left most of our time each night of training for work in the pool. The pool work is where it was discovered that the one student could not keep up, so it was just another student and myself. This was very good in many ways, but also a larger class would expose you to more students who in the future, could become dive buddies.
Our certification dives were performed in cold water, low visibility conditions in Monterey in March. We had to contend with surf entries, surface swims and surge.
I felt quite confident to be able to return to these same conditions and dive some rec dives with this level of training. The LDS where I was trained, had a diver social the following month and I was able to get three more dives in with two different divemasters. That also helped a lot!
I have a friend who was certified in Oregon at the same time in even worse conditions. We had planned to dive together after our training and we went back to monterey to dive on our own. We tried to be very good dive buddies and did our checks both above water and below. making sure we kept close, knew where each of us were on air and made simple dive plans and dove the plans. We did 3 dives that weekend and did not do a fourth because she did get too cold at Point Lobos and we aborted that dive to get her core warmed back up.
All in all, a very successful dive weekend for two newly certified divers.
I have since completed another 10 dives in the same conditions and will be heading to Cozumel for a short 5 day dive vacation where I will get to experience my first warm water drift diving.
At that point when I return, I should have over 30 dives and will now feel like I am ready to take my AOW, which as suggested above, will be with a different instructor.
My only regret to the whole adventure is that I waited until I was 53 to start!
Keith
dallaskincaid
Contributor
Isn't that one of PADI's electives in AOW? The Cold, Zero Vis, High Current Nightmare Diver.
divemonkey33
Contributor
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I'd have to say for OW it was just enough, a line has to be drawn somewhere. If you try an make it more you would have to increase the amount of time of training and then you would have to increase the price to be OW certified. That would not attract people to do it. But I do have issues with the Nitrox class. I don't like how they got rid of anything to do with nitrogen loading. No tables or anything just a mention that your computer takes care of that. Well mine doesn't or at least to my satisfaction. Just seems very dangerous. But thats just my 2 psi.
Wrong Nitrox Instructor.
Here, read my rant: Nitrox Diver - Underwater Adventures Ultimate Cave Diving
Fish-R-Man
Contributor
My first O/W class was in the late 60's. It was three weeks long and it was a great class. We did a lot of pool time and then about 6-8 ocean dives before we recieved our certs. You had to have the skills or you did not pass...
I took an SSI O/W course in 2002 with my wife so she would have someone to take the class with. I was amazed how the classes had changed. In that class we had about 3 hour of total pool time and about 90 miuntes total in low viz at Hood Canal. She did not have the skills to actually dive safely after that class. Luckily for her, we went to Coz shortly after that and I taught her how to clear her mask, control buoyancy, share air, and all of the rest of the basic skills. I was also her DPV for the first 15-20 dives and just towed her along until she was comfortable with her skills. You couldn't have asked for a more attentive buddy!
I just had a friend take an O/W class with Aqua World in Coz and his total dive time for the class was two open water dives to about 30' while his instructor had his wife and son in a DS dive at the same time. He had his cert, but couldn't even clear his mask outside of the pool. Luckily for him, the DM that we were diving with is also an instructor and spent the next three days with him teaching him what he should have learned from the class.
My 15 year old daughter took a class with our local OP and had a great instructor that spent a lot of time with his students to make sure they had their skills down pat before he would pass them. She was actually had enough skills to give her the confidence to be comfortable underwater. With that comfort level, she was able to learn more skills at a quicker pace than some of the new divers I have been with.
It really boils down to who you have for an instructor and how much effort you put in to learning. The class material is there if it's presented properly and practised....
I took an SSI O/W course in 2002 with my wife so she would have someone to take the class with. I was amazed how the classes had changed. In that class we had about 3 hour of total pool time and about 90 miuntes total in low viz at Hood Canal. She did not have the skills to actually dive safely after that class. Luckily for her, we went to Coz shortly after that and I taught her how to clear her mask, control buoyancy, share air, and all of the rest of the basic skills. I was also her DPV for the first 15-20 dives and just towed her along until she was comfortable with her skills. You couldn't have asked for a more attentive buddy!
I just had a friend take an O/W class with Aqua World in Coz and his total dive time for the class was two open water dives to about 30' while his instructor had his wife and son in a DS dive at the same time. He had his cert, but couldn't even clear his mask outside of the pool. Luckily for him, the DM that we were diving with is also an instructor and spent the next three days with him teaching him what he should have learned from the class.
My 15 year old daughter took a class with our local OP and had a great instructor that spent a lot of time with his students to make sure they had their skills down pat before he would pass them. She was actually had enough skills to give her the confidence to be comfortable underwater. With that comfort level, she was able to learn more skills at a quicker pace than some of the new divers I have been with.
It really boils down to who you have for an instructor and how much effort you put in to learning. The class material is there if it's presented properly and practised....
divemonkey33
Contributor
- Messages
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But the tables are not included anymore, and good luck buying them on your own. And no mention in the book either. I do agree that the instructor should have filled in the gap but really think that PADI has dropped the ball on this one and messed it up.
gcarter
Contributor
?????
I did mine a few months ago, came with tables, and they are in fact mentioned in the book.
?????
Like I said, wrong instructor. In my class, you get all the tables for common gases, mod, ead, OTU, etc.
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