Allowing Certified Diver to join in Scuba Class with SO / Buddy

[RonFrank]

I think having an SO TEACH their SO is a horrible idea, but that is not what was asked.

In my OW class, sometime during the Civil war era.. LOL, we had a couple in the class, the guy was a newbie, and the female was AOW certified. She paid some nominal fee to join our OW class.

I found this to be an ideal setup as it was like having another DM in the water with us. She was competent, and did nothing that interfered, in fact quite the opposite.

Let's think of this in another context. Having a couple (two non certified divers) taking a class together is quite common. So why in the world would doing the same thing be much different given that one is already certified?

Granted this is a generalization, and some folks are major PITA's in any type of classroom setting, so the true answer is that it depends on the individuals involved. But I have been quite surprised by a few of the responses from instructors that believe this is somehow a horrible idea. If they are going to buddy up in the future, seems like doing so in an OW training setting is a good start.

 

[Teamcasa]

When my wife decided to get certified, I just took the course with her. Since I had not been diving in many years, it was a nice refresher and fun too!

I did have to let the instructors do their job and stayed clear when it was her turn to do the drills and tests. The hardest part was watching her do her first swim out and back navigation test. Losing sight of her, even for a few seconds was torture for me.

 

[TravisD]

When we did our OW class, there was a kid in the class as well who's already-certified mother would hang out during class - both in the pool, and sometimes in the classroom. During the classroom it got annoying because she would try *and fail* to correctly answer the questions that our instructor was asking. During a couple of the pool sessions she brought gear along and swama round some, but never joined in as part of the class as I recall. I seem to recall one instance though where she couldn't figure out how to connect a DIN reg to the tank though...

 

[Scubamike16]

After reading all the posts, thank you again all for your input it is much valued and appreciated. I would think it would be a good thing for a dive shop to allow an already certified SO / Buddy / Parent / Wife or Husband / Etc to join the class and pay a nomial fee seeing as they will be that persons dive partner and it would give a good oportunity for them to grow together as divers and learn to help each other, BUT!! the certified diver needs to keep quiet and let the instructor instruct, that is his job. I believe ground rules in the beginning are very important to make the class, exciting, challenging, and rewarding.

 

[scottsax]

I dove with my girlfriend's class her first day of open water. I don't know if it helped contribute to her discomfort, but she ended up not finishing with her class. She scheduled some one on one dives with her instructor, and she and I did a couple very shallow open water dives (at her request) to get her acclimated to the gear (IIRC, 10-15 fsw) before she finished the class with her instructor. She rocked, and continues to rock to this day. Our last dive together was 67 minutes hand-in-hand at Paniau on the Big Island.