PADI Holds The New World's Record for Fastest OW Class

[Goose75]

Actually, I'm about to take my private pilot checkride and most of the ground training nowadays is done via multimedia CD's or DVD's, even for more advanced certificates such as instrument or commercial. Basically you do the lesson at home, meet with the instructor, ask any questions and then fly the lesson.

I took the FAA written exam 15 years ago and had two days actual classroom time before taking it. I did self-study from the book for a year. I ended up leaving for college before getting to the oral so I'll have to retake the written if I want a license. I purchased the DVD self study materials to do so. I didn’t see PADI on the cover so it must not be an exclusive belief that people can learn from a book without having it read to them.

In college there were many students who learned better by self-study. Personally I liked lectures but they were usually much less informative than the self-study. The purpose of lecture is to validate the self-study and to query an expert. I also tested out of some college courses. I guess that I shouldn’t have been allowed to learn on my own.

As long as PADI validates the essential materials have been learned, I have no problem with not requiring a classroom lecture. On the dives I’d like to see some changes but I’m fine with self-study instead of classroom.

 

[RonFrank]

You actually *discovered* how likely 90% of the certifications work, and this is NOT limited to PADI. I'm not sure about your math, one is not certified after the second day of review and pool drills, that would be four dives, and two days of diving later.

What you appear to be missing is the idea that the student comes to the class prepared. If PADI and other agencies actually offered a class that was more like a college run course, one would read a chapter a week, review the chapter with the instructor, take any applicable tests after each section, and one could streach this out for months.

I studied the 250+ page PADI OW book for six weeks prior to going to the LDS to start certification. So I had likely spent 40+ hours reading and reviewing prior to showing up. When I walked in the class I was ready to take the final. I really did not need any review thanks to spending a lot of time studying, and also in part to reading SB.

At our LDS pool skills were NOT a given. The students did the drills until they completed them successfully, or they failed. Our LDS also made their pool available on a set schedule for students who had finished the pool skills and tests to practice between the initial class, and the OW checkout dives which were anywhere from seval days to a month apart depending on the students choice of checkout dates.

I get tired of PADI bashing as from what I can tell the other agencies are not much different, and REALLY it's up to the LDS to make sure students are comfortable with the skills needed to BEGIN to learn to dive. As so many have said, the key is a good instructor, and I personal believe that the PADI materials and skills are adequate even if I think there is always room for improvement.

If PADI divers were all that bad, then there would be deaths on a regular basis due to lack of training. That generally does not appear to be the case even if I do think that some facilities SELL C-Cards.

 

[dl348]

IMHO, there is absolutely nothing wrong with self/home study. I've taken several classes at the collegiate level that were entirely self study, all you had to do was show up and take the exams. Does this mean my college degree is worth less than someone who didn't take any home study or on-line courses. I don't think so.

I've also personally met several divers who took a Non-PADI OW class spread out over 8 weeks, and to tell you the truth their skills were not any better than someone who took a PADI weekend OW class.

I don't believe that a weekend OW class is any less of a class than one spread out over the course of 8 weeks. Everyone learns at a different rate, and each instructor who teaches the class is different as well.

 

[Atticus]

1/2 day class, 1/2 day pool, 1/2 day pool.

Terry

Plus 2 days of open water dives = 3.5 days (or however you want to slice it, but please don't leave out the open water dives).

If the topic was flying instead of diving, which pilot would you want to be flying with.
Terry

I did my ground school for my private pilot FAA exam entirely by reading the book at home. My flight instructor gave me about a 1 hour oral quiz before signing my off to take the written. This is the way most ground school training is done around here. Oh, and I scored well on both my FAA written and oral.

...Has it resulted in a higher injury/mortality rate since the days of month-long-rip-your-mask-off-turn-off-your-air training? Not that I can ascertain.

The accident numbers suggest that the industry is sufficiently training divers.

I would love to see a better advanced open water rating. Five quicky knowledge reviews and two days of diving hardly qualifies a person as "advanced".

 

[Goose75]

In some ways lectures are more problematic than self-study. In self-study the student learns from the one written source that can be reviewed later for error. In lecture (without self study), the student learns from the instructor who may include opinion, erroneous facts or simply make a mistake. I can't count the number of college lectures where the professor was in error or deliberately pushing a personal belief. If no one challenges the lecture then the majority of the students go on taking it as fact.

 

[dlndavid]

The accident numbers suggest that the industry is sufficiently training divers.

I would love to see a better advanced open water rating. Five quicky knowledge reviews and two days of diving hardly qualifies a person as "advanced".

Many PADI instructors I know don't think they have a problem with training, just naming their courses.

 

[scubabrandon]

While I am not far enough into my diving to know about all the different certification ways of doing things, I do have a PADI story from a cruise ship. This summer my wife and I were on a Royal Carib ship. I was looking at the dive shop stuff and the guy running it asked if I was certified. I said yes but my wife is not. He told me that all she had to do was watch the video and they would be in the pool for 2 hours today and 2 tomm. then she could do her OW and be certified.
Now that worried me. I thought about how hard I studied how many days I spent in the pool, how much class room time I had invested.
I know of a local instructor who is PADI and he is very very good with his students and takes alot of time with instruction, so I dont believe its a PADI thing. I just hate how the cruise ship folks are let loose the way they are.

 

[Atticus]

Many PADI instructors I know don't think they have a problem with training, just naming their courses.

<hijack>
As has been suggested previously, "Open Water 1" for basic, and "Open Water 2" instead of "Advanced Open Water" would be an improvement.
</hijack>

 

[Kane(adian)]

I did OW over 2 weekends - classroom and pool I drove about 4 hours to get to, OW - 7 or 8 hours. Taking one session a week was not feasible for me, at all. Classroom time - didn't learn a thing. I had read the book ahead of time, and I've certainly learned much more difficult material from the textbook before!

OW is the bare minimum necessary to blow bubbles. All the divers with the minimum training who are dropping dollars into scuba are essentially subsidizing equipment prices for everyone else. How expensive would a reg be if you had to have a DM card to buy one? - then we'd all be whining about that.

compare diving with rock climbing. there is no certification necessary to walk in and buy a whack of climbing gear. No instruction on how to place the gear properly in the rock so that it will actually hold if you fall on it. No instruction on identifying different rock types - those that are solid vs. those that crumble.

OW does not make you superman, but it's better than nothing. Like any course of study, you get out of it, what you put in.

 

[tlawler]

Maybe I'm showing my age here, but when I got my NAUI cert, there was a "basic scuba" certification that you had to pass before open water. It consisted of a lot of classroom work on gas laws and the physics of diving and pool sessions that stressed swimming skills. Did only NAUI have such a thing and was it dropped due to the competetivness of trying to attract students?