Kairoos
Contributor
I'm quite surprised by this thread, I took a 3-day course and it seemed fine to me. Going through the PADI OW book and DVD I could not imagine spending weeks going through that. It's so basic and simple, I would be bored out of my mind and probably lose interest in scuba diving if I had to drag that out for weeks. When I finished my certification I went and dove with the instructor's charter, so when I did anything stupid, I had someone there to correct me. We still practiced some skills the first couple dives I did after being certified, and that was just going out on the charter as an OW certified diver. I still dive with them and he dives every single time we go out, as well as one or two dive masters in training. He's not afraid to tell me I'm doing something wrong, or I did something stupid, which is great. Maybe I just found a good instructor!
I will say that I've dove with newly certified people that are just clueless in the water - honestly it really depends on the person, how fast they learn, and how much they care to look into what they're doing. I research things, I practice skills in the pool, I spend time outside of the water learning on my own. Most people don't tend to do that. I'm into the reef (aquarium) keeping hobby and if I could be paid for the amount of time I've spent researching and learning, I could probably put a down payment on a new Mercedes! Consequently I've seen people in fish stores that wonder why their tank is full of hair algae and the anemones they keep buying die in a week, or why their tang has ich and is swimming frantically around their 20 gallon tank. Just completely oblivious and ignorant about what they're doing.
I will say that I've dove with newly certified people that are just clueless in the water - honestly it really depends on the person, how fast they learn, and how much they care to look into what they're doing. I research things, I practice skills in the pool, I spend time outside of the water learning on my own. Most people don't tend to do that. I'm into the reef (aquarium) keeping hobby and if I could be paid for the amount of time I've spent researching and learning, I could probably put a down payment on a new Mercedes! Consequently I've seen people in fish stores that wonder why their tank is full of hair algae and the anemones they keep buying die in a week, or why their tang has ich and is swimming frantically around their 20 gallon tank. Just completely oblivious and ignorant about what they're doing.