Question Anyone else get fully certified in a swimming pool?

[Doc]

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?

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I suspect the rate in which people never achieved certification with training like yours is a bit higher than today.

 

[Gone for diving]

I have that book, Diving for fun...
It a good read... I like how those old book give lots of information in a condensed form.
And really good pictures

 

[Alaskan Scuba Dude]

The deepest pool in the world is in Dubai.



So there is no reason not to be able to obtain all your certifications.

 

[EFX]

Looking at Joe Strykowski's poster (ad?) above and the caption in big bold letters "Diving for Fun", I had to laugh. When someone says we're going to have fun you know it's going to be anything but fun!

 

[Gone for diving]

Looking at Joe Strykowski's poster (ad?) above and the caption in big bold letters "Diving for Fun", I had to laugh. When someone says we're going to have fun you know it's going to be anything but fun!

It's a cover of a book,

I am confused,
you don't have fun diving? You might has well quit then,

If remember correctly in the book, "diving for fun" meant it was not commercial diving, "diving for work"

 

[Akimbo]

Thus, I did my OW and AOW in a pool during a few ‘dives’ over a few weeks.

I have met a few guys that were self-taught or learned from buddies in the 1950s that did all their "training" in the ocean. All of them were proficient freediving spearfisherman before putting on a tank. Their only reference was the US Navy Diving Manual and a small pamphlet that came with the "Aqua Lung" imported from France.

You are the first diver I ever heard of that was formally certified with pool dives only.

 

[js1221]

In 1979, as a freshman in high school, I had a math teacher who was a scuba instructor. All of my training was done in a pool, with no actual open water diving done. After getting my certification I did not dive again for almost 10 years. I went through another Open Water class before I started diving again, as it had been so long and I had never actually been diving in open water before.

 

[Belzelbub]

In a way, I did. Though it definitely sounds like your training was much more rigorous than my original OW course.

My original OW course was taught with actual books, though in my case it was the PADI OW Diver manual and tables. The written test was actually written, not online. Computers were mentioned, but not used. I got the impression that the instructor was not a fan. Nitrox was also mentioned, but wasn't quite in regular use yet.

For the practical instruction, we did use modern valves and a BCD, but no computers. My practical instruction consisted of zero time in the pool. All instruction was done on a shore dive in an area where there really isn't any shore diving. At least not any good shore diving. Max depth was probably 8'. Visibility was extremely poor. I could not clearly see my own feet, despite some rather bright (almost neon) booties. I believe we did a total of 2 short "dives" that day, but only used one tank. I never did any other dives as part of the class, but got my OW cert anyway.

 

[EFX]

I am confused,
you don't have fun diving? You might has well quit then,

If remember correctly, "diving for fun" meant it was not commercial diving, "diving for work"

I do have fun diving. My response was more of what I thought Joe was thinking about diving and instruction. Have you ever met someone who says something and you think "Why are they saying that. It seems they are overcompensating for how they are really feeling." Years ago the instructor(s) of my dive shop would say "Remember, next Wednesday we're going to the quarry for some fun diving." I thought, of course it's going to be fun, how could it be anything else." Thinking it through, it was their way of saying, "We are NOT going to treat these dives as an extension of the formal classes we do. We are simply going to dive as a group. We will be your buddies, not your instructors." Although they did offer advice when needed.