2 day ow certification?

[MauiScubaSteve]

This is the course i am refering to. From what i have read, it is legit and in fact can be done. I am now even more leary about this than i was before. I think i am going to try and convince her to take the pool work here and a referal check out dive down there.

PADI Two (2) Day Weekend Open Water Scuba Diver Courses, Lessons and Classes Tampa Florida (Fla)

That is the training program I quoted in post #34. As long as the Instructor follows Standards with regards to students Mastering the skills, it does not violate PADI Standards to complete all the OW Course in 2 days.

If you look at the entire Additional Training page that I only quoted the beginning of, reading between the lines it sounds like quite the money maker for the dive shop.

OW training dives are on the afternoon boat charter. If a student can't master all the pool skills for the first 2 pool sessions in the short pool time between Academics and lunch, OW dive 2 is a no-go, and there is no way to catch up, so the 2nd day's boat trip is also probably a no-go, but there is no refund because of the 48 hour cancelation policy.

Your SO has made a dive and completed all the pool skills before, so theoretically staying on schedule will not be a problem for her. Students without that prior experience probably fall behind schedule and don't get a refund quite often.

 

[Fdge]

Well, I did my first 2 ow dives today, and I am completely exhausted. The weather was 'rough', for newbie standards and it was a lot to take in, didn't do all the exercises required for dive two, since the air-share ascent and manually filling my vest was so tiring in the waves.
I really loved it, but it was a lot to take in, and I was kinda glad I was done for the day with only two 30 minute dives. Thinking about having to do 3 more...no way.
My point being, I would not be able to do a 2 day class and I am glad I have more time on my hands to be completely confident in open water and showing all my skills, than having to rush rush rush.

 

[LowCash]

Probably gonna get flamed but oh well! I just completed a 2 day Padi OW Cert. class. I really think it comes down to the instructors and how well the person can take in the info. and skills required. They put us through the wringer and it was tiring, but with the 2 instructors we had it was an excellent experience. And I feel like I came away with the safety skills I need to react in certain situations and dive safely and enjoy it all at the same time. We did have a couple people who couldnt take in some of the info and skills and well they werent given thier certification. On the other hand they were given the oppourtunity to come back when it was a good time for them to get things right, no matter how long it takes at no extra charge! But this was the reason I chose these instructors. I visited with them for a few months before, and even some other shops, and chose them for the fact that I knew going in that they wouldnt skimp or just pass anyone! Everything was done by the rules and we werent passed on a skill until we had it down!

 

[icedraco]

I received my ow cert back in may and the way my LDS did it was one day for confined water skills and the a review and test on one day and you can either take your referral to another shop or use the same, if you decided to use the same shop they had three different quarries to pick from and then those dives took two days.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Probably gonna get flamed but oh well! I just completed a 2 day Padi OW Cert. class.

Could you please give a few details? Do these instructors have a web site?

Where, when and how long were the academic sessions? Where, when and how long were the pool sessions? What were the depths and durations of your OW dives, and where were they? How many classmates did you have? How much did it cost?

 

[LowCash]

I would rather not put thier website out, if you would like to know more about them you can PM me. They are a very reputable shop who has been giving cert. classes since the 80's.

As for the classes they were 8am-around 7pm. First day was about 2 hours classroom(videos, book and quizs. Then to the pool starting in shallow (4ft) for skills, after everyone had the skills down, we movef to the deep end (17 ft) and run through the skills again as well as a few others. Lunch brrak around 1, back at 2 snd headed to private lake thats 30 minutes away. Same thing there, run through the skills in shallow then down to, which this weekend the lake was 25ft-27 and rum through skills again. Repeat the same on sunday. We did a total of 5 confined pool dives and 5 open water dives, all from 20-30 minutes. Thete were six students, 2dive instructors and assistant.

 

[Bogtrotter]

It took me three months to get my OW cert with NAUI. We had weekly pool sessions to practice and review skills- lots of fun and I felt very confident and excited to get onto some real diving. Nothing beats good solid initial training- afterall the OW is your 'license to dive'. Being good at it only comes from experience- meaning- logging dive time.

 

[cloudswinger]

It took me three months to get my OW cert with NAUI. We had weekly pool sessions to practice and review skills- lots of fun and I felt very confident and excited to get onto some real diving. Nothing beats good solid initial training- afterall the OW is your 'license to dive'. Being good at it only comes from experience- meaning- logging dive time.

I had this same schedule in my class. Weekly pool session and weekly classroom sessions for a whole semester. It was at a University, and also happened to be NAUI. We had plenty of practice with mask clearing, ditch and donning, and other basic skills in the water, although the first pool session was a swim test. I also remember doing some rescue type skills like rescue breathing in water. It included the material for Advanced OW, but you didn't get that cert unless you did the advanced dives during the week of spring break. Still, I don't think everyone in the class ended up certified. The dives required for certification were on the weekends. Class sessions covered the usual dive material, but also went in depth into boyles laws and other physics and required a paper too. Obviously not everyone has the time or inclination for such training, but having more practice time on basic skills can not hurt.

 

[Dead_eye]

It took me three months to get my OW cert with NAUI. We had weekly pool sessions to practice and review skills- lots of fun and I felt very confident and excited to get onto some real diving. Nothing beats good solid initial training- afterall the OW is your 'license to dive'. Being good at it only comes from experience- meaning- logging dive time.

Sounds like the way to go. My original PADI course was 14 weeks long. The instructor drilled us every week on skills we had learned. As far as I am concerned the longer the course the better ( with in reason )