PADI training better than USN training?

[tchil01]

I would think that Seal or Ranger training would be more of a means to a end... one dive.. get to some place... do what you had to do.

Regular Navy training would probably be more intensive, but their basic class shouldn't be too far off from PADI or NAUI. Types of gear, dive planning, gas laws, types of kicks, emergency traing, etc. However, I would think that their advance diving is going to be a lot differnt. How many of us are trained for saturation diving, hard hat work, search and recovery of live bombs.

Ty

 

[Jarhead]

on a couple weeks ago about SEAL training. According to the documentary, their training was much more intense than my BOW. My BOW didn't include simulated surf rolls (where you loose your mask, regulator and your air gets turned off and they had to fix it without breaking for the surface) in a 48f pool. My BOW training also didn't include rebreather training or limpet mine placement. Underwater navigation was pretty strict, too. One buddy pair placed their sim. limpet mine on the wrong ship. They use the mothball fleet for this training.

Jarhead

 

[TCDiver1]

Cave Diver once bubbled...


During my DIRF class, the instructors mentioned they knew a few Navy SEAL's. They told us that the SEAL dive training was roughly equivalent to PADI BOW training. Most of them couldnt dive very well at all, but they could kill you 15 different ways with a paperclip. Funny, but I always expected Navy SEALS to be like, well like seals in the water...

Navy Seal training roughly equivalent to Padi OW? I know several Seals who may take exception to that. None of them are active today & went through Seal training 20 to 30 years ago but i can't believe the training has gotten that much easier. What Jarhead said plus, underwater demo., underwater mapping for amphibious assaults, DPV delivery from subs, etc. All while someone may be hunting you down to kill you. Hmmm, sounds a little more task loaded than a fin pivot.

I guess it depends what your definition of "difficult", "better" or "equivalent" is. It's pretty hard to compare "combat diving" to diving that is basically recreational.

 

[Walter]

From the Navy Dive School web site.

"• Second Class Diver (2C) – covering Scuba, MK 20 and MK 21 – is the entry-level program for most deep-sea diver applicants. This is a 100-day course providing instruction and training in surface-supplied air and scuba diving techniques, along with underwater repair, salvage and search procedures. Instruction includes diving physics and medicine, scuba and surface supported diving systems, underwater tools and work techniques, and underwater cutting and welding procedures. This course qualifies trainees to a maximum depth of 190 feet."

I teach a pretty comprehensive (includes all the PADI requirements plus other skills/topics not required by PADI) beginner course, but it certainly does not last 100 days nor do my students have to deal with skills I witnessed on Friday. It is silly to compare PADI's course (or any other recreational agency) to the US Navy course.

 

[100days-a-year]

Gosh Walter,just as I was waiting for another "my Buddy'story you have to come along with facts and ruin itBTW all my experience with Navy divers while in the Navy was that they work awful hard at what they do ,I hate to see all that work denigrated.BTWII Navy SEAL stories are really checked here www.cyberseals.org has a list of poseurs.

 

[John Mathieson]

I have a somewhat naive question

- is it acceptable for an Instructor in a PADI Advanced Open Water course to basically skip any "formal instruction" and just basically tell you the answers to the questions in the PADI book?

I had this happen to me, and could easily have done the course reading only enough of the manual to fill in the answers. This is not what I did, but I wonder how common it is for instructors to take a very "easy" way out. The dives were another matter, and there were 5 dives done, but I am curious to hear what feedback there is on such a lack of actual teaching.

I know this also happens in basic Open Water courses - ie almost no instruction, just get through the dives, and fill in the answers.

You may guess from the way I have phrased this that I am not a big fan of this approach.

Comments from the wise and experienced would be appreciated. Also, how would one go about suggesting to PADI that the instructional tactics of a particular dive shop may need a bit of scrutiny? Does anyone really care?

 

[pt40fathoms]

Not sure on the US standards, however, up here in the great white north (Canada) I have dived with Navy divers on many occasions, and they have also been enroled in some of the speciallty programs offered by PADI. They tend to be in "Peak Performance Bouyancy", "Night Diving", and "Underwater Nav". They have also obtained certification in Trimix and or Nitrox as well as cave and wreck diving.

The reasons are simple they explained, it is cheaper to obtain the skills in "non-combat" related areas with a civilian agency.

Besides, they get to collect all them neat plastic cards that let them dive for pleasure when on leave.

Go figure

 

[pt40fathoms]

Oh, and one other thing. They are "just" changing from the horse collar to the jacket style BC. However, they say it will take about 2 years before they are completely converted.

Nothing like "modern" equipment and the finest tech for our brothers in arms eh.

 

[Rick L]

What test fishing line did you bait in this thread?
I hope its 500lp test
comparing the usn divers to padi is like saying a skyrocket is like a cruise missle. passing a basic open water cert is easier than getting a drivers license!!!! I hope the usn has a better record
and harder course?
Rick L

 

[Uncle Pug]

Rick L once bubbled...
What test fishing line did you bait in this thread?
I hope its 500lp test

When you are long-lining Rick you don't use fishing line... you use cable... aka wire-rope.



~~~~~~~~~~~
btw: notice I didn't say what kind of diver this fellow was?