A question for newly qualified divers...........

[Heads Up]

Just done my OWD and, no, I don't feel I've learned enough. But then again, I didn't expect to - otherwise, why would there be different levels to acheive? I learned enough to realise that diving is a dangerous sport that requires maturity & total trust in your buddy to do safely.

Since I have returned home, I have been researching my next course (advanced open water) on the net, had prolonged conversations with my brother (a Padi instructor) and ordered course info from Padi. The more I learn, the more I realise there is to learn and I have found surfing these boards a great help.

 

[WetDane]

Damedykker
Værsågod, du kan bare sige til hvis du har brug for den igen...

Maggie,
I think you are on to something there - I relly like the idea of a partial certification, this would allow a diver to dive with the excursions from a LDS, but at the same time likely restrain them from renting equipment and just getting into deep water (pun intended).
This would also tie in very well with the mentoring ideas for monitoring a divers progress towards certification.
Divers who are not actively pursuing better training would then be limited to whatever shallow dive the LDS or club is doing...

I find this to be very encouraging, there are a number of good ideas here that could very well be put to good use.

Cheers,
Terkel

 

[Walter]

.........from place to place. We have to adapt to them. These include natural conditionas as well as artifically imposed political conditions. I thought the BS was bad in the US, sounds like you have it even worse in the UK.

WWW™

 

[turnerjd]

Walter,

The problem as I see it in the UK, is that PADI came along, with all their nice words about how safe everything was, and, to allow their system, everything was relaxed here.

Unfortunately, there is now an alarming rise in the number of chamber visits, whilst the number of people doing deeper diving and decompression diving is being reduced. Accident statistics show that as the number of qualified divers has shot up, the total number of accidents hasn't gone up proportionally, ie there are less accidents per diver.

This hides the fact that the diving being done has changed from the traditional BSAC deep decompresion, to the PADI OpenWater non deco 'rec' diving.

The BSAC accident statistics (BSAC divers only) have shown a significant reduction of numbers of chamber visits, so, the conclusion is that there are a significant number of non deco 'rec' divers getting into problems, whilst the more 'techie' BSAC are having good success with their efforts at improving safety.

The powers that be have woken up to this, and I think will soon be taking some form of action about this.

The difference between the US and UK legal systems is that the US is based on you doing what you want as long as it doesn't hurt others, wheras the UK and most of europe is more of a 'regulate it to provide you with a safe way of doing it' type of system. Both have their advantages and dissadvantages.

Jon T

 

[WetDane]

Hey Walter,

I looked at your comparison - and although you may be biased(?), I'm willing to accept that risk.

I wonder if these trends are genrally running in higher courses as well?
For the heck of it I just signed up for an AOW class (I should practise what I preach right), and I was a little curious - here's why - I signed up at a shop that is NAUI affiliated, got a call that the instructor is getting the class going - I get materials from the instructor stating that the class is not associated with the store and to get the PADI book... At this point I'm cancelling this class as this seems fishy at best.
Anyway - I don't think this helps the training of new divers in anyway and it sure made me wonder about learning stuff from classes over from my friends - I would like to do the class though to make sure I get what the friends may forget...

I think I'm using my common sense when I cancel the class - but maybe not (oh - and I have never heard of the instructor...)

Terkel

 

[Walter]

.........I have looked quite closely at three of them. Hard to believe, but IMHO, YMCA Advanced certification is the weakest having no academics and only 5 dives. PADI's AOW is slightly better with limited academics and 5 dives. NAUI's advanced course has an academic portion and 6 dives. PADI recently dropped an excellent course called Advanced Plus. It is a shame PADI dropped this course as it was clearly superior to NAUI's advanced class. YMCA also has what I consider to be the best of the lot, Silver Star Advanced, which includes in depth academics and 10 dives.

WWW™

 

[tomcat]

Walter,

What academics? I took the NAUI AOW course and I had about 30 mins of lecture by the instructor. Speaking of which, it felt like I could have gone with a regular DM, done the deep, drift and night dives with a buddy, and still come out with the same amount of knowledge + confidence + skills.

I'm beginning to suspect that this AOW thing is a sales ploy to make pple pay the agencies money, in case they don't go any further than OW. geez, it really felt like such a con job!

tomcat

 

[Walter]

......but NAUI estimates aproximately 6 hours of academics in the advanced class. Personally, I'm not a NAUI instructor, but it sounds like you were ripped off. I'd discuss this with the instructor involved.

WWW™

 

[Iguana Don]

Jon,
In your earlier post you said that if you are the most qualified diver you have a legal responsibility to the other divers, no matter what.

So, if you are on a boat with 6 other divers and you are the most experienced, you are liable for all? If you are AOW and they are all OW?

ID

 

[tomcat]

Walter,

It depends on the standard by which "ripped-off" is defined. According to NAUI's standards (given that they specify 6 hrs of theory), then yes, most definitely.

However, compared to the general situation, it seems like AOW classes are not taken very seriously around these parts and is more of a passport for people to start doing night-dives. I asked around and it seemed like most AOW classes (PADI or NAUI) are pretty relaxed and don't add very much knowledge to the typical diver.

Problem is, unless agencies like PADI and NAUI have a way of auditing their instructors from time to time, there is no way of telling what instructors have been doing with their students before certifying them.

tomcat