PADI Divemaster without Advanced?

[Leatherboot69]

I bought the Encyclopaedia of Recreational Diving on Amazon based on exactly that description lol

 

[Trace Malinowski]

When it comes to advertising, PADI used to be pretty good, but I think Tinder has them beat. For example, Emily doesn't know anything about dive theory but she has a safe word to prevent injury. Any takers?

 

[Wibble]

Mustn't mention the BCD nor the longhose...

 

[Bob DBF]

Dive theory becomes important when progressing beyond the OW limits as you need to know more about decompression (as in why the NDLs); why nitrox is a good thing; why diving beyond 30m/100ft becomes way more challenging; how to resolve problems.

Dive theory becomes important to even know when you wander outside of OW limits, which might not be immediately evident. And more importantly, how to stay out of those situations, and why. Learning by catchphrase is simple, but it does not necessarily prepare one for the dives they do, or the mistakes they might make.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

At roughly the same time, NAUI was facing potential bankruptcy, and it decided to withdraw from the national market and focus on California. Accordingly, it canceled an instructor training program scheduled for Chicago. The Chicago branch of NAUI was understandably peeved, and saw its only recourse as becoming its own agency. It called itself PADI, but it still used the NAUI methods of instruction, including the names of its certifications.

Really too bad that PADI did not continue to use the NAUI methods of instruction.

 

[boulderjohn]

Really too bad that PADI did not continue to use the NAUI methods of instruction.

Go ahead and give the details. What was changed? Be specific. Cite sources.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Really too bad that PADI did not continue to use the NAUI methods of instruction.

Market realities

 

[Leatherboot69]

Dive theory becomes important to even know when you wander outside of OW limits, which might not be immediately evident. And more importantly, how to stay out of those situations, and why. Learning by catchphrase is simple, but it does not necessarily prepare one for the dives they do, or the mistakes they might make.

But diving is a very safe activity despite the vast majority of divers only doing a four day course with minimal theory learned by catchphrase. Why make things more difficult, less enjoyable and less popular by changing this?

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

Go ahead and give the details. What was changed? Be specific. Cite sources.

Who are you? The class Sergeant at Arms?

My comment is just my personal opinion and based on personal experience. I became a PADI OWSI up here in the Seattle area in 1995. PADI was the only option for the shop I would be teaching from.

At that same time, my best friend was an instructor for the "other" big shop up here and their only option was NAUI.

Since we were great friends and loved teaching, we basically certified each other as DM's for the respective agencies so that we could help each other out with classes and still be within both agencies standards.

So having extensive experience with both PADI and NAUI Open Water courses at basically the same time, I quickly "became" of the personal opinion that the NAUI course standards were more complete, more thorough, more robust, more challenging and all in all....just a superior course whose standards produced more qualified and more prepared divers then the PADI course. I also very much liked that the NAUI program allowed more discretionary training from the instructors.... By that I mean drills and skills and challenges that are above the minimum standards.

I actually liked the NAUI program so much that I incorporated much of it into my PADI classes for our "fun time" .

 

[Wibble]

But diving is a very safe activity despite the vast majority of divers only doing a four day course with minimal theory learned by catchphrase. Why make things more difficult, less enjoyable and less popular by changing this?

There's always been a bit of a tension between the minimalist training and competent training camps.

Minimal training is fine in good or great conditions, classic holiday location diving.

When you come home and want to dive in sub-optimal conditions as found in northern climes, you need a lot more training and practice to do that safely.

For example UK diving is cold; poor visibility; dark, has currents; wind/waves; lots of snag risks as diving is commonly done on wrecks... This means self sufficiency is key to safety, the use of SMBs, ability to understand and mitigate risks is crucial. Then there's drysuits, additional equipment, buddy-loss is common, deeper diving (wrecks are generally deeper than OW depths), nitrox, redundant gas, safety stops when you can't see the surface, etc., etc.

Caribbean diving however: warm water, 30m/100ft visibility, low current... Kit is simple. But you do need to have buoyancy control to avoid damaging the reefs.