OP
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Certifications completed in a pool, Anyone? Buehler?
[similar to the various threads out there asking for ‘roll calls’ of other holders of antique cert cards]
In 1969 i was 16, and after using primitive SCUBA-ish gear for a 10 years prior, my Mom noticed that a local guy from Lake Forest Illinois (guess who) was doing a thing called ”certifications”. I did not really want to bother because previously at age of 6, a guy named Bridges had already put a double hose mouthpiece in my maw and i put my face down and stared at his white Jantzen suit and Voit Duckfoot flippers. Then, after 10 more years of thrashing around in Northern Illinois lakes, why do I need a certification? Mom prevailed, I went to SCUBA school.
It was January and the lakes were a bit crusted over, so PADI rules of that era allowed for “exceptions due to local conditions”. That 8’ deep pool was going to be the accepted deviation.
In that day, we used the Joe Strykowski book as the (only) manual along with the standard Navy tables to predict our demise. No BCD, octopus, or SPG… just a J-Valve, luck and common sense. I still have a 3” thick copy of the USN Diving Manual. When it warmed up, we went to Racine Quarry and 3 Little Devils, Fontana, all in beautiful Wisconsin. Then Lake Michigan wreck diving. We survived.
This pool exception surely is not the currently accepted model for certification. It also included pretty serious UW harassment exercises, breathing straight off a tank nipple just to show mental/physical control, calisthenics in full rubber and tanks/lead. Dive in and find your full gear set. A small bit of BUDS type hilarity.
I finished my OW and since I’d been sucking compressed air since 1958 at age 6, the offer of AOW a week later caught my attention. They even turned off all the lights in the pool, I think for navigation skills?
Thus, I did my OW and AOW in a pool during a few ‘dives’ over a few weeks.
It worked in my case.
Anybody else?
[similar to the various threads out there asking for ‘roll calls’ of other holders of antique cert cards]
In 1969 i was 16, and after using primitive SCUBA-ish gear for a 10 years prior, my Mom noticed that a local guy from Lake Forest Illinois (guess who) was doing a thing called ”certifications”. I did not really want to bother because previously at age of 6, a guy named Bridges had already put a double hose mouthpiece in my maw and i put my face down and stared at his white Jantzen suit and Voit Duckfoot flippers. Then, after 10 more years of thrashing around in Northern Illinois lakes, why do I need a certification? Mom prevailed, I went to SCUBA school.
It was January and the lakes were a bit crusted over, so PADI rules of that era allowed for “exceptions due to local conditions”. That 8’ deep pool was going to be the accepted deviation.
In that day, we used the Joe Strykowski book as the (only) manual along with the standard Navy tables to predict our demise. No BCD, octopus, or SPG… just a J-Valve, luck and common sense. I still have a 3” thick copy of the USN Diving Manual. When it warmed up, we went to Racine Quarry and 3 Little Devils, Fontana, all in beautiful Wisconsin. Then Lake Michigan wreck diving. We survived.
This pool exception surely is not the currently accepted model for certification. It also included pretty serious UW harassment exercises, breathing straight off a tank nipple just to show mental/physical control, calisthenics in full rubber and tanks/lead. Dive in and find your full gear set. A small bit of BUDS type hilarity.
I finished my OW and since I’d been sucking compressed air since 1958 at age 6, the offer of AOW a week later caught my attention. They even turned off all the lights in the pool, I think for navigation skills?
Thus, I did my OW and AOW in a pool during a few ‘dives’ over a few weeks.
It worked in my case.
Anybody else?
