Old Commercial Diver w/34 year old cert

[oly5050user]

I bet!!! That takes the cake for the highest cost for Open Water that I have ever heard of...by just over $150...

sounds about right to me. By the time you figure out the cost of the academics/confined water, crewpack,dvd,ow training dives. add in the cost of mask, snorkel, fins, boots and perhaps a 3mm wet suit you are close to a grand$$$$.
Its really not anymore expensive than it was in 1978. When I first became a certified diver back in 1968 it cost $50. + cost of mask,snorkel,fins,boots..If you made $180. a week that was good money back then. I was 17 years old in 1968 making $80. a week..so I had to work something like 25 hours just to pay for the course. same job today at senior level makes $1500.+ a week. So for close to 6-8 hours or less is what it takes today to pay for a course that cost $269. for the academics and pool requirements..

 

[Jim Lapenta]

If he's got all his own gear that is expensive. If you were to bring him to me I'd politely ask him if he wanted to do a check out in the pool with you to make sure you'd be a good buddy for him. Then I'd have you do some basic skills in midwater and neutral and then ask him to show you how it's done.

Either he will see he needs more, is ok fine, or gets pissed and walks out. But insisting he do anything is not only liable to fail but very disrespectful. He needs to see for himself if he needs work.

And since he has a cert card there's nothing you can do anyway. Who knows, if he's a true waterman he might be better than the majority of people coming out of the run of the mill weekend or two weekend wonder courses.

 

[tomfcrist]

Plus the $650 is an issue.

I bet!!! That takes the cake for the highest cost for Open Water that I have ever heard of...by just over $150...

There are some instructors that charge nearly 1k for open water. But you get what you pay for. The guys I know include mask /fins/snorkel (customer keeps), boat dives, etc...all inclusive....and they teach an extremely comprehensive course.

 

[Hawkwood]

$398 Class & Pool and the four OW dives. All equipment included (BCD, 2-piece 7mm, gloves, boots, hood, tanks x4, wieghts, fins), except a mask and snorkel.

That's about the going rate among the four shops here. Highly competitive market up here, believe it or not.

 

[sphyrnidus]

So I am an old geezer. I did about 800 dives on Curaçao and then moved to Holland and didn't dive for 20 years. It so happened that my mother got sick, mycoardial on Curaçao while staying there and I went to fetch her. As it was my holiday, I took my time and made sure she was fit enough to come back home with me. I thought about what I might do in those two weeks and I decided it would be nice to dive again. I went to an instructor and told him I wanted to dive again. I had nothing with me, no c card etc. I had never dived with a bcd, as they were not common yet when I stopped in 1980. We did two dives and I was ok again with being in the water. Never took a class, just basically a check dive..

 

[toddthecat]

sounds about right to me. By the time you figure out the cost of the academics/confined water, crewpack,dvd,ow training dives. add in the cost of mask, snorkel, fins, boots and perhaps a 3mm wet suit you are close to a grand$$$$.

For us $434 is all inclusive with regard to academics, fees, water time, gear, etc. We don't require the purchase of mask, snorkel, fins, boots, and a 3mm for the course. In fact, we don't require purchase of any gear for OW.

Anyone can jack the number up by throwing in other stuff. The OP never mentioned what that included so yes, I clearly could be mistaken. However, knowing the industry standard for the cost of just the course, $650 is really high. Spin in some high end mask/snorkel/fin set and $450 could become $650.

I know I'll probably catch some flak about us not requiring MSF purchase for the course. However we live landlocked. Some of our students dive on vacation once a year and don't want to throw down for the gear when they rarely use it. Obviously we encourage it and many students make the purchase, we just don't REQUIRE it like many shops do. Keeping costs down for customers by not requiring gear, in our experience, has made people not feel like they got the nickle and dime treatment. If they absolutely decide not to purchase MSF, that's cool. They will when on vacation they have to pay for rental MSF and it doesn't fit. Some people only learn the hard way.

Our continuing education students are required to have their own MSF set. DMs must have everything but tanks and weights.

 

[agilis]

If he's already certified, I don't understand the problem. The gear has changed very little since the mid 70s. Maybe SPGs are newish, but they were aound and take no special skill to master in 30 seconds. Theory different? Like what? Square dives vs computers, degassing stops at different points, things like that? An hours reading, some discussion. A full blown recertification?

Crap.

I'm 71, been diving continuously for a half century, and believe me, there is nothing significant new other than computers and repackaged gadgets, which can easily and safely be dispensed with by using gauges. Dry suits and other new cold water diving technology is irrelevant where you are going.

Since the just barely middle-aged diver in question did mostly shallow diving, he needs to do some reading on decompression/deeper diving issues, and a little pool work to regain trim and buoyancy familiarity and confidence. In Cozumel the dive plan should be clear and easy to follow.

Jesus God don't subject him to the current crop of instructors and their clumsy ignorant pampered students. OK, that's a sweeping generalization, but what I see in dive shops and on tourist head boats makes me keep my distance.

 

[toddthecat]

I'm 71, been diving continuously for a half century

You must have missed the part where the OP said his father hadn't been diving in 32 years. Diving continuously is one thing. Not diving for over 3 decades is different. I've seen people's in-water skills degrade in just a few months of not diving. How do you think he'll do after 32 years?

Anyone can read or be told things like, "No, BCD's don't have CO2 canisters in them anymore", or "Here are the changes associated with dive planning", etc. I haven't flown a plane in 10 years. You can TELL me about new changes to glide slope indicators and what the newest version of TCAS is capable of. That doesn't mean I shouldn't get some training with the new stuff, regardless of how minor it is. Minor misunderstandings can turn into severe problems at a mind-blowing speed.

 

[agilis]

You must have missed the part where the OP said his father hadn't been diving in 32 years. Diving continuously is one thing. Not diving for over 3 decades is different. I've seen people's in-water skills degrade in just a few months of not diving. How do you think he'll do after 32 years?

Anyone can read or be told things like, "No, BCD's don't have CO2 canisters in them anymore", or "Here are the changes associated with dive planning", etc. I haven't flown a plane in 10 years. You can TELL me about new changes to glide slope indicators and what the newest version of TCAS is capable of. That doesn't mean I shouldn't get some training with the new stuff, regardless of how minor it is. Minor misunderstandings can turn into severe problems at a mind-blowing speed.

BCDs were pretty much standard equipment by 1981, 32 years ago. They did not use CO2 canisters. You may be thinking of something else, but not the device which held the air tank and allowed inflation or deflation to adjust buoyancy. I have one in my garage that I got in the 70s. Maybe you're thinking of those old horse collar things that go back another 15 years.

Someone certified in the 1970s probably was a competent diver when he got his C card. This is no longer true. I'm much more likely to agree that someone certified in 2005 who has not been diving for a couple of years might need to be retrained.

It's pretty much like riding a bicycle for most people who were well trained and experienced at some point, like the gentleman from Curacao. Time need to be devoted to becoming reacquainted, but it's not like flying an airplane, and it's not technical diving. It's really simple stuff. If it were not, the beaches would be littered with the corpses of the overwhelmingly ill-trained divers one sees at tropical resorts.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

If he's got all his own gear that is expensive. If you were to bring him to me I'd politely ask him if he wanted to do a check out in the pool with you to make sure you'd be a good buddy for him. Then I'd have you do some basic skills in midwater and neutral and then ask him to show you how it's done.

Either he will see he needs more, is ok fine, or gets pissed and walks out. But insisting he do anything is not only liable to fail but very disrespectful. He needs to see for himself if he needs work.

And since he has a cert card there's nothing you can do anyway. Who knows, if he's a true waterman he might be better than the majority of people coming out of the run of the mill weekend or two weekend wonder courses.

Great answer. Either he will have remembered his training and just be a little "rusty", or will understand he needs some "catch-up" training.

Let me try to provide some perspective, since my story is not so very different from the OP's father.

I was certified in 1976. I dove until the mid-80's. I took a very long break from diving.

When my teenage daughters expressed an interest in diving in 2007, I enrolled them in the local OW dive course. I accompanied their class on their final OW checkout dives (no pool dives here, all dives are ocean dives).

I had never used a BC before. Or an octopus. I had not dove in almost 20 years.

While I considered my "skills" to be quite rusty, the instructor (also an "old timer") apparently did not see it that way. After watching me on the first dive, he had me act as an informal "dive master" and assist him on subsequent dives, and again 6 months later when my son was certified.

The OP's dad should certainly do a check out dive, but it is well within the realm of possibility that he'll knock the instructor's socks off and get an easy "pass" on basic dive skills.

Best wishes.