3-Day Open Water Certification?

[diver 85]

When are you doing all the practice pool stuff???......hopefully the 3 or 4 weeks before your listed 3 Day schedule.......

 

[Pixelator]

Is it just me or is the "crash course" that eliminates half the instruction/dive time sound like a recipe for disaster?

 

[ScubaSteve1962]

Is it just me or is the "crash course" that eliminates half the instruction/dive time sound like a recipe for disaster?

It would all depend on the person. If they don't use the skills that they've learned any could be a disaster. Say someone took and 8 week course and got certified and never entered the water again for a year. as opposed to someone that did the 3 day course and spend the next year diving and getting better at their skills. Which one do you think would be better in the water?

 

[Pixelator]

It would all depend on the person. If they don't use the skills that they've learned any could be a disaster. Say someone took and 8 week course and got certified and never entered the water again for a year. as opposed to someone that did the 3 day course and spend the next year diving and getting better at their skills. Which one do you think would be better in the water?

I understand where you're coming from for sure.

I was thinking in regards to the Hotels and Resorts that offer the quick certification to be sure "everyone with money dives".

Just seems to offer a false sense of security to a person/diver thinking they know enough to jump in the ocean and dive.

How can new divers that learn in three day crash course possibly be a reliable diving buddy for one another? (Not arguing, just sounds scary)

 

[ScubaSteve1962]

I understand where you're coming from for sure.

I was thinking in regards to the Hotels and Resorts that offer the quick certification to be sure "everyone with money dives".

Just seems to offer a false sense of security to a person/diver thinking they know enough to jump in the ocean and dive.

How can new divers that learn in three day crash course possibly be a reliable diving buddy for one another? (Not arguing, just sounds scary)

Unless the buddy is someone you dive with and practice your skills with on a regular basis, would you really trust a insta buddy until after a few dives with them. I don't have a buddy so with for anyone my questions are how long have you been diving, where have you been diving, when was your last dive, and i give them the same information. but never the agency, or how long was your training.

It's like some say it's wrong to take AOW right after OW, after doing it that way, I'm still trying to understand how AOW can take weeks with classes.

 

[Tony387]

It would all depend on the person. If they don't use the skills that they've learned any could be a disaster. Say someone took and 8 week course and got certified and never entered the water again for a year. as opposed to someone that did the 3 day course and spend the next year diving and getting better at their skills. Which one do you think would be better in the water?

Divers who spend more time practicing and honing their skills will always be better divers than those who don't. I think most would agree that OW certification is nothing more than a license to learn how to dive. Given that, I think the issue being debated is whether a three day cert course adequately prepares a new diver to embark on the learning experience that is diving. In my opinion, the answer is no. Regardless of how comfortable one is in the water, or how quick of a study they may be, it is just not enough time to prepare the new diver to safely engage in the sport of diving. To learn and absorb gear care and configuration, diving physics, safety procedures, plus going through and mastering the bare minimum of skills required to allow you to dive safely with a buddy, just takes more time than three days...IMO.

 

[ScubaSteve1962]

Divers who spend more time practicing and honing their skills will always be better divers than those who don't. I think most would agree that OW certification is nothing more than a license to learn how to dive. Given that, I think the issue being debated is whether a three day cert course adequately prepares a new diver to embark on the learning experience that is diving. In my opinion, the answer is no. Regardless of how comfortable one is in the water, or how quick of a study they may be, it is just not enough time to prepare the new diver to safely engage in the sport of diving. To learn and absorb gear care and configuration, diving physics, safety procedures, plus going through and mastering the bare minimum of skills required to allow you to dive safely with a buddy, just takes more time than three days...IMO.

Now while my course wasn't like his it was basically done in 5 days,(4 hours on Fri, 8 on sat and sun with pool sessions. then my OW dives done over 2 days 2 months later with a different shop. when looking for a course there were some that took 6 to 8 weeks, w/o OW dives. the amount of time spent during the learning sessions was the same. So what could I have learned in these classes that would have been any different from the way I did it. The only part of the ops is the time between getting the book and starting the class. I got my course material a month before taking my classes. had completed all the Knowledge base test, read over the book several times.

Remember you are only trained to be able to go out in conditions like you were trained in. If you did OW in a cold dark quarry with calm water, would you be able to go the next day, or in a few weeks and dive from a boat with 3 to 4 foot surges and a current? You will never learn things about diving until you experience them. Hopefully the op will have good instructor who makes sure that he has an good grasp before giving him his card.

 

[mathauck0814]

It would all depend on the person. If they don't use the skills that they've learned any could be a disaster. Say someone took and 8 week course and got certified and never entered the water again for a year. as opposed to someone that did the 3 day course and spend the next year diving and getting better at their skills. Which one do you think would be better in the water?

This is foolish logic.

Diver A does a 3 day course. Diver B does an 8 week course. Diver B is going to be the better diver as of the day they finish their course.

It is a constant that any diver will benefit from diving frequently after training. Repeating this gem of common sense doesn't do anything to make Diver A competently trained.

 

[boulderjohn]

This is foolish logic.

Diver A does a 3 day course. Diver B does an 8 week course. Diver B is going to be the better diver as of the day they finish their course.

It is a constant that any diver will benefit from diving frequently after training. Repeating this gem of common sense doesn't do anything to make Diver A competently trained.

So, if I make a new agency that requires three years of instruction, 200 hours of classroom work, and 150 dives in order to get OW certified, would you agree that my OW divers will be better than any other agency's OW divers?

Does that make all the other agency's divers incompetent? Does it mean that they are not capable of doing typical open water dives?

 

[Zen1300]

I've, unfortunately, learned to not be too trusting on LDS courses. My OW gave me a card, but it sure didn't teach me how to dive. It gave me the license to learn how to dive. I've found this site to be very useful for knowledge, but it doesn't replace practice. I also recently purchased Jim's book and found it a great read to refresh my knowledge.

One advice I can give is to know your limits and voice your concerns. If the instructor is the kind that will scoff, then he/she is not concerned about your safety. A student that is unprepared and uncertain can only be setup to fail.