To those considering an OW class...

[Thalassamania]

About every five years or so I forget myself and make a short foray into the recreational diving world. I just got back from such a debacle in the Keys, what I saw down there really upset me. It was the usual litany of incompetence and ineptitude on the part of divers holding cards from entry level of various agencies up through PADI Master Diver. On the whole, I have to say that recreational divers are even worse than I remember.

They drink and dive. They smoke and dive. They can't control their buoyancy. They can't hover. They're deathly afraid of having water in their mask or their regulator out of their mouth. I don’t know why they buy compasses; they don’t know how to use them.

Forget about decompression theory, all the arguing that goes on here about tables vs. computers is really irrelevant, most of the divers I saw don't know why they're using either, nor have they a clue concerning how to use either (and frankly the "diving professionals" with them weren't much better).

The reality is that diving has been taken over by those who self-servingly advocate shorter and shorter classes. Those authorities in the field, who have no agency, shop or economic axe to grind, advocate 100 hours of instruction and 12 open water dives as the minimums for open water training for good reason, it's clear to me that less seems to produce divers that are, in my mind, not even fit for being guided about.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I think that the the skills that are being taught in the OW are the die hard nesscities. Some of the other stuff is extra that should come in time. But what I see agencies doing with the boat/ shore entry and fine tuning of buoyancy specialties, is they are shortening the OW class, but you are basically required to take those class if you decide to continue your diving career.

This isn't true.

For example PADI has "Peak Performance Buoyancy control" but it isn't a required prerequisit for anything...you don't even have to take to be an instructor and teach it. I'll leave the discussion of whether or not the class is any good for another time.

The fact is that the ONLY class wher basics like buoyancy control are required to be taught or demonstrated (in the form of actual performance requirements in the standards) is in the OW class. ALL other classes pretty much assume that you know it. The important aspects of technique that are lft out of the OW course are left out of everything.

 

[ScubyDoo]

Firstly, I have not read all the arguements and opinions presented on this topic. There were several hundred and I was too impatient to read them through them all. I will venture to do so eventually.

I certainly believe it is an important subject, and most of the opinions I read have merit. I can only address the issue from the perspective of the LDS where I was trained, and now DM for. As many have already opined, it all depends on the instructor, and perhaps to a larger extent....the LDS or similar body which employs the instructor(s). I hate to use worn out cliches, but what's the old saying?....."It rots from the head down"??....or something along those lines.

Regardless of the certifiying agency, the qaulity of training at all levels boils down to the competetance and committment to excellence employed by those responsible for the training. If a lousy instructor takes the worlds best training regimen and ignores it....you will have a poorly trained diver. Likewise, if you take a so-so training curriculum and enhance it with an expertly trained and committed instructor...the likely result will be a well trained diver.

Those who employ instructors must exercise stringent oversight, which demands quality and committment at all levels. Marketing and profit can NEVER be the bottom line. The LDS I work for has always put quality training before profit. I have personally witnessed many students being failed because they failed to meet the standards. In these cases, we always encourage the student not to give up, and offer to work with them on a one-on-one basis until they overcome whatever skills they are having problems with.

As for the Peak Performance Buoyancy class, I personally think its a great class. I agree that basic OW divers need to show basic abilities to control thier buoyancy before certification. Mastering buoyancy however is a skill that takes time, practice, and experience. The more you dive, the better your buoyancy skills become. As a divemaster, I am often complimented by OW students who are in awe of my buoyancy skills. My response to them is ..."Take the Peak Performance Buoyancy class". It is a class which focus' on nothing except buoyancy. Many students go straight to AOW after OW, and I would prefer they took PPB directly after OW. Its one more tool in helping divers to be safer and have more fun on thier dives. Are you going to "Master" your buoyancy during the class....No, but your buoyancy skills will be significantly enhanced, and you will have the knowledge in hand to continue enhancing the skills as you continue to dive and gain practical experience.

My two cents.

 

[oceanaddicted]

Amen my brother!!! You said it all.

 

[ron63]

I remember my basic scuba course. It was conducted by a NAUI instructor with an instructor number less than 100. I took the course in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1983. The course was held every Saturday for ten weeks. We had four hours of classroom work in the mornings, took a break for lunch and had four hours of pool work in the afternoon. After 40 hourse in the pool I felt pretty confident when I did my open water dives. My advance course was with PADI in 1989. I was conducted in one weekend. It may not have made me a better diver but it did teach me a few things. Anyway, I'm all for longer courses. The LDS's just do not seem to offer longer courses.

Ron

 

[Azza]

The LDS's just do not seem to offer longer courses.

There is a reason for that

Below is the cost of an OW course for me to run It.. This is COST per student based on 4 students, in New Zealand Dollars.
Now if a shop ran this course it obviously doesnt have to charge for gear hire but if the gear is being used, then it is not available for hire. If an LDS has a pool it has maintenance costs.

Manual/tables =$52
Cert cost =$42
Gear Hire =$80 per day
Tank Fills =$5 ea x 6 = $30
Instructor Tank Fills =$5 ea x 6 = $30 /4 =$7.50
Pool Hire =$50 /4 = =$12.5 ea (Assuming doing all the pool sess in one day)
Boat Fees =$125 x 2 days =$250
Instructor Boat Fees =$125 x 2 days /4 =$62.5
Transport Costs/fuel =$80 /4 = $20 (If you must drive away-as I did in this example)

Grand Total =$716 dollars each student. This doesnt include any money for the Instructor giving up 4 days/ 2 weekends.

Even if Instructor goes free on the boat it is still $654 per student.

Shops here sell OW courses for between $395-495. I charge $1000 and consequently only teach rich people...Which is ok by me. I don't want to be teaching all the time anyway

 

[Thalassamania]

I certainly believe it is an important subject, and most of the opinions I read have merit. I can only address the issue from the perspective of the LDS where I was trained, and now DM for. As many have already opined, it all depends on the instructor, and perhaps to a larger extent....the LDS or similar body which employs the instructor(s). I hate to use worn out cliches, but what's the old saying?....."It rots from the head down"??....or something along those lines.

You’re right … as far as that goes ... the quality of training depends on the instructor, but the area in which the instructor can have an effect seems to shrink constantly. Even the best instructor today, if he or she teaches out of an LDS or runs a “conventional course” has such little contact with the student that I do not see how he or she can honestly expect to have much of an effect.

Back in the early 1980s a small group of instructors were asked by DEMA (me, Dennis Graver, Jon Hardy, one or two others) to test a course that was about half the normal course being taught then, but that was longer than what is being taught today. Again, if memory serves, Dennis was supportive, Jon was equivocal and I was adamantly opposed. But do consider that I was the token non-industry person, and DEMA's explicit and up-front push was to create more divers, more quickly, who'd buy more gear.

What I witnessed in the Keys last week is exactly the effect I’d expect from abbreviated training where core skills like buoyancy control (e.g., teach a fin pivot instead) and decompression theory are left to wait for a later course that a student may or may not take. The quality of the instructor is a virtually irrelevancy when there is not enough time in the program for the student to learn, or when critical topics are glossed over or eliminated completely, or when (as seems to be the case most often today) an instructor has no real “search image” for what the completed skill or knowledge goal should actually look like.

Regardless of the certifiying agency, the qaulity of training at all levels boils down to the competetance and committment to excellence employed by those responsible for the training. If a lousy instructor takes the worlds best training regimen and ignores it....you will have a poorly trained diver. Likewise, if you take a so-so training curriculum and enhance it with an expertly trained and committed instructor...the likely result will be a well trained diver.

This is quite true, but additionally, just as the lousy instructor wastes the finest curriculum and syllabus, a lousy curriculum and syllabus wastes a competent and committed instructor.

Those who employ instructors must exercise stringent oversight, which demands quality and committment at all levels. Marketing and profit can NEVER be the bottom line. The LDS I work for has always put quality training before profit. I have personally witnessed many students being failed because they failed to meet the standards. In these cases, we always encourage the student not to give up, and offer to work with them on a one-on-one basis until they overcome whatever skills they are having problems with.

It is my observation that most of those who employ instructors do not exercise stringent oversight. Nor do they demand quality and commitment. Marketing and profit are the bottom line.

This is so ingrained in the industry that most LDSs and Instructors don’t even know that there once were better ways, they have never seen the product of a true 40 hour program, not to mention a 100 hour program, they can not envision the difference that it can make, but rather display their ignorance by attempting to defend their pitiful product with aspersions like “old-fashioned” training or “militaristic” approaches that are both inappropriate and inaccurate.

As for the Peak Performance Buoyancy class, I personally think its a great class. I agree that basic OW divers need to show basic abilities to control thier buoyancy before certification. Mastering buoyancy however is a skill that takes time, practice, and experience. .

Peak Performance Buoyancy is a joke, naught but a band-aid developed to patchy the inadequacy of current diver training. It should be seen for what it is, a masterful shell game. It’s very existence is an admission of failure to train a competent diver (consider: how can you “master” skills and still need Peak Performance training?). There’s always a way to turn another buck rather than address the real problem.

Then there’s the name … you recognize that it’s just “puffery” … no one leaves the class with “Peak Performance.” But what you don’t know is that no leaves the “Peak Performance” class with the level of skill that is normal for 40 hour course graduates.

As a Dive Master, you’ve likely developed good buoyancy skills, but think where you’d be now if you’d left your basic course with something near the level of skill that you now enjoy.

What’s next, perhaps “Peak Performance Inhalation,” a mandatory prerequisite for the “Peak Performance Exhalation” course?

 

[Azza]

Well spoken. I agree with most of what you say...especially this

Marketing and profit are the bottom line.

This is so ingrained in the industry that most LDSs and Instructors don’t even know that there once were better ways,

If shops started charging $1500-$2000 for an OW course they would be able to provide quality training, pay an instructor properly and make money.

People are quite happy to hire a builder at $50 per hour, a sparky at $59 per hour or a plumber at $45 an hour...But expect someone who is going to teach them to survive in an extremely hostile environment where you DEPEND upon equipment to survive, around $10 per hour.

Now the biggest problem is that it is the consumer who started the trend of shorter dive courses in their quest for instant gratification.
The problem lies with the Dive Industry that lowered their standards to accomodate this.

The whle scenario is kinda like the guy that is having trouble getting laid so he drops his standards and picks up an ugly chick for the night, knocks her up and is stuck with her for the rest of his life.

 

[MikeFerrara]

The often heard saying that it depends on the instructor is true and then again it isn't. I find that many instructors who learned through the same standards that they are teaching to just don't know what material to add, even if they were so inclined.

I don't know why instructors and everyone else are so willing to let the agency off the hook. To my way of thinking if agency standards were squared away, the worst instructor would be teaching an ok class unless there were actual standards violations. The fact is that an instructor can teach a lousy class and graduate lousy divers with everything above board and completely within agency standards. Standards just don't ask for much.

In such a system, those teaching the fastest and the cheapest are rewarded. PADI, for one, presents an instructor with a nice little wall certificate if they certify over 100 divers in a year. They do not reward quality but rather just quantity.

The grievous holes in trainng standards (a couple of which Thal pointed out above) should be blatantly obvious to anyone who knows what they're looking at. Again, that puts us back to instructors who were trained to the same standards they are using to train others.

The cure is to see a good 40+ hour course where students have a good handle on critical skills like buoyancy control and trim BEFORE they ever do their FIRST open water dive. What everyone says is true...buoyancy control takes some practice. The time for that practice, however, is BEFORE leaving the pool for open water. Of course, since most training standards don't require students to demonstrate any level of buoyancy control during their training dives there's little incentive to even do it in the pool.

For support one must only reference the DAN or BSAC incident/accident reports and see how many accidents involve buoyancy control problems. Beyond that, simply watching what goes on in the water provides a pretty graphic demonstration. Unfortunately, what Thal talkes about seeing on his recent trip is just what most people are used to seeing. As a result they expect it and don't see anything "wrong" or unusualy about it.

I don't blame divers or even instructors here. It's easy to assume that the agencies issueing the certifications are the experts in diving and dive training. Just because the assumption is easy and natural doesn't make it correct and once you get past that it's a bit easier to see what's going on. Personally, I don't recognize the mainstream agencies as having any expertise outside of marketing and I think that position is amply demonstrable.

 

[Thalassamania]

Now the biggest problem is that it is the consumer who started the trend of shorter dive courses in their quest for instant gratification. The problem lies with the Dive Industry that lowered their standards to accomodate this.

In point of fact it was not that the Dive Industry that lowered their standards to accommodate a public outcry for shorter courses. The genius marketers could not understand why they had market surveys in front of them that indicated that almost everyone wanted to try diving, but yet the industry was flat. Sales were so flat that there was little or no hope of even overtaking bocce ball in terms of gross annual sales. The industry hit on the idea of “lowering barriers to entry.” This meant shorter and cheaper courses. The net effect was that diving never did overtake bocce ball, but rather the changes started a price war between LDSs and a rush to reduce standards between agencies (“But we have too or else someone else will do it first and get a competitive advantage,” said PADI and sure enough everyone, with minor variation, followed along). The thing that the industry never came to grips with is the fact that most folks want to take a quick course, take a guided diving vacation somewhere warm and clear, and call it a day. Maybe they’ll do it again, maybe not. But certification cards were for all waters world wide, thus was born the cop-out phrase “conditions similar to those in which they were trained.” Had the agencies had the guts to do what was right, (e.g., a system of location and equipment endorsements not unlike the system for aircraft) we’d not find ourselves in the current situation, all divers would be getting the training that they needed, be it the once-in-a-lifetime vacation diver or the avid diver on the North Pacific Coast.

The whle scenario is kinda like the guy that is having trouble getting laid so he drops his standards and picks up an ugly chick for the night, knocks her up and is stuck with her for the rest of his life.

While there’s undoubtedly truth to in your analogy, I’m having trouble figuring out who’s the “guy” and who’s the “chick” and whom got stuck with what.

I don't blame divers or even instructors here. It's easy to assume that the agencies issuing the certifications are the experts in diving and dive training. Just because the assumption is easy and natural doesn't make it correct and once you get past that it's a bit easier to see what's going on. Personally, I don't recognize the mainstream agencies as having any expertise outside of marketing and I think that position is amply demonstrable.

Right on Mike, who was the last "real dive instructor exemplar" to serve in a "National Training Director" role? Walt Hendricks Sr.?