Badly trained?

[aquakiwi]

This will probably open a can of worms but... Last week I did a few days work for the Dive shop I previously worked for. Did a couple of DSDs and guided a few groups of certified divers a couple of whom were Avanced Open water. Well both the Skipper of the boat and I reached the conclussion that one of these groups were the worst we'd seen.
Lack of basic skills like finning to move (seriously). Poor or zero buoyancy control, some looked like they'd never had their heads underwater. All were from different countrys but all seemed afflictedby the same lack of finesse. By the end of the day we'd got them all a dive but man was it hard.

 

[Walter]

That's fairly typical.

 

[Cheekymonkey]

Yea man, the AOW class is crap, all it is is 5 more dives of experience under their belt (not alot), and an advertisement for a bunch of specialties to try to sell them, at least PADI wise thats all it is.

 

[oly5050user]

Yea man, the AOW class is crap, all it is is 5 more dives of experience under their belt (not alot), and an advertisement for a bunch of specialties to try to sell them, at least PADI wise thats all it is.

Sorry you see that its crap,especially that you are a PADI instr. I believe..Why not look at the 5 dives as a learning experience for the student to gain skills that may have taken them 20 or more dives to get on their own,if ever....also use it to introduce student to areas other than where they were originally ow certified,not just the same old quarry..Hopefully that way you may increase their interest in diving and they will stay in it instead of after making the same exact dive in a quarry over and over again,,gets boring after a while and they drop out....You live in a area where you can go for lobsters,after completing skills for adventure dive show them how to catch a lobster..take them to an area for search/recovery and after necessary skills are completed show them where to find some antique(1800's) bottles..Have to use advance/adventure dives to open doors for them,not just the same old one..

 

[aquakiwi]

Its not so much that AOW is crap as in the time frame. Doing 4 O/W dives
followed by 5 AOW all supervised and you can call yourself advanced........
AOW is to me the most important non pro rating as (here in NZ) it dictates
where you can dive etc most of our charter boat skippers require it to let
you dive in our better spots. A required min number of dives to be logged
would IMHO be better as in a DM course or the old CMAS based courses.
Anyway back to my original thread even the O/W diver should have been a bit more competetent. The DSDs were. One common denominator they had was they'd all been warm water trained.

 

[Walter]

AOW is to me the most important non pro rating as (here in NZ) it dictates where you can dive etc most of our charter boat skippers require it to let
you dive in our better spots.

Well, that's just silly. AOW doesn't qualify anyone to actually do anything.

 

[deepblueme]

Once more its not the content or course.
It's what the Inst. put's into the class and what the student takes from the class and contiues to build on that matters.
Doesn't matter what class it is even, if it was a DIR class if the student insists on DIW.

 

[Carribeandiver]

warm water trained or cold water trained, it should have no difference in skill development. However, I do know that OW training should incorporate buoyancy control as part of the course.
As a matter of opinion, I believe buoyancy control can keep you out of trouble or lack thereof have you in trouble as much or more than not knowing how to clear your mask or find your regulator with a J sweep.
Why doesnt OW training include PPB? That should not be a specialty, it should be a basic skill.

 

[Barracuda2]

E + ME = AOWD

Experience + More Experience = Advanced Open Water Diver

"E" is the only way to really become an AOWD!!

 

[jeckyll]

warm water trained or cold water trained, it should have no difference in skill development. ...

It only matters when warm water divers come to dive in cold water

Walter: Some boats will require AOW to let divers do certain dives. I agree that there should be more, but such is life...

Bjorn