Let's consider what the 'goal' of certification competence is.
OP:
However I never expected him to do much more than to introduce me to the sport, show me how to set-up and use the equipment, and how not to kill myself. I am saying that in my opinion, open water training is an introduction to the sport that enabled me to go diving and begin the learning process. It is really no more than one step beyond "discover scuba".
DevonDiver:
But you can give it all to them on a course of adequate duration to include all of the necessary training to make them a fully functional, competent and confident independent diver.
Let's put out a few diving scenarios and you decide which a pair of newly minted OW cert. holders ought to be able to handle without any assistance beyond a dive briefing for local conditions & the site.
1.) A quarry dive. Variable depth quarry, depths ranging from 10 to 100', 80 degrees in 1'rst 15', then a thermocline, cooler, etc... No current. Maybe 20- 30' viz. Walk in & out with very easy entry. Practically no navigation skill required. Watch your depth & air supply & don't stay down too long.
2.) Shore dive Bonaire's easier southern sites. Great viz., low current, entry & exit complicated by rocky areas you can't see clearly due to surf, and if you exit far from a good entry, you may be climbing over submerged rocks & maybe get stung by fire coral. Water is 80+ even at depth.
3.) Charter Boat diving Cozumel or Grand Cayman catering to tourists. Gear up, jump in, 80 degree water, great viz., follow the dive guide, signal when your air is low, come up as a group, maybe have a 40 minute dive. No navigation needed.
4.) Shore diving some California sites (I've never dove California; drawing on what I've read here). Colder water, wet suit needed, viz. not up there with Cozumel or Grand Cayman, waves coming in & surge may make entry & exit rather challenging, and kelp pose an entanglement hazard at some sites I presume. I don't know how important it is to navigate out, around & back to a particular site. In some areas of the U.S. tide times much be factored in, and currents near shore.
5.) California Charter Boat catering to regular, more seasoned local divers. No dive guide goes in. Colder water so you need a wet suit. Viz. isn't up there with Cozumel or Grand Cayman from what I've read. You are expected to navigate from the boat, to the dive site, do whatever there, & navigate back to the boat with adequate air for a safety margin. Kelp an entanglement hazard.
I think a typical OW buddy pair ought to be able to handle 1.) and 3.). With some reading & advice (e.g.: get thicker soled boots, don & doff fins in waist deep water, avoid the southern end where current's more an issue, etc...), probably 2.
Now, 4.) & 5.) may be a different story. How much we should be sticklers on navigation is a highly contentious topic. Some people seem to think if you're not a capable navigator, you shouldn't have an OW card. Some people find navigation very hard, don't retain what they learn well when they do learn it, and find confining their 'independent' diving to situations where good navigation isn't necessary isn't that big a deal to them. And as I recall from the forum, some people dive in pairs with a life partner (e.g.: a husband/wife pair) where one isn't interested in navigating, isn't going to navigate, and isn't going to take any crap about it so telling them they don't rate a C-card really isn't going to go anyway.
Plus, even on land, some people are really awful at navigation, geographical awareness, broad awareness & multi-talking this concern with enjoying a task. Many people who have a better aptitude for it seem to think the former are 'just making excuses,' 'have bad attitudes,' are 'lazy and unmotivated,' etc... Which does nothing to address the problem, comes across as contemptuous & patronizing, and really, really hacks the former folks off (kinda comes across as 'You're not really trying, because no one's really that stupid').
The issue of dive planning Jim Lapenta brought up is also somewhat controversial, because what constitutes a plan isn't agreed on. To me shore diving in Bonaire, it's swim out to the reef, drop down around 40 - 60 feet, head into the current (if none, default heading north) around 15 minutes, turn & come back sticking around 20 - 30 feet, work a safety stop in along the way, then mess around in the shallows (under 10 feet deep; mainly exploring rubble) until my air's around 400 - 500 PSI, & walk out, getting about a 45 minute dive on an Aluminum 80 cf tank of EAN 32. I've no hard & fast plan about depth, so sitting down with a calculator & working out a planned depth, factoring in SAC, & churning out how many cubic feet I'll burn through at each point in the dive seems tedious & useless to me for what I'm doing. I've got the SDI solo diver manual which explains how to do it, but I haven't needed to for the diving I do.
Someone planning a dive of the Oriskany, on the other hand, would have a way different perspective. That's over the 60' a fresh OW diver might stick to, yes, but my point it, what people consider adequate dive planning ability varies.
Other people on the forum have noted 'minimally trained' divers may have undue anxiety in OW environments, be more prone to panic if things go badly (e.g.: bolt for the surface), get separated from buddies & not know what to do, & often have poor buoyancy.
The question of how good a minimally trained OW diver should be at OW comfort level, handing difficult shore entry/exit conditions, navigating independently to & from a charter boat on ocean dives, & how good their dive planning/gas planning skills should be have long been debated, & I suspect long will be.
I prefer the PADI system. I'm better with academics but slow to catch on with hands-on applications, and, for example, if I couldn't get an OW card until Jim Lapenta, a parent, felt good about me diving as a buddy with his kids in their local conditions with no guide, I might've had to ditch diving & taken up para-sailing or something.
Richard.
