Maybe its just me

[NAM001]

Your comment is very interesting. When i took my first class in the 60's, as many can attest, The course was weeks long and its curriculum would be generally considered par with a master diver training program. The other aspect of your comment reminds me that most peole have no clue of what former training comprised of and that the ow scuba diver card of the 60's is believed to be no diffferent than a OW card of today. I am fortunate to know that the cards came from 2 different universes. My first cert was in 68 and was a YMCA course it had rescue , cpr with the recessa anne training aide, we had no BCD's and had J valves. The cert implied a definate level of skils and training. Course cost was 40.00 including book cost of 5.00. Skills mastery was clearly much more inportant then, than today.

In 1966, when I was first certified, my instructor told me that within a few years, I was not going to be able to get a tank filled, especially in Florida, without the card. So......I got the card. (Let's be clear that I am only a recreational diver and have never done any serious depths or caves.) Although I have never been turned down by any dive operator for any dive, I did find that operators were a lot more skeptical of my skills until some sort of 'checkout' dive. I decided that an AOW certification would put more operators at ease with my skills and probably make my arrival at a shop where I was not known a little easier. So......I got the card. This past summer, I dove with an operation in Mexico that provided free Nitrox. So......I got the card. Frankly, I learned some very valuable stuff with each of these courses. If I can find a good NAUI shop, I think that I will take the Master certification this coming summer.