AOW/Rescue Diver Not Respected

[drbill]

In the "old" days (1960s) my certifying agency (Los Angeles County) basically took you through the current OW-AOW-RD series in one course (three weeks for mine). I've been on SCUBA for 54 years now and I still get asked to do check-out dives if I only show my LAC c-card. Fortunately I also have AOW, RD and Enriched Air cards from other agencies that I can pull out if need be.

Certification programs vary widely from shop-to-shop and region-to-region. I've seen OW certified students whose diving skills were pretty good and some DMs (and even an instructor or two) who couldn't dive proficiently at all.

I can understand a dive op that wants to verify dive skill levels since they have a lot of liability to consider.

 

[packrat12]

There are several forces at play here.

1. Training has been shortened too far. There is no time to properly develop skills in OW. As said above, pass once - good (even if many failures). There is a minimal amount of gearing up, safety training, emergency training etc. Some of this is to make it more appealing to the general masses.
2. Insurance is a big player. Risk avoidance causes some of this. At one point, I was a long time OW diver with obvious experience (logs and about 500 dives). Took a new AOW diver with a total of 9 dives, 4 of which were with me. As the boat operator said: he is good, you (to me) will need to hire a guide.
3. Perception, correctly. I cannot say how often I see AOW students drag all over the reef. They are still getting passed. This is absolutely ridiculous.

 

[DustyC]

Number of dives and certification don't mean much to me. I have met DM's and instructors with several 100 dives who were at best OW level divers. If someone want's to know my diving skills or if I want to know their diving skills, we will go diving to asses each others skills. Btw, tech certification to me has a lot more creditbility than rec certification.

Agreed on the tec cert. Doesn't seem to be as corrupted yet.

 

[tursiops]

And since some shops do AOW without a dive below 20, it's even worse.

I seriously doubt the accuracy of this statement. Evidence?

 

[tursiops]

Many dive ops will still require check out dives or even withhold going to certain spots until I have proven myself in their eyes.

It doesn't matter what your card says, in most case you will still do a checkout dive and have to be vetted.
If being asked to do a checkout dive is your reason to complain aboutl the training agencies, you really ought to rethink your attitudes.

 

[boulderjohn]

People have taken their customary shots at PADI (it is a reflex for some people--they can't stop themselves), but the truth is that those certifications are still pretty close to the beginning level of dive experience and training.

Here is an example of what can happen if people do what you would like them to do--it is the case of Gabe Watson.

Gabe was certified as a Rescue Diver by NASDS (now SSI), with pretty much all of his training done in a quarry. He married Tina, and she was OW certified by the same NASDS instructor in the same quarry prior to their honeymoon in Australia, diving the Great Barrier Reef. The dive operator, Mike Ball, had a policy of requiring checkout dives of all divers, but it waived that policy because Gabe was a certified Rescue Diver. On their first dive, Tina had an uncontrolled descent, and Gabe's attempt to rescue her was so incompetent that he was at first believed to have murdered her. Under an unusual Australian law, he pleaded to manslaughter for that incompetence, and the state of Alabama charged him with murder. Much of what people thought had happened turned out to be untrue, and he was not convicted of murder because it became obvious that he simply did not have the skills he needed to help her. As for Mike Ball, the dive operation was guilty of not following their checkout dive policy, and they had to pay a hefty fine.

My stack of certification cards is close to 2 inches high, by actual measurement. I still have to do checkout dives in many cases, despite being a technical instructor. I did one when I went to Australia to dive the GBR again. Those are the rules, and I don't fight them.

 

[boulderjohn]

And since some shops do AOW without a dive below 20, it's even worse.

If you are talking about a PADI shop, you should report that. It is a standards violation. In a ScubaBoard thread a while ago, someone said a shop had special permission from PADI to do the deep dive in shallow water, but I checked with PADI about that. No shop in the world has that permission.

 

[DustyC]

I seriously doubt the accuracy of this statement. Evidence?

I've watched it happen with my own eyes.

 

[DustyC]

If you are talking about a PADI shop, you should report that. It is a standards violation. In a ScubaBoard thread a while ago, someone said a shop had special permission from PADI to do the deep dive in shallow water, but I checked with PADI about that. No shop in the world has that permission.

That was me. Padi knows. Doesn't care

 

[tursiops]

That was me. Padi knows. Doesn't care

Again, I seriously doubt the accuracy of this statement. I'm sure it is exactly what you remember and believe, but that does not make it accurate.