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Guess personal responsibility isn’t a thing anymore
The reality, whether AOW or not, the majority of tourist divers have no idea of their gas requirement before a dive. they expect the operator to plan the dive for them.
From what I've seen in this industry you are the exception rather than the rule. It's a wonder there aren't more fatalities and injuries from diving with the stuff I've seen in my short time diving.
This appears to be a case where both the dive-shop and instructor are are issue. IMO, the dive-shop is at bigger fault, because it sounds like they didn't properly prepare or screen the instructor, threw a bunch of students at him and said "good luck!" The instructor in some ways acknowledged they had no idea what they were doing, and perhaps felt they were throw in the deep-end.
Depends on the location. And if it's a shop or independent. Many independents don't use assistants unless they need them. I kept my ratios for ow at 2 to 1. Advanced and tech classes 3 to 1 or less.
I'll be the first to admit that I don't know much about the different organizations and I know that PADI gets a lot of crap for a lot of things. I tried to careful in my original post not to say it was PADI for this reason. I wanted a discussion on what the course could have/should have been which I've gotten. That said, in my limited experience it does seem like this is the case. Burn through levels and get instructors. I wonder how many instructors there are in the organization that pay fees but don't do any teaching?
I've wondered the same thing. If you had a deep cert would boats allow that instead of the AOW? No idea. Where I dive, if you want to go below 30-50' it is going to be really cold. My first deep dive was with a much better instructor than this one, we were at 87' and it was 37 degrees. Its also going to be really dark, and probably pretty poor vis. All of these factors make it far more likely someone will panic or have another issue like a free flow.
I think I agree with you. It really did feel like he was encouraging everyone to fill it out a certain way. The other thing that I left out of my orginal report was the fact that one of the students was 17. We did "3" dives the first night before the instructor realized he was not 18 and needed parents signiture. You should have seen the panic on the instructors face when he realized that. That said, the student certainly should have spoken up when the paperwork clearly stated that a parents signiture was needed. 100%. They ended up getting it but it took an extra 30 or so minutes of us waiting at the dive shop so they parents could fill it out and email it in.
Agreed. I've really never been taught to do this, but I have learned on my own because I love learning and when I start I knew hobby I get hyperfixated on it and spend every waking minute learning about it. But, to be honest, I havne't really done much gas planning. Not usually. In my area the attitude is usually that it doesnt matter because we are often diving 20' or less. I feel like most people just assume that at 20' if they run out of air it is an easy swim to the surface. The more I've learned the more I understand that this is an important skill to learn/master.
True in part. Without a doubt, regardless of the agency, the instructor will make the most difference.
