The Chairman
Chairman of the Board
My OW students have to deploy a sausage on the surface at least once. It's not fair to them to think that they are prepared to dive if they can't accomplish this simple, simple survival skill.
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To be fair, some of those skills eg. DSMB isn't needed as a basic Level 1 diver. More important IMO is to have beginner divers understand that they are beginner divers and they should first be enjoying themselves in shallow water and honing their new skills before attempting anything advanced.
Other skills such as basic navigation are covered in many but not all Level 1 courses. I'd love to have all my students leave me with"great buoyancy and trim" but just like teaching a kid to ride a bike, you have to let them go at some stage.
You have to think with most of the better dives here in NC over 60 ft and to remove liability I would require AOW on my boat to. I enjoyed mine and combined it with EAN. Then I did master which was even better. Make the most of it and have fun. Not everyone has logged 1000 so many less experienced divers gain alot of knowledge. I know it seems like a waste for another c card.
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My perfect 5 dive AOW course would be PPB, NAV, Drift, Night and Naturalist. No Deep Dive. In my perfect world Deep would be a separate and distinct 2-3 dive Specialty that had a clear pass and fail. Comparing air gauges and colour changes has IMO nothing to do with preparing someone to dive deeper than 15m!