Hi Steve and Mike:
Thanks for the replies. Steve, you are spot on with what I'm getting at. I'd like to think that "Open Water" means you can at least dive from a boat, make a beach or shore entry, and understand the basics of most ocean environments. This is why I posted the link to BSAC because I think their approach is more realistic. The ironic thing is that most instructors and shops sell this stuff in the form of "specialty classes." If you look at the instructional course catalog these days, there seems to be a specialty for just about anything. While that's OK, it would seem to me that students get more "value" out of receiving a wider range of instruction at two levels - Open Water and Advanced. The problem is that if you do both those classes in a quarry - like many shops and instructors do on the east coast - where is the learning? OK, so I can navigate the hell out of my dive around a big hole filled with rock. That's cool, but it doesn't really translate to the ocean. Vladimir mentioned that the Caribbean doesn't prepare you for Hatteras and I'd probably agree, but I've had reef divers with 20 dives on boats under their belts that do MUCH better than divers who only dive quarries.
For example, I was diving Olympus one day in more "sporty" conditions when one group started making common mistakes. First, none of them took any seasickness meds before diving. Most of them were sick. Then, several started making simple mistakes before getting in, including forgetting to turn on their gas, hooking up their BCD inflators or having loose fins. None of these would be problematic in a quarry doing a walk-in entry, but any of them could be fatal in 2 to 4 FT seas off North Carolina. Fortunately, the boat crew caught each of them (Olympus is top notch) and corrected the problems before they compounded. Now some would say it's more likely a failure of instruction, but I'd disagree. I've seen VERY good instructors at quarries that teach and drill stuff right, so I'll give the instructor or shop the benefit of the doubt. Instead, I'd say it's "environmental shock." They'd never encountered what they were experiencing because they had NEVER tasted salt before! The dive leader, a PADI Divemaster, when asked later by George where they wanted to make the second dive said he wanted to "head back in." Then he said the words you should NEVER even THINK about saying on a North Carolina dive boat - I don't care how BAD you have it. Looking right at George Purifoy - the guy who found the U-352 - he said "we're just quarry divers." 4 hours later we pulled into the dock.
Doc Mike, what an OUTSTANDING page you linked. I agree completely with the approach you guys have outlined and it's very similar to the BSAC diver development style used in the UK. However, BSAC has "Ocean Diver" on their cert cards for a reason and its because they require ocean dives. That could be problematic in some areas of this country - obviously - which is why I suggested the difference. I don't know. It seems specialty classes are the bigger market here and it's what Americans are used to. Just stand in line at McDonalds these days and listen to how people order a hamburger, LOL. I'd hate to think "ocean diving" is a specialty, but that sure seems where it's going.
I know some people reading my posts might think I'm busting on quarry divers and quarry diving. Really, I'm not. If it's all you have, want or need, by all means, more power to you. I respect that.
BUT, I wish you could see what I've seen. Molasses Reef in Key Largo on a dark night bathed in the blue light of photogenic plankton so bright that you didn't even need a dive light. Thousands of horseshoe crabs migrating across the sandy bottom of the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay like soldiers marching into battle. The look on my 13 year old niece's face as we lay motionless near the stern of the Dixie Arrow off Hatteras after other divers had left the wreck and more than 20 sand tiger sharks moved in right next to us, some more than 10 FT long, floating effortlessly only inches away. The shear size of the WWII tanker E.M. Clark lying on its side and towering more than 6 stories above me in almost unlimited visibility as we casually swam down the length of her hull. The U.S.S. Tarpon bathed in blue topaz water so beautiful that it sparkled like jewelry when baitfish caught the beams of sunlight. A pod of spotted dolphin smiling as they swam by and made my acquaintance on a decompression stop.
So, as our oceans become more polluted, the heat kills our fish, invasive species change the character of regions, dive boats go out of business because no one comes and the pace of this change accelerates, "quarry diving" will undoubtedly become more popular.
I just wish most of you reading this could understand that there's more out there than a $36 admission fee, practicing skills, signing up for your 10th specialty class and seeing the latest sunken bus.
The rest of us NEED you...
Thanks for reading.
Andy
Thanks for the replies. Steve, you are spot on with what I'm getting at. I'd like to think that "Open Water" means you can at least dive from a boat, make a beach or shore entry, and understand the basics of most ocean environments. This is why I posted the link to BSAC because I think their approach is more realistic. The ironic thing is that most instructors and shops sell this stuff in the form of "specialty classes." If you look at the instructional course catalog these days, there seems to be a specialty for just about anything. While that's OK, it would seem to me that students get more "value" out of receiving a wider range of instruction at two levels - Open Water and Advanced. The problem is that if you do both those classes in a quarry - like many shops and instructors do on the east coast - where is the learning? OK, so I can navigate the hell out of my dive around a big hole filled with rock. That's cool, but it doesn't really translate to the ocean. Vladimir mentioned that the Caribbean doesn't prepare you for Hatteras and I'd probably agree, but I've had reef divers with 20 dives on boats under their belts that do MUCH better than divers who only dive quarries.
For example, I was diving Olympus one day in more "sporty" conditions when one group started making common mistakes. First, none of them took any seasickness meds before diving. Most of them were sick. Then, several started making simple mistakes before getting in, including forgetting to turn on their gas, hooking up their BCD inflators or having loose fins. None of these would be problematic in a quarry doing a walk-in entry, but any of them could be fatal in 2 to 4 FT seas off North Carolina. Fortunately, the boat crew caught each of them (Olympus is top notch) and corrected the problems before they compounded. Now some would say it's more likely a failure of instruction, but I'd disagree. I've seen VERY good instructors at quarries that teach and drill stuff right, so I'll give the instructor or shop the benefit of the doubt. Instead, I'd say it's "environmental shock." They'd never encountered what they were experiencing because they had NEVER tasted salt before! The dive leader, a PADI Divemaster, when asked later by George where they wanted to make the second dive said he wanted to "head back in." Then he said the words you should NEVER even THINK about saying on a North Carolina dive boat - I don't care how BAD you have it. Looking right at George Purifoy - the guy who found the U-352 - he said "we're just quarry divers." 4 hours later we pulled into the dock.
Doc Mike, what an OUTSTANDING page you linked. I agree completely with the approach you guys have outlined and it's very similar to the BSAC diver development style used in the UK. However, BSAC has "Ocean Diver" on their cert cards for a reason and its because they require ocean dives. That could be problematic in some areas of this country - obviously - which is why I suggested the difference. I don't know. It seems specialty classes are the bigger market here and it's what Americans are used to. Just stand in line at McDonalds these days and listen to how people order a hamburger, LOL. I'd hate to think "ocean diving" is a specialty, but that sure seems where it's going.
I know some people reading my posts might think I'm busting on quarry divers and quarry diving. Really, I'm not. If it's all you have, want or need, by all means, more power to you. I respect that.
BUT, I wish you could see what I've seen. Molasses Reef in Key Largo on a dark night bathed in the blue light of photogenic plankton so bright that you didn't even need a dive light. Thousands of horseshoe crabs migrating across the sandy bottom of the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay like soldiers marching into battle. The look on my 13 year old niece's face as we lay motionless near the stern of the Dixie Arrow off Hatteras after other divers had left the wreck and more than 20 sand tiger sharks moved in right next to us, some more than 10 FT long, floating effortlessly only inches away. The shear size of the WWII tanker E.M. Clark lying on its side and towering more than 6 stories above me in almost unlimited visibility as we casually swam down the length of her hull. The U.S.S. Tarpon bathed in blue topaz water so beautiful that it sparkled like jewelry when baitfish caught the beams of sunlight. A pod of spotted dolphin smiling as they swam by and made my acquaintance on a decompression stop.
So, as our oceans become more polluted, the heat kills our fish, invasive species change the character of regions, dive boats go out of business because no one comes and the pace of this change accelerates, "quarry diving" will undoubtedly become more popular.
I just wish most of you reading this could understand that there's more out there than a $36 admission fee, practicing skills, signing up for your 10th specialty class and seeing the latest sunken bus.
The rest of us NEED you...
Thanks for reading.
Andy