Basic Training + Planning

[DevonDiver]

a. What "is taught" by a PADI instructor may well be different from what:
1. "May be taught" in any particular class; and/or
2. "Should be taught" in any particular class!
As a result, when someone writes "This is what PADI teaches" it demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the system for:

1. PADI does NOT teach anything; and
2. Instructors are seldom, if ever, reviewed for what they actually teach.

Question: Does PADI have "air supply management" within its basic open water recreational instructional materials?

Answer: YES (but....).

Discussion: From Chapter One in the Open Water materials, the issue of "How long does a tank last" may be, should be?, discussed.

I think you have to look deeper to identify an educational intention:

1. What "May be Taught" - PADI aren't generally fond of instructors expanding upon the exact materials supplied. They grey issue of liability will always raise its head - if specific information isn't spelled out in the instructor/student manual, then it has to come from an 'unsanctioned' source. If a mistake is made...bad learning provided... then PADI can, and will, wash its hands with any liability for that training. As you say, PADI don't teach anything. They do, however, provide the educational course design and study materials. In doing so, they define the intended scope of the course. Instructors are clearly taught (in IDCs) the issues involved with failing to meet, or exceeding, that scope.

2. What "Should be Taught" - Most simplistically, what 'should' be provided is clearly outlined in the student course manual and supported by knowledge reviews, quizzes and exams. Looking beyond that simple definition, we can see that vague direction is given to instructors in their teaching manuals. The concept of 'wider discussion'. To identify an educational intention behind this direction to "discuss", we might look into what the instructors are trained (and reasonably expected) to know. In an era of zero-to-hero instructors, we should not assume, or expect, external knowledge beyond anything provided in the core PADI curriculum (OW-AOW-Rescue-DM-IDC). For a broader scope of gas management discussion to occur, the instructor needs to have a broader scope of knowledge, but PADI don't provide any broad scope of gas management/planning in their core curriculum. Basically, if gas management should be taught, then we might expect PADI to have ensured that instructors were provided with that knowledge at some stage during their development. We might further assume that this knowledge would be confirmed by testing during the DM/Instructor training process. It is not.

As a result, when someone writes "This is what PADI teaches" it demonstrates a fundamental insight into the system for:

1. PADI does NOT actively empower instructors to exceed the written syllabus.
2. PADI does NOT formally provide instructors with the knowledge to upon gas management/planning discussions.
3. PADI does NOT confirm instructor knowledge, beyond the core syllabus, through testing or assessment.

Furthermore:

4. Where one cannot identify a formal and clarified agency intention to provide specific knowledge/training, one should not assume or interpret a motive to do so.
5. The emphasis upon instructor liability cover tends to define educational scope (may teach) - the inclusion of material in a defined curriculum being more of a constraint than its absence.

 

[261311]

Is this the NAUI manual you're referring to? There are others but I'm assuming that as with PADI they have a modular broken down course structure with different books. A small side note, I found this with many textbooks, the cover art is absolutely horrid. I'm a graphic designer so it's just painful to look at these things on the outside. The 80s have died with the date it fell in, let's let it be!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Is this the NAUI manual you're referring to? There are others but I'm assuming that as with PADI they have a modular broken down course structure with different books. A small side note, I found this with many textbooks, the cover art is absolutely horrid. I'm a graphic designer so it's just painful to look at these things on the outside. The 80s have died with the date it fell in, let's let it be!

That's the one. Try not to judge the book by its cover ... there's some good stuff in there. NAUI's Master Diver program is ... IMO ... their best course.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[261311]

That's the one. Try not to judge the book by its cover ... there's some good stuff in there. NAUI's Master Diver program is ... IMO ... their best course.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I live my life in design, you can't tell me that! Just means I have to take a deep breath, cringe and read the stuff inside

 

[TSandM]

I think we would all, no matter how angrily we are arguing, agree that the goal is that no diver ever ends a dive dangerously low or out of gas, absent a catastrophic equipment malfunction. That means that the diver needs some tools to avoid ending up in that situation. Those tools can include planning tools (making sure ahead of time that the planned dive does not exceed the available gas supply) and execution tools (setting up a strategy for gas utilization that maintains adequate and safe reserves, and monitoring and communicating gas within the team as appropriate).

I think what we are really arguing about is what the best tools to give a diver are, and when they should be provided.

We could prevent most out of gas emergencies, if we taught divers never to use more than 1000 psi out of their tank, and if we could convince them to monitor their gas closely enough to accomplish that. But I think most of us would agree that this is ridiculously conservative, and would be so cumbersome that few divers would respect that rule for very long.

We can teach open water divers to dive rule of thirds. But in many cases, that is almost as bad. If I do, for example, the dive I did today, involving long swimming distances and a maximum depth of 20 feet, how do I apply rule of thirds? One third to go out, one third to come back, and I end up with 1200 psi in my tank that I didn't use and I wasn't going to need, even if my buddy went disastrously and totally out of gas, because we only had 20 feet to go to get to the surface?

Or we can be rational, and agree that different dives require different gas plans. If you are drifting with a live boat, you can use all the gas in your tank down to the reserve required to get you and your buddy to the surface if he runs out of gas (which can be a surprisingly large number, if you are doing a deep dive!). If you are shore diving but can swim back on the surface if you have to, you reserve the gas to get you and your buddy to the surface, and then use half the remainder going out, and half coming back. If you CANNOT come back on the surface, or surface away from the upline to the boat, you have to start thinking in thirds . . . but thirds in open water situations gets more complicated, and these dives are not beginner dives at all.

It really isn't difficult to teach people these concepts. You don't really even have to teach them the math, if they are terrible mathophobes -- you can go over the concepts, and provide a "cheat sheet" with gas reserves for various tanks and maximum depths, which is what Peter does with his classes. For people who are willing to practice a bit, the arithmetic is pretty simple, and today, I ran through a bunch of gas calculations in my head in the parking lot at the dive site, and I'm 58 years old and my brain doesn't work so good any more

I think, across the board, one of the mistakes that is made in diving education is that we underestimate our students. Yes, some people are never going to master anything very complicated, but the majority of people can balance a checkbook and calculate their mileage in their car -- and gas math is no more difficult than that.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

The gas plan for much of our dive today was simple, Lynne ... if you find yourself running low, stand up ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[TSandM]

The gas plan for much of our dive today was simple, Lynne ... if you find yourself running low, stand up ...

A lot of truth to that!