packman
Contributor
While it varies according the diver and the instructor, I'd say on average today's freshly minted AOW diver is equivalent to yesterday's freshly minted BOW diver.
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It all depends on what instructor they had during their class. The difference can be night and day between two divers certified by the same agency as OW divers.
Most of the stuff taught and tested is to a rote standard in scuba. A guy/gal takes a class and performs well is certainly going to be very rusty in a few months of inactivity.
5) Moaning about and/or harping at beginners because they don't know it all doesn't help a darned thing. HELPING them get the experience the need and to have fun while doing it without judging them harshly does. I once spent two days diving with an Englishman in Turkey who spent two days apologizing for being a beginner. I spent two days putting him at ease and focusing on the fun. After 2 days he started to relax a bit and have fun. WHO ON EARTH hammered into this poor guy's head that he wasn't worth diving with... .oh wait.... I think I know....
It all depends on what instructor they had during their class. The difference can be night and day between two divers certified by the same agency as OW divers.
It's a learners permit. If they start off doing 10-20 foot beach dives, move on to some 30-40 ft reef dives, they should be fine. The current OW course is a starting point, not a final destination.
An OW card is not a learner's permit.
and if the conditions are dissimilar or worse....then what is the OW card???It's a card that says the holder is qualified to dive with a buddy, in open water in conditions similar to or better than where they were trained.
An OW card is not a learner's permit. It's a card that says the holder is qualified to dive with a buddy, in open water in conditions similar to or better than where they were trained. Regardless of the agency, it's the responsibility of the instructor to make sure that this is the case before signing off on the c-card.
This isn't to say that divers shouldn't learn more after certification, however if you want to consider an OW card to be a Learner's Permit, it should be a permit to learn other things, not how to dive safely in Open Water, within certification limits, with a buddy.
Terry